NFL
NFL, NFLPA to Revisit 18-Game Schedule Proposal in Coming Months
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Super Bowl LX Opening Night by Chris Graythen | Getty Images
NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell continues to downplay the league’s desire for an 18th game in the regular season and maintains there is no deadline or timeline to getting the schedule changed, there remains a widespread feeling throughout the game that this is coming sooner rather than later.
The league’s owners are very much in support of adding to the regular season and further altering the playoffs, because of the untold further fortunes they can derive from it, and while the league is trying to tiptoe around this from a public relations standpoint and give the outward appearance they could go either way on this issue, make no mistake it a significant initiative for the league and it’s far more closer to inevitable than impossible.
“They want it, and they want it sooner rather than later,” said a high-ranking official from a team who believes 18 games will be here by 2028.
“It’s going to happen.”
How Soon Is Soon?
The NFLPA has sorted out its leadership issues and, in the eyes of many in NFL ownership circles, the union is in a vulnerable spot given all of the controversy surrounding its elections and how it handled the recent collusion case and all of the recent turmoil of former employees and lawsuits and scandal.
There is a financial case to be made to the players and the NFL is well prepared to present medical data as well to argue that injury risk is actually greater earlier in the season than later.
With the draft now complete and the schedule announcement coming in a few weeks, there is a natural sweet spot for the league to try to begin formally enticing the union.
“They’d love to get this figured out before the start of the season,” the exec said.
Adding an additional game, would bring an additional bye week, and alter the playoff landscape.
The Super Bowl would be pushed back to the middle of February and the logistical aspects of this are extreme. The NFL would like to get closure on the issue much sooner than they will let on. But it’s far closer to a priority than an afterthought.
La Canfora has covered over 20 Super Bowls and League Meetings and NFL drafts, building a wide network of sources throughout all aspects of the game. He was an award winning print journalist as well, working at The Detroit Free Press and The Baltimore Sun prior to his first stint at The Washington Post. He has covered sporting events around the world, including two Winter Olympics and all of the 2006 World Cup. He attended his first NFL game in 1978, and would soon kindle what has become a lifelong love and appreciation of the sport. La Canfora is also a professional handicapper, specializing in the NFL, creating a daily sports wagering game show - "Wanna Bet?" He also hosts nationally broadcast NFL radio shows in the US, as well as a daily sports radio show in his hometown of Baltimore, Maryland.