Roger Goodell made some headlines during draft week, expressing an openness to an 18-game regular season. On the fringes for over a decade, this long-running NFL talking point may become a front-burner matter in the not-too-distant future.
NFL owners are believed to largely support Goodell’s preference for 18 games — with a preseason contest being removed from the schedule — according to the Washington Post’s Mark Maske, who reports the league may be eyeing an effort to lengthen the regular season well before the current CBA expires. Agreed to in 2020, this CBA runs through the 2030 season.
Considerable support exists among ownership for a move to 18, Maske adds. While a rumor about support for an 18-game season emerged earlier this year, that report pointed to CBA’s expiration as the point this matter will be decided. It appears, however, we are in for a 2020s effort here.
Seeing as the NFL schedule stood at 16 games from 1978-2020, moving from 17 to 18 so soon would mark a major change. It would also require a significant concession from the NFL to the NFLPA, and a union source informed Maske an expectation the owners bring forth such an offering in the next “12 to 18 months.” Goodell stopped short of saying he would actively pursue a change to 18 games, but the veteran commissioner certainly did not do much to indicate the 17-game schedule is the setup for the long haul.
“I think we’re good at 17 now,” Goodell said during an appearance on the Pat McAfee Show. “But, listen, we’re looking at how we continue. I’m not a fan of the preseason … the reality is, I’d rather replace a preseason game with a regular-season game any day. That’s just picking quality. If we get to 18 and 2, that’s not an unreasonable thing.”
The 2020 CBA states, “The League and/or Clubs shall not increase the number of regular season games per Club to eighteen (18) or more games,” which would set the stage for a battle between the league and the union. The NFLPA has stood against an 18-game season dating back to the 2011 CBA talks, and owners shifted to a 17-game goal when the union opposed 18 during the 2020 CBA talks. But it will be interesting to learn what concessions the NFL would make in order to make this long-sought-after number a reality.
How the schedule would be structured represents another central component here. Goodell pointed to the Super Bowl falling on Presidents’ Day weekend as a key measure. We heard years ago the NFL would target Presidents’ Day for its finale, but rumblings about a double-bye season did not lead to that logical plan being implemented. The NFL tried the two-bye setup just once — in 1993 — but networks felt that format weakened the schedule, and that view appeared to remain during the discussions pertaining to a 17-game season. If the NFL were to seriously consider 18 games, a two-bye season would almost have to be considered due to the injury-based resistance the NFLPA will likely show.
The NFL has held its season opener the Thursday after Labor Day since 2002. Removing a preseason game from the schedule and starting the regular season one week early would not add up with regards to the season extending to Presidents’ Day weekend. This would seemingly reopen the door for a two-bye season, and it probably should not be ruled out more safety-based measures — potentially surrounding the offseason schedule or in-season practices — could be concessions offered to the NFLPA.
The NFL is considerably safer than it was during previous eras; practice restrictions lead to a fraction of the contact work in practice past NFL generations endured. But players will certainly voice opposition to the schedule moving from 16 to 18 games in the same decade. The league’s increased safety measures and the salary cap growth that has taken place — and the money that would come from adding a game — is expected to be part of the owners’ push to players in a potential negotiation, Maske adds.
But the NFL has already adjusted the trade deadline, pushing it back one week (to the Tuesday following Week 9), but Browns GM Andrew Berry’s effort to slide the deadline past Week 10 came about because of the rumored 18-game push. It does not appear this topic will die down anytime soon. New NFLPA ownership — led by executive director Lloyd Howell and president Jalen Reeves-Maybin — will be tasked with leading the discussions on the players’ side.
By the league, owners and media/gambling sites.
Ain’t seen a single player jumpin on the 18 game whoopee train
There will be a corresponding increase in roster sizes so kickers, fringe players and those on the practice squad could benefit.
Players aren’t principled on the matter or we would still have a 14 game season. They will complain about health and safety then sign up for another game if enough money is dangled in front of them.
And each game means less over the course of a season. You can now have a three game losing streak and not think anything of it.
As a fan, I would prefer that every game is a critical win, but the NFL is losing me as a paying customer anyway (my family and I use to attend 4-6 games per year), so I suppose I will find something else to pass my time on Sundays. Err. Monday nights. Errr… Thursday nights… Ummm Saturdays….
Heck, go full Hunger Games and just have the season last until there’s only one team left that can field 11 players and give them the trophy.
They don’t give a flying f**k about the people their entire business is built upon…
Don’t be silly. That’ll be prime and ready in 2048
“The NFL is considering adding a 360th game to the regular season. They currently play 359 games, taking off 3 days for the draft and 3 days for training camp. Roger Goodell was looking into whether the NFL was missing a chance to add revenue on those days.
In other news the NFLPA rejected the $1 million increase in the salary cap.”
You goofs yap and babble as if you don’t support more games, then you watch every game. Way to take a stand.
Sorry, but I don’t speak Moronese
They better move the season up and start in
August
Goodell’s whole pitch to the fans is that the SB will fall on President’s day so we get a 3 day weekend.
They won’t start it earlier.
That will be one way to find out how few people get President’s Day off. In my 35 years of work, I got it off for 4 of those years.
I don’t think most private employments do.
Pitch is probably targeted towards teachers, students(athletes), city/state government get it off.
I’ve never worked anywhere in my 30+ years where we got President’s Day off.
Players should be advocating for fully guaranteed contracts like NBA and MLB.
They still plan to screw the actual fans over by having these international games. The prices for season tickets won’t accommodate and just keep getting higher.
The amount of games don’t change much because they convert a pre season to an actual game. That forces the starters to play a full actual game. I wouldn’t be against it if not for the whole international games, they should make the pre season games international. It is not like those fans care much, just excited to have a game and travel.
When I had season tix, I paid for 10 games, 8 regular season and 2 pre-season. If I still had tickets with the 17 game schedule, I would still pay for 10 games, some years I would get 9 regular season and 1 pre-season and other years I would get 8 regular season and 1 pre-season..
Not knowing how the league would actually manage an 18 game season, I would guess that you would still pay for 10 games, 9 regular season and 1 pre-season. The 18th game could become a neutral site game (international) such that teams would not sacrifice a home game in their schedule. However greed being the lifeblood of the NFL, I could see 2 floating games (17 and 18) such that a team like Jacksonville would give up a home game to play abroad, likely because they would make more $$. Dallas on the other hand is probably not eager to give up a home game.
But, who knows.. I’m sure the players will benefit slightly more than the fans.
The pre-season games are unwatchable for fans and therefore unmarketable for the league. The pre-season games are however critical to bubble players earning a roster spot.
September is already approaching a full wash as teams take the 4 weeks to begin to gel and get their game in order. Start off poorly and catching up will be very difficult.
NFL and NBA are too much like WWE now. Hopefully baseball and hockey have a few good years left.
Soccer leagues are more fun, especially in Europe when the Champions League and Europa League go into their knockout stages in February.
Manfred has ruined MLB. The ghost runner is the dumbest rule ever implemented in sports
Don’t look now but Pickleball may soon rule the world. My local city council has approved the building of 16 courts in the park directly beside me. Yikes!
How long do you think it will take before they are in disrepair?
It’s just more greed at this point. In every sport the extra wild card teams, making first round of the playoffs 7 games, etc. it’s all about money. Let’s just all stream the games and not buy the merchandise or go to the games. It’s that simple
I’m all for more football, but the stretching out of the season is really straining the quality of the product.
The reduction in practice time and offseason work, plus the devaluation if the preseason, pretty much ensures that the first quarter of the season is bad football anyway.
The NFL is going to have to expand roster significantly to accommodate this, too. They’ve resisted that, so far. Higher roster counts means higher salary caps, even if the stars will eat up most of that new space anyway. 18 is much more even number than 17, which us nice, but I don’t see how one bye week will be enough to keep players from dropping like flies. Goodell doesn’t like the preseason because it’s not as profitable, but it and the old school practice schedule and/or offseason work did help get players into game shape, which helped keep them healthy. It served a purpose. You have to wonder how much money will be enough.
Agree, minimizing training camp and ‘contact’ ensures players aren’t ready for week 1.
I get that owners and league look at ‘player availability’ different than ‘player readiness’ without understanding the need to be in ‘playing condition’.
Yes, the desire is to protect the product, which is what players actually are within the structure of the league/game, tools that perform a task. Rhetoric about ‘caring’ is empty narrative.
Good luck keeping the players healthy for 18 games. Goodell and the owners don’t have to take the field every Sunday so they don’t care as long as the money keeps rolling in.
Will the players demand more money?
I imagine that a concession regarding marijuana would be on the table.
Add 18th regular season game, add 2nd bye week and move the regular season back one week but keep the start of season after Labor Day. Eliminate the MEDIA hype week between Conference championship games and Super Bowl.
Two of those weeks will be played overseas…
How many opening day QBs are gonna be left healthy in week 18 ? Diluting the product w/players who shouldn’t be playing in nfl. It’ll only get worse w/expansion of new teams. Watered down @fans expense.
When they eliminate all forms of tackling, then all the QBs and stars will last.
I heard a number for 2023 that there were 66 starting QBs league wide. Some teams had only 1 starting QB the whole season, while others had 4 or more.
Not sure I care about an 18-game season. I didn’t care for 17-game season either. I’m not old enough to remember when the NFL went from 14 to 16 games–what was the fans reaction?
Of course back then, you had games on Sunday afternoon and Monday night. Now we have games on Thursday night, Sunday afternoon, Sunday night, and Monday night. Then, overseas, could see Sunday morning too.
Godell always looks weird in street clothes and just chatting.
In fairness, he looks weird in anything.
Standup – might be a career option
As long as he’s just standing.