Pro Football Rumors
FEBRUARY 2: Although the NFL schedule may well chance twice during the 2020s, Goodell said Monday (via Bovada’s Josina Anderson) no formal discussions have taken place on a move to 18 yet. It appears a near-certainty those will happen in the not-too-distant future, as the NFLPA will have a major bargaining chip to use in an effort to land concessions from the league in exchange for the extra game.
FEBRUARY 1: An 18-game regular season may be on the horizon. According to Mike Florio of ProFootballTalk.com, the NFL and NFLPA recently discussed the potential schedule adjustment.
This comes on the heels of a recent Roger Goodell interview. The commissioner cited the NFL’s continued “focus on the safety” aspect of the game as a stepping stone for a potential 18-game season. Goodell continued to point to the league’s “20-game framework” and the understanding that an added regular season contest would only come at the expense of a preseason exhibition.
As Florio notes, the league’s current Collective Bargaining Agreement lasts through the 2030 season, and it’s believed an 18-game schedule could be apart of the next CBA. When the two sides last agreed on a new CBA in 2020, they expanded the regular-season schedule to 17 games.
Florio believes “it’s possible (if not likely)” that the NFL and the NFLPA are currently refining details for an 18-game schedule, and their recent discussion indicates that the change could be coming sooner than later. Mark Maske of The Washington Post cautions that an agreement is not imminent, although he adds that NFL owners remain hopeful that the NFLPA will agree to expand the regular-season slate. If the two sides continue to move in the right direction, some owners believe the change could be implemented in the “next two to three years.”
There have been previous rumblings of an 18-game campaign, and NFLPA executive director Lloyd Howell already hinted at some possible concessions surrounding the addition of an 18th game. While overall compensation is the obvious one, other points of negotiation would include additional bye weeks, improved playing surfaces, and decreased travel.
While these concessions represent some possible hurdles during negotiations, it seems the two sides are at least heading towards an eventual solution. While an 18-game schedule was once discussed as possible, it’s seeming more and more likely that an 18-game schedule is truly inevitable.
