The National Football League and its players’ union have vastly different opinions regarding a future 18-game regular season. NFLPA interim chief David White informed reporters gathered at the Super Bowl earlier this week that “our members have no appetite” for an expanded regular season. Some NFL execs have suggested that an 18th game is a formality.
White said during the union’s annual Super Bowl news conference that such a move is far from a lock and could only come after thorough discussion, debate, and study into higher injury rates and the effects of increased international travel.
“The 18th game is not casual for us. It’s a very serious issue,” White said, per ESPN. “It’s something that comes out of negotiations, and nothing will move forward until players have the opportunity to account for all of those factors, take that into consideration, and then through negotiations, agree or not to the 18th game.
“But as it stands right now, players have been very clear they don’t have any appetite for it.”
Growing the regular season has been a hot topic for some time, as Patriots owner Robert Kraft spoke in January as if an 18-game schedule was a virtual certainty during a radio interview.
“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 told the “Zolak & Bertrand” show. “Every team will go 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.”
The regular season stood at 16 scheduled games from 1978 through the 2020 season. In 2021, the league added a 17th game.
An APSE national award-winning writer and editor, David Wasson has almost four decades of experience in the print journalism business in Florida and Alabama. His work has also appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times and several national magazines and websites. He also hosts Gulfshore Sports with David Wasson, weekdays from 3-5 pm across Southwest Florida and on FoxSportsFM.com. His Twitter handle: @JustDWasson.
