Despite having signed a 10-year collective bargaining agreement in 2020, the NFL and the league’s ownership group have been pushing relentlessly for what they’ve insisted is an “inevitable” addition of an 18th game to the NFL regular season schedule. The newest update on the owners’ 18-game proposal comes with an international twist, as well. 
The NFL’s 2020 CBA expanded the regular season from 16 to 17 games, reducing the preseason from four to three games, and added the standard gameday practice squad elevation rules that allow for NFL teams to call up two taxi squad players each week to be active on a gameday roster. It also altered the postseason, bringing in a third wild-card team for each conference and eliminating the first-round bye for the No. 2 seed of each conference, creating two more games for the first round of the playoffs.
The news of a shorter preseason runup to the regular season and extra games in the regular season and playoffs brought mixed reactions from the players. While the extra games meant extra paychecks, the altered schedule brought questions of health considerations after the NFL Players Association had done so much to advocate for player safety in prior years. So, as the NFL immediately began to bang the table for the addition of an 18th game, the NFLPA and the players it represents made it clear that they were not fans of the idea.
This week, though, the newest updates came out of New England, when Patriots owner Robert Kraft appeared on 98.5 The Sports Hub and gave the crew the lowdown on the owners’ current plan. The plan, as it currently stands, is to expand the regular season from 17 to 18 games, shortening the preseason from three to two games, while also guaranteeing that each team will play an international game, expanding the international schedule to 16 games.
“I want to tell you guys that we’re going to push like the dickens now to make international (games) more important with us,” Kraft informed them. “Every team will go to 18 (regular season games) and two (preseason games) and eliminate one of the preseason games, and every team every year will play one game overseas.”
He went on to expound on what it would mean for the players, but the only topic he really touched on was money. Not offering any considerations for player health, Kraft spoke to the additional revenue that increased international presentations and additional regular season home games would bring to the league and how that would help the owners “to grow the cap and keep (their) labor happy.” As long as players and the NFLPA continue to push back on any notion of altering the existing CBA, though, the league and owners will be forced to wait until the CBA expires in 2031.
If the league and ownership is able to get a regular season expansion, though, Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk claims that postseason change could, once again, follow. In each of the past two years, the final week of the regular season has featured a game in which two teams in the same division are playing for the No. 1 seed, with the losing team being forced to go on the road against a division winner with a significantly worse record. Per Florio, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell and some teams have been pushing behind the scenes for teams to be seeded in the postseason regardless of division, eliminating home games for the league’s worst division-winners.
At the urging of the NFL, the Lions — one of the four teams to play in those Week 18 games — proposed the new rule, but the proposal never made it to a vote. Regardless, of the pushback from the players and NFLPA, the league and owners are going to continue working towards their 18-game goal, and Florio claims that some “in key circles” believe the postseason seeding change could tag along with the potential addition of an 18th game.
Need to add another bye if they go to 18.
That seems feasible because it costs the owners very little money.
the players won’t go for it without another bye and more $$$. as for teams, pretty hard to evaluate players if you are coaches off 2 games. can’t believe coaches would love this idea.
If I were an NFL coach, I’m not pushing back too much. Their skills wouldn’t translate too well in the real world.
Really watering down the significants of these games with all these additions.
aGREED
What I was going to say.
By the time we reach week 19, the players will be so worn out and battling injuries that the post season will be survival of the luckiest, not the best.
I’d love to see the international games be reduced and then eliminated.
I can’t stand the international games, they add nothing to their product. Just pure greed from the owners, much like their forays into gambling and season expansion. The owners are going to kill the goose that lays the golden eggs.
So if you own your own business and you have the chance to grow it and continue to grow it, are you gonna turn it down and say status quo. I can guarantee you if you took that route your ex-wife will own most of your business and you’ll be working for her.
“I can guarantee you if you took that route your ex-wife will own most of your business and you’ll be working for her.”
Well that came out of left field…
Be careful what you wish for.
As a non-US citizen who’s watched NFL games both in the US (as a resident at the time) and also in my own country – the international games are an essential link for overseas fans to feel part of the NFL/Americana experience.
There’s a huge international anti-US sentiment at the moment with everything that’s going on. You’d be much, much worse off if the millions of people like me were shut off from interacting with the many good people from your country who travel overseas to see their teams.
That’s a very good point. I don’t have any qualms against international games as a concept; I’m more concerned with how the NFL implements them. If I were in charge, I would have all international games be the week following a bye week and then hold them on Saturday. That way, teams have extra recovery and preparation time for travel and adjusting circadian rhythms. The second bye week could be used during the week leading up to TNF games.
Sorry our country sucks so much right now btw lol
Currently working towards a 38 GAME SCHEDULE !!
Make them play everyday and twice on Sundays! Instead of “Bye weeks” we have 1/2 day games and 1/2 day practices. Add land mines in strategically hidden spots on the field and if a team that scored had not triggered any mines during their possession, they would be awarded a bonus point for not setting any off line mines during their offensive drive. Also any player that triggers a mine would not be allowed to substituted or removed from the field and game without the expressed written permission of NFL Commissioner Goodell. But that injured player is always considered a “eligible receiver’ and if they catch it, it is automatic Touchdown and if prior the snap they were ruled “Dead” then it will count as a zombie mine score for an additional 7 points dead zombie conversion. This hopefully will make owners more revenue and help weed out the naysayers.
The players are supposed to like this? Ha Ha!
The players should get major concessions out of this.
But they probably won’t…..
It will happen trust meee. Thi intel games bring in alot of Money to the league. The player union will rebuff it then NFL will pay them out in player Share revenue the players will get paid just watch! The NFL will make a ton by doing this and all they need to do is add 1 more week of pay and give the players more money in that shared revenue off jerseys etc.. Owners will fight it bc they dont want to pay the players more.. But it will happen.
I thought the players got a percentage of the gross?
Some players make $4 million a game. I would say add as many as you can if it was me, but I’m not a p•ss some boys on this site.
Yuck
sounds like an excellent way to keep getting good players hurt just for an extra overseas gate .. more is not always better .. just ask denver
In the future NFL teams will not be linked to a particular city so there will be no “home” games. The schedule will resemble a Taylor Swift tour. Fans will be AI generated. The only carry over from the present will be the terrible officiating of games.
Well, traditional IS important.
This concept is not new. The 18 game schedule plan has been in the works for some time now. The ultimate goal is to push the schedule out an additional week to allow the Super Bowl occur on President’s Day weekend so it maintains the big game on the Sunday of a three day holiday weekend. It also accomplishes the goal of a full slate of international games “over seas” as the first step to an international league. It is the future of the NFL.
If they do this and add the 2nd bye they would probably need to go back to the way it used to be and start the season Labor Day weekend. If they want Super Bowl over presidents weekend.
The league is doing everything it can to help the Bears get a 4k passer.
I’d be more than happy to go back to a 14 game schedule with four playoff teams per conference.
Sometimes, less is more.
Go watch the Canadian football league then we’ll be happy to let you go and be a fan of that
There’s still 2 more preseason games to cancel to get to 20
If your city paid tax dollars for a stadium there is no way there should be an international game in lieu of a home game for your city.
We must reject this garbage now it is absolutely out of hand.
Nonsense. Everything the US does should international.
Tax dollars from American citizens for stadiums should benefit tax paying Americans, not foreign countries.
How bout you throw in a 2nd bye this way you make it an even 20 weeks of football. 2 preseason games, 18 regular season games, 1 International game per team, 2 bye weeks 1 in first 9 weeks and 1 back half of 9 weeks. Also Expand playoffs add 1 more wild card top 2 get playoff byes
IR is going rise more than viewership ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Not if they expand rosters so every position can rotate players.
yupp I know theyve talked about that goin to 56 or soo. My opion is lets flex it to a 60 man active roster you dress 55 bc now its 53 man roster dress 48.. Also make it a 3 man taxi club 1 must be a QB.
I think it needs to be at least 75 to lessen the risk of injury.
Teams will need to split snaps at every single position.
Owners will probably put the International games on some form of pay TV . Prime , Peacock, NFL Network or something they can make more money on. They are Money Hungry!!!
They’re right. It is inevitable. But it needs to stop at 18, and they need to expand the roster size majorly in order to make it happen.
If I were the players, I’d agree to 18 games with 2 byes and an international game each in exchange for a 50/50 revenue split and fully guaranteed contracts.
The players already get a revenue share between 48-49%. I think the owners only agree to fully guaranteed contracts with certain caveats in place and one of those would restrict a player from demanding a redo a year later because he saw someone else at his position get a larger salary.
Yup
The product is bad enough now. Nobody wants more of it.
18 games is fine and F the Packers!
On our way to year-round NFL
If you did away with all pre-season games, would anyone be aware of it?