The NFL gets a lot of credit for being a trendsetter, and rightfully so, for the league has changed the face of sports in so many ways.

But the NFL should also get credit for realizing that an idea did not work out well in the long run, and as such needed to be pulled, and was.

For year after the NFL went to a 16-game schedule, which is now 17 games, the regular season began on Labor Day weekend. It seemed like a good move because Labor Day weekend marks the end of summer unofficially and the beginning of fall. Fall is football.

But it just got to be too much. Teams had only a week to get ready for the start of the regular season after finishing the preseason. Too much work was being crammed into too few days. The start of the regular season needed to be moved back a week, and by doing such it gave everybody a chance to catch their breath and do extra planning and preparation for the long haul ahead of the regular season.

In the past, then, there would’ve been games this weekend to start the regular season. But we now get a breather before the regular season starts next Thursday and then the rest of the schedule is played out over the weekend.

We can wait and do it that way, because Labor Day, with all of its barbecues and get-togethers, didn’t need to be coupled with regular-season pro football. They each can, and should, stand alone.