It’s officially official. On Tuesday, NFL owners formally approved a 17-game schedule for the 2021 season. 
The new Collective Bargaining Agreement provided owners with the option to go from 16 games to 17 games. Despite substantial player opposition, the union ultimately voted in favor of the change. On the plus side, the extra revenue from a 17th game should help to bring the salary cap back towards its usual max in 2022 and beyond.
To offset the extra game, the NFL will move from a four-game preseason to a two or three-game preseason schedule. The new arrangement will not add another bye week. Meanwhile, the 18-week season will push the Super Bowl to the middle of February.
The additional game will provide an immediate lift in profits for all 32 owners, but that won’t impact this year’s $182.5MM salary cap. In the short run, however, it will yield an extra game check for players league wide.
The new schedule also means a new scheduling formula to account for the odd number of games. The “extra game” will be an inter-conference matchup, pitting AFC and NFC teams against each other in accordance with their divisional finish. Host sites will alternate between the AFC and NFC.
‘ Despite substantial player opposition, the union ultimately voted in favor of the change’
I’d like to see the numbers for & against it. Willing to bet most were for it. There’s a whole Lot of nobodies that’ll gladly take another week’s worth of work.
Not how pay in the NFL works but go off.
Actually it does work that way since contracts contain incentives based on stats
More games = more time to reach incentives. Majority of contracts have incentives for players.
Reach incentives = get the money
Dont reach incentives = dont get the money.
This is a gross misunderstanding of how player contracts work.
I’d be willing to bet that 80%+ of the players didn’t support this. Most players are very outspoken about not wanting to punish their bodies for another week, especially when there’s not an additional bye week.
Please explain how 80% vote no (heck 51% is all it takes), but it was still passed?
Because it could be pitched to them a certain way, because the union leaders wanted it, because the owners made future promises, etc. There’s a million reasons why the majority of the players wouldn’t really want it but would ultimately vote for it. It’s negotiating and compromise.
Most public comments from players are always against adding extra games. You’d be hard-pressed to find players who have publicly advocated for adding more games.
You always have some unique ideas. You really think close to 2000 players are so dumb that they were bamboozled by both their own union and the owners? Both sides will figure out a way to add on the 17th paycheck. And soon enough, an 18th paycheck.
Most public comments are made by famous players, not the bench players, their votes count as well.
But, they won’t get extra pay. If your contract was 10m, it’s still 10m. Now they just have to play one more week.
It’s been a year since the players voted to accept a 17th game – along with other perks for the less than star-compensated players. The vote was 1,019 to 959.
The union is inherently flawed, if the top 10% are making more than 20x the rest of the league than anytime the owners offer a 50k raise the vote is a done deal.
How is that flawed? The majority voted one way or another.
The games are played on the backs of players making the league minimum. Half of them will be replaced in the next draft cycle, so they deserve the bulk of the money.
Is the 17th check calculated on salary alone or salary plus bonus?
Is there a extra bye week per team?
No. Read the article.
Now they need to look into expanding the rosters on the teams…. This only makes sense. Probably next season with the increase cap……
Or as an alternative, retain last year’s revisions to the practice squad rules.
If the players are on contracts that have been signed….aren’t the players getting the same amount of money?
So yes they’re getting an extra game check but now they’re smaller since you have to divide the amount by 17 instead of 16….
Exactly. I wonder if any player would dare to file some kind of grievance to get their contract voided. They signed it expecting 16 games, now they have to play an additional game for no extra pay.
Let me amend my comment, it’s not ‘no extra pay’, they do get an additional game check this year, but the main point remains the same for future seasons.
They are getting a normal game check added on as a bonus so it doesn’t count against the salary cap.
So whatever they make on a per game basis stays the same.
Gotcha…..apologies if I missed that part in the article.
I like an extra week of fantasy, draft kings daily, gambling etc…… very happy
Because that’s what the NFL is all about. Certainly, it’s not about the players or – gasp – the games themselves.
As a fan, this is dumb and I don’t want to see it.
This is just a stepping stone to an 18 game schedule.
Yup.
That’s why they didn’t offer the 2nd bye week right now. The league is holding that back as a carrot for a 18 game schedule.
They should have dangled it for the stinking Thursday night game. If I was a star I would come down with a tummy ache the week our team was scheduled to play on Thursday night. Let the practice squad cover it.
2 preseason games and 18 game regular season with 2 bye weeks seems reasonable. Better for the season ticket holders who have to buy meaningless preseason games. Also if they expand the rosters to 60 that is a lot of extra opportunity for players to make squads and money.
I think this motivates UDFA’s to play harder in the preseason.
As a fan there’s nothing worse than having your star player get injured.More games more injuries.I do think preseason matters for your body getting acclimated standpoint.I say leave it as it is your just getting greedy at this point.
2/3 of the league has missed time even before they play the 16th game. Thus a 17th adds nothing to the injury potential. The real problem with the 17th game is for teams that have already been eliminated – as basically they play one more meaningless game.
More games=more chance of injuries.Not rocket science
Great, but why didn’t they negotiate in nfl sponsored massage parlors for the players in each nfl city? Seems like it could have saved some money along the way with pre-negotiated settlements upon hiring.
The players? How’s about that owner in New England???
The time to oppose a 17 game schedule was before agreeing to it in a binding legal agreement.
This is like complaining about the food, housing or hair cut after joining the Army.
The story says the players will receive an extra game check. Anyone know, does this mean each player essentially gets a raise equal to 1/16th of their previous salary? Can’t find any reference to this via google…
well, based on the wording of them receiving an “extra” game check it appears they will just get an additional game check based on the average of what they got previously.
players were already against this, so if they were to get their current salary divided by 17 instead of 16, I’m sure this would have been vetoed.