Move the Super Bowl to Presidents Day weekend — NJ Decoded

The Super Bowl should not be played this weekend.

Well, this Super Bowl should be. Everyone's in Houston already. But at some point in the future, the Super Bowl should be played a bit later, on Presidents Day weekend. That way, most people have Monday off.

The game doesn't start until around 6:30 p.m., and between commercials and the halftime show ends around four hours later. Then the next day, people have to go to work. Kids are either tired at school or have to miss much of the game -- or probably a mix of both.

There's no way the game is going to be moved to a Saturday, as some suggest. For the city that hosts the game, the Saturday events are part of the experience. I imagine (having never been to the Super Bowl) it's probably a huge night for restaurants, clubs and the like, and that part of the economic benefits aren't going to get clipped.

It wouldn't be too hard to get the season to end two weeks later in ways the players might like. Start training camp a week later, pushing more practices out of the crazy-hot weather of July. Then give players a second bye week during the season -- which would help with their health, and could even give the NFL more flexibility in scheduling the overseas games it likes so much.

There are certainly drawbacks, such as more regular season games in the cold, as the schedule shifts a few weeks out of September into January. But if football is Americana, what could be better than ending the season on Presidents Day weekend.

Typically, New Jersey: Decoded cuts through the cruft and gets to what matters in New Jersey news and politics. When the news is slow, it will apparently veer off into random sports commentary. Follow on Facebook and Twitter.

Michael Symons is State House bureau chief for New Jersey 101.5 and the editor of New Jersey: Decoded. Follow @NJDecoded on Twitter and Facebook. Contact him at michael.symons@townsquaremedia.com