The debate about whether the NFL will expand the regular season once again seems to have been resolved and now it's a matter of how soon the league adds an 18th game.
Commissioner Roger Goodell has talked openly about it, union chief Lloyd Howell recently told the Washington Post that the NFLPA is open to doing it before the current collective bargaining agreement expires after the 2030 season and players seem resigned to the inevitability no matter how they might personally feel.
“I mean, I feel like we really ain’t got no choice, to be honest," said Seattle Seahawks veteran receiver Tyler Lockett, who said he'd prefer adding another bye week instead of another game to give TV networks more broadcast windows without taxing the players with another game.
“I think that’s more fair, but we know it’s probably not going to end up like that. So, I mean you just kind of got to rock with the punches and just be able to go play.”
The NFL has desired adding more games for years, along with the increase in lucrative national television windows. The league increased the regular season from 14 games to 16 in 1978 and kept it there for decades.
But Goodell and the owners pushed through a 17th game in the latest CBA negotiations leading into the 2021 season and aren't content stopping there, with Goodell saying in the spring that going to 18 games remains a priority as long as it can be done without significantly impacting player safety.
“If you’d asked me that 10 years ago, I probably would be excited about it. Now, not so excited, but it is what it is," Raiders receiver Davante Adams said. “That’s the thing that’s special about football and why I really wanted to play football over basketball, is that I just feel like it’s a different type of feeling knowing that you only have a limited amount of opportunities out there.”
Adding another game to the season would add more broadcast windows. It also could push the Super Bowl to Presidents Day weekend with a federal holiday the day after the game. That would either require not adding a second bye week — which most players said would be needed to play an extra game — or moving the start of the season to Labor Day weekend, which the NFL has avoided since the 2000 season.
While moving the Super Bowl to a long holiday weekend might have appeal to many fans who wouldn't have to go to work the next day, it could turn an NFL season into a seven-month marathon from the start of training camp to the final game.
“I feel like a couple people are going to feel like (Nikola) Jokic, ready to go home," Raiders cornerback Nate Hobbs said, referring to the NBA star who complained about the length of that season when his Denver Nuggets won the championship in 2023. "But it takes what it takes, like the real champions are going to emerge and the real mentally strong survive. ... So, it really doesn’t matter. Presidents Day and February all run into each other to me. It’s all the same, I’m here now so it is what it is. I know it’s for entertainment.”
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The NFL is getting paid more than $113 billion over 11 years for its broadcast rights as the most valuable television property. Of the 100 most-watched TV broadcasts in 2023, 93 were NFL games, up from 61 in 2018.
But that extra revenue comes at a price borne by the bodies of the players.
“The fans, and rightfully so, shouldn’t know all the injuries we go through, but they don’t know what it takes to play on Sundays,” said Colts center Ryan Kelly, the team's player representative. “I think it’s just too many games.”
When the NFL added a 17th game in 2021, the league took away one preseason game. Goodell had said that would be the plan again if the league ever went to an 18-game season.
But that raises concern from coaches about having fewer chances for younger players to prove themselves or develop and does little to ease the concerns of veterans, many of whom play few or no snaps in exhibition games.
“They talk about taking a preseason game out, which to me doesn’t really matter because I play in like one preseason game,” said 49ers All-Pro tight end George Kittle, who has played 37 snaps in the preseason in the past six years. “Most vets do. So that really doesn’t do anything for anybody.”
Other concessions would be much more important to players, whether it would be the extra bye week, a change to the offseason schedule or perhaps, most importantly, a larger share of the revenue. Players had their portion of shareable revenues rise from 47% to 48.5% under the last CBA when the season was increased to 17 games.
An 18th game would increase the size of the revenue pie and perhaps even the share that goes to players. When the season expanded to 17 games in 2021, some players were able to get an extra game check to increase their salary.
ESPN surveyed players in the offseason and found 46% were in favor of expanding the season to 18 games with stipulations, and another 8% willing to do it without any concessions.
“That’s another check, right?” 49ers defensive end Leonard Floyd said when asked for his opinion about an 18th game. “More games, more checks.”
