NFL moving forward with 18-game season

ATLANTA (AP)—NFL owners are eager to increase the regular season from 16 to 18 games.

The players aren’t so sure.

During a five-hour meeting at a posh hotel in downtown Atlanta, the push to add two more games to the regular season picked up steam Wednesday—at least among those who sign the checks.

“I think it’s a win-win all around,” said Bob Kraft, owner of the New England Patriots.

Goodell pointed out that the league already has the right to impose an 18-game schedule—and keep four preseason games for each team—under the current labor agreement with the players. But that contract expires after this season, and it’s clear the expanded schedule will be a central issue in talks on a new collective bargaining agreement.

The owners would like to keep the season at 20 weeks, reducing the number of preseason games from four to two.

“We want to do it the right way for everyone, including the players, the fans and the game in general,” Goodell said. “There’s a tremendous amount of momentum for it. We think it’s the right step.”

Around the NFL, however, many players questioned the wisdom of making an already grueling season even longer. At the very least, they want more money— and several proposed changes in the rules governing injured players, or adding an extra bye week to deal with the grind.

“With 16 games, every game is important and therefore the fans are very into it, the stadiums are packed because they know if their team loses, it pushes them further and further away from making the playoffs,” Cincinnati quarterback Carson Palmer said. “I think if you go to 18, each game kind of loses a little bit of its significance.”

The players clearly expect to be receive a bigger chunk of the multi-billion-dollar NFL pie if they’re going to be putting their bodies on the line in two more games that count.

“Obviously the players want to be compensated for two more games,” San Francisco 49ers linebacker Matt Wilhelm said. “That’s the one thing the players have to get met.”



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