Lost in the trial balloon floated by NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell regarding the possible expansion of the playoffs is a fairly important point.
The Collective Bargaining Agreement does not address the topic. Which means, as we explained during Sunday’s edition of Football Night in America, that the NFL would have to bargain with the NFL Players Association in order to obtain the ability to add two or four playoff teams.
The union currently takes no position as to whether it would welcome an expanded playoff field. And that’s the right way to play it. If the NFL wants to do it, the NFL would have to be ready to give up something else.
As Peter King mentioned during FNIA, the proposed trade off could be the reduction of the postseason from four weeks to two. And if the dollars lost via the shrinkage of the preseason would match the revenue increase from the expansion to the postseason, it would make sense to do it.