The NFL really needs to start a proper feeder league, like MLB, the NHL or the NBA has started to do with the D League. Most teams already have a sort of "shad

The NFL really needs to start a proper feeder league, like MLB, the NHL or the NBA has started to do with the D League. Most teams already have a sort of "shadow roster," between their practice squad guys and the unemployed veterans and rookie free agents that are on speed-dial for when injuries or suspensions strike. The NFL is, despite the bone-headed direction by the league office, a money-printing machine, and that's with a season lasting less than half the calendar year. There's a big chunk of the sports year that is a complete waste-land, between the end of the NBA/NHL finals and the start of NFL preseason, and the American public is desperate for football. Just look at how the completely manufactured Deflate-gate "scandal" has pumped up football, for all its ridiculousness. The wear-and-tear on the athletes would be a problem for a late-spring/summer league schedule - particularly for any standouts that continued on to play in the NFL in the fall. But there's more than enough talent that's just at the edges of NFL-levels to provide an entertaining product. Of course, the bigger issue is that NFL players have probably the rawest deal in pro sports. Mediocre veteran baseball players can command double-digit million, fully guaranteed contracts, while the average veteran NBA player makes something north of 4-5 million, also fully guaranteed. Meanwhile, even star NFL players have the bulk of their contracts non-guaranteed, and can be cut with little liability if their production dips due to bad luck or injury, in possibly the most violent and injury-prone major sport, which leaves many ex-players walking vegetables.