Roger Goodell confirmed these CBA talks feature the previously reported prospect of a 17-game season. The 13th-year commissioner said a 17-game season would start at the same time the league’s current 16-game model does — after Labor Day — but end a week later, pushing the season into mid-February.
The league is making a greater effort to make this happen as well, offering the NFLPA more financially in hopes of making the 17-game schedule a reality, Albert Breer of SI.com notes. It’s not certain if that means the players will see a greater revenue split — a point of contention when the CBA talks accelerated over the summer — but Breer believes the NFL is “very serious” about a 17-game season happening.
A reduction in the NFL’s preseason slate would commence as well, and the subject of a 14-team playoff bracket has been broached. The prospect of a second bye week, a setup the league tried only in 1993, has not surfaced yet. But after 42 seasons of the 16-game slate, the NFL has perhaps the most momentum yet to add a game. Owners have largely given up on the long-rumored 18-game season, at least in these CBA talks.
The sides hope to have a deal by season’s end, with the league and the union believing a deal before 2019 ends would be the best way to avoid a 2021 work stoppage, per Mike Jones of USA Today.
“The deal’s not done. I don’t have optimism; I don’t have pessimism,” NFLPA executive director DeMaurice Smith said, via Jones. “The reality is, we’re talking, but we’re far apart. … Either the deal is done and you could relax and not prepare for a work stoppage or the deal isn’t done and you can’t relax and you need to prepare for a work stoppage.”
Along with the pursuit of an even revenue split, the players’ side wants to increase the league-minimum salary and that of practice squad payouts, Jones adds. Negotiations are set to resume soon.
For a league whose brand appears to be “Terrible Decisions”, I’m not surprised by anything they do.
The obvious solution is to eliminate one preseason game, lengthen the season by one week, and add one season game and a second bye week so no team has to play on TNF with only three days off.
Or get rid of thursday night. The only reason they do Thursday night football is because they don’t have anybody to compete against. Id love saturday night.
Saturday is for college football no need for the nfl on that day.
Yes, get rid of short weeks (Like Thursday night games) and travel to Europe. It’s asinine and isn’t fair.
I have no idea what their fascination with a 17 game schedule is. Sixteen is enough, leave it alone. Especially if all you’re doing is swapping a preseason game out for a regular season game. Those tickets are sold as part of the season ticket package and cost the same, so it’s not like there’s money to be made on the swap other than national tv coverage.
Huh? The extra game would be financially massive, just the TV money alone is huge.
Greed rules…..
14-team playoffs would be ridiculous. So half the teams make the playoffs? It’s stupid in the NBA and would be even worse in the NFL.