NFLPA executive director Lloyd Howell tells Mark Maske of the Washington Post that the NFL and NFLPA have begun high-level talks about expanding the season to 18 games.
“We have talked at a very, very, very high level superficially, with a recognition… about, ‘Yeah, this is something that we should be talking about. And we should really kick the tires and understand what else goes into that decision-making process,’” Howell said.
The current collective bargaining agreement between the NFL and NFLPA was agreed to in 2020 and expanded the season from 16 to 17 games — a compromise from the NFL’s push for 18 games.
The deal runs through 2030 and means the soonest the league could add an 18th game would be with a new CBA in 2031.
However, there has been more of a willingness from the NFLPA to consider negotiating an earlier move to 18 games and using it as a bargaining chip to secure more concessions from the league, which historically has out-maneuvered the NFLPA in CBA negotiations.
It would be beneficial to the NFL to move to an 18-game season sooner than 2031. The league signed lucrative new media rights deals shortly after agreeing to the last CBA, which is where the bulk of the league’s revenue comes from.
Those deals run through 2033 but the NFL can opt out early in 2029. An 18th game would give the league more inventory and more leverage in negotiations with broadcast services, helping them grow the revenue pie even further.
If the NFLPA were to collectively bargain an 18th game as an addition to the CBA before its expiration in 2030, it could secure valuable concessions from the league with more leverage than it would have at the end of the current CBA.
A move to 18 games would likely mean eliminating a preseason game and possibly adding another bye week for all teams. It would push the start of the season up a week to Labor Day and push the Super Bowl back to the weekend of President’s Day, bookending the season with holidays.
In return for agreeing to an 18-game season, the NFLPA could push for a bigger percentage of the revenue in return, less restrictions on player free agency, grass fields in all stadiums, less offseason work, fewer fines and more.
The challenge for Howell is getting the players on board with an 18th game, as that’s long been something they’ve opposed given the additional grind on their bodies. He was hired a year ago and has been fairly quiet as he takes the pulse of NFLPA membership.
We’ll have more on an 18-game season as the news is available.
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