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NFL Playoff Expansion: Gresh Says Great Idea, Zo Says Leave It Alone

BOSTON (CBS) - There's two camps of NFL fans fracturing at the moment.

Either you think football is fine the way it is, otherwise known as the "if-it-ain't-broke-don't-fix-it" camp, or you see where the league is heading and are willing to embrace changes, otherwise known as the "football-junkie-give-me-more-at-all-costs" camp.

Scott Zolak and Andy Gresh both fall into those categories.

Zo, the pigskin traditionalist, says leave it alone -- most everything alone.

"I don't like expansion as far as talking about putting a team in London. I think that's ridiculous. The sport won't roll over there. It's nice for the one, singular event over there where everybody gets together and blows into their vuvuzelas.

"I don't like expansion of the NFL schedule. I like things the way it is. I think it's something that's not broken. I don't like preseason. I'm open to maybe adding a regular season game or two, but putting more teams into the playoffs and expanding that, you're gonna have teams rolling people over in the postseason."

Gresh makes the case that expanding the playoffs isn't so bad. With 32 teams in the league, only 12 in the current playoff format make the postseason. If you added one team per conference to the playoffs you'd still be under that fifty percent threshold.

"You'd still be under the fifty percent threshold, which I think is a big deal. I think when half of the teams in your league make the playoffs it's a little too much," said Gresh.

Zolak fires back and uses the example of the Pittsburgh Steelers last year, who finished 8-8 and missed the postseason.

Ben Roethlisberger is good enough to win multiple games in the playoffs, but simply "getting hot down the stretch" should not be enough to warrant a spot in the playoffs. Zo feels like you have to prove it for the totality of the regular season.

Right now the players are not willing to commit to an 18-game regular season, and the owners want to have more meaningful games on the docket. So in theory, the middle ground is make more postseason games, which Gresh is all for.

"I am not for 18 regular season games. I am for this playoff expansion because this is a part of the natural evolution of where the sport needs to go. There is a supply and demand here," said Gresh.

It's an interesting discussion, listen below and vote in our poll:

NFL Playoff Expansion: Gresh Says Great Idea, Zo Says Leave It Alone

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