If you hate the NFL preseason, there’s good news for you! The league is reportedly set to resume its push to remove the third regular season game and move to an 18-game regular season schedule.
Under the new plan, the league year would still consist of 20 weeks. However, there would only be two preseason games and 18 regular-season games.
NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell speaks to the media during the Super Bowl LVI head coach and MVP press conference at Los Angeles Convention Center on February 14, 2022 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Katelyn Mulcahy/Getty Images)
On Sunday, Pro Football Talk’s Mike Florio first reported the league’s push for the new schedule.
“The first hint of [the plan for an 18-game schedule] came when Browns G.M. Andrew Berry explained on PFT Live that Cleveland and other teams are proposing a delay of the trade deadline by 14 days, from the Tuesday after Week 8 to the Tuesday after Week 10,” Florio wrote. “Berry said that one week was aimed at accounting for the extra week created by the 17th regular-season game — and that the second week was in anticipation of further expansion of the regular season to 18 games.
“That happened on Tuesday. In talking to folks after that, I mentioned Berry’s plan with the anticipation of another game. The reaction was, basically, ‘Yeah. That’s coming.’
Florio continued, “It likely won’t come until the next labor deal. And the league will likely have the same determination then that it had four years ago when it was clear that the league wanted an extra game badly enough to lock out the players, like the NFL did in 2011.”
NFLPA President JC Tretter speaks at a press conference prior to Super Bowl LVI at the NFL Media Building on the SoFi Stadium campus in Inglewood, California. (Photo by Cooper Neill/Getty Images)
The players will undoubtedly fight this, though they and their representatives in the NFL Players Association (NFLPA) likely realize they’re fighting a losing battle. An 18th regular season game means infinitely more money from the league’s all-important television contracts. Which, of course, means more money for the players as well.
So, why fight it?
Well, they’re not really fighting it. Like in 2011, the players are just trying to get a larger cut of the pie once the new deal is put in place. But now, as then, the NFLPA can’t fight the league while their players are missing paychecks because NFL players are notoriously awful at managing their money. So, there will be much hemming and hawing and threats and recrimination, but at the end of the day, there will be an 18th regular season game.
