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NFL commissioner Roger Goodell told reporters on Monday that the league and NFLPA “haven’t had any formal discussion” on extending the regular season to 18 games, though there have been preliminary talks.
He also indicated that an 18-game regular season and two-game preseason might be an option in the future.
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NFL commissioner Roger Goodell says players will have a say in the 18-game schedule. Advances in safety of game have been key. “18 and 2 may be a possibility,” Goodell says.
“We know that fans love football and want more football, but we have to be incredibly sensitive and smart about it,” he added.
Adding another regular-season game—even at the expense of a preseason contest—would represent significant player safety concerns. For one, most veterans barely play in the preseason at all in an effort to stay healthy, so taking away such a game wouldn’t meaningfully balance out the addition of another regular season contest.
The NFL schedule is already rigorous as is, especially given the addition of shorter weeks due to Thursday night games. But the league NFL could mitigate some of the risks of an 18-game season in other ways.
For one, the NFL could expand both the active roster and practice squad, allowing teams more depth to deal with the rigors of an additional game. The offseason calendar could also be reworked, or the NFL could also add a second bye week to the schedule, giving players two weeks of rest throughout the season.
That would expand the regular season to 20 weeks, however, and might force the league to either start the regular season earlier—potentially in August—or end it well into January.
Either way, Mark Maske of the Washington Post reported Sunday that there is a “growing conviction among the NFL’s team owners” that an 18-game season will be agreed upon with the NFLPA before the current labor deal expires in March 2031—and potentially well before that date.
“That’s something that I think has a chance of happening, no question,” a person familiar with the ownership side of the topic told Maske. “It just depends. Maybe in the next two to three years.”
“I do think it will happen,” a high-ranking official from an NFL team added, noting that conversations were taking place behind the scenes. “But there’s a lot of negotiating to be done on it.”
The current CBA prohibits the league and owners from expanding the regular season to 18 games, barring an agreement with the NFLPA. So if expansion occurs before the end of the 2030 season, it will come on the players’ terms.
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