17-game NFL season 'highly likely' for 2021?

Back in mid-December, reports surfaced that NFL owners had delayed deciding on whether the league would expand to a 17-game regular season in 2021 until "early" this year. 

It appears the expected decision has been made. 

Peter King of Football Morning in America reports that it is "highly likely" the NFL creates a 17-game schedule for the 2021 campaign. As previously reported, it's believed the extra contest will be an interconference game (AFC vs. NFC, NFC vs. AFC). King wrote that the league isn't adding an extra bye week to the calendar.

Interestingly, the extra week will force the NFL to push Super Bowl LVI in Los Angeles back seven days from Feb. 6 to Feb. 13 because the league never starts any season over Labor Day weekend due to concerns about television ratings through the holiday break. Opening night for the 2021 season remains set for Sept. 9. 

King also wrote that "it’s somewhere between 50-50 and very likely" the NFL will schedule a Monday night wild-card game for January 2022. It's presumed the matchup that would be a massive television hit will air on either ESPN or ABC based on a reportedly to-be-announced media rights agreement that may or may not be worth approximately $2.6 billion.

The winner of the Monday night playoff game will inevitably complain about enduring a short week during the postseason tournament but will have to get over it quickly, as the NFL, like other leagues, is looking to account for revenue lost during the previous season held amid the COVID-19 pandemic.