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As soon as reports emerged of the NFL trying to convince the NFLPA of 18 regular-season games, fans were up in arms about the proposed changes. For a long time, the season involved 16 regular-season games or fewer.
In 1961, the league moved to 14 games. By 1978, that had risen to 16. That remained for more than a generation until 2021, when the 17 games regular season was introduced. If it moves to incorporate another extra game before 2038, it will be the quickest time the league has changed the number of games during a year.
Fans are not thrilled that there's already talk about one more game and took to X, formerly known as Twitter, to express their displeasure. One said that greed is responsible for such short-sightedness, tweeting:
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"Greed is ruining the sport I love"
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Another thinks about the rise in CTE more games and collisions would bring, with another tweeting:
"CTE about to do a number on the league"
Here are some of the reactions on X:
How could a 18 regular-season game NFL season look like?
The NFL knows that it's the biggest league in the US but constantly finds itself featuring less games than other major leagues in the country. So, it was only a matter of time that the league wanted to go from 17 to 18 regular-season games.
There is a way it might work. Right now, the Super Bowl generally happens on the second Sunday of February. There have been suggestions that if the final game was held on the third Sunday of the month, it would be better, as people would have the next day to recover, as they are off on Presidents' Day.
There's also a suggestion that if there are 18 regular-season games, there should be two bye weeks. The thought is that it would lead to better player safety than 17 games with just one bye.
Eventually, fans would love to see more games. The demand is there. The NFL knows that and understands that 18 regular-season games would generate more profit for them. The owners, naturally, would love that too.
The only hiccup are the players. There are far too many injuries, both short and long-term, that affects the people who make football the sport it is. If the NFL wants to put another game in the calendar, they will need to convince them that they will take into consideration their best interests too.
That seems just the opening salvo in negotiations that eventually leads to an expanded NFL schedule.
