Throughout Tremendous Bowl week, NFL Gamers Affiliation government director Lloyd Howell strongly hinted that the union will need larger rosters, an altered size of the offseason, a second bye week and a bigger share of league income as a part of the NFL shifting to a schedule format that may embody groups enjoying 18 regular-season video games and a pair of preseason contests every marketing campaign.
For an article revealed on Monday, NFL insider Albert Breer of Sports activities Illustrated touched upon when an 18-game common season might develop into a actuality.
“You need some proof of the NFL mulling when to go to 18 video games? The league has given each San Francisco (Feb. 8, 2026) and Los Angeles (Feb. 14, ’27) dates for his or her upcoming Tremendous Bowls,” Breer defined. “They haven’t given Atlanta one for Tremendous Bowl LXII, which has made planning troublesome for town. That one will cap the ’27 season, which is forward of the ’29 opt-out within the broadcast offers (…I feel they’re going to wish to have an 18-game slate to promote once they return to the desk with the networks).”
It is now no secret that NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell, together with staff homeowners who make use of him, would develop the common season to 18 video games per membership as quickly as doable, even when doing so would imply having to push the date of subsequent yr’s Tremendous Bowl again by per week or two.
As Ken Belson wrote for the New York Occasions, the NFL confirmed in March 2021 that the league was including a seventeenth regular-season sport for that marketing campaign and, thus, moved Tremendous Bowl LVI again by per week lower than a yr earlier than kickoff of that championship contest.
The league routinely upsets fans who’ve journey plans and tickets for video games by “flexing” matchups to prime-time broadcast home windows and, in some circumstances, to totally different days for causes associated to media-rights agreements. In the meantime, one does not need to be a media insider to grasp that Fox, CBS, NBC/Peacock, ABC/ESPN and Amazon Prime Video all need as many significant soccer video games as they will get their arms on annually.
The NFLPA dragging its toes relating to this matter is solely delaying what quite a few reporters have stated for years is the inevitable enlargement of the NFL common season. As soon as the league will get its desired 18-and-two-game format, it might be solely a matter of time earlier than homeowners push to get rid of the postseason and get to 19 or 20 regular-season weeks per marketing campaign.
