With the preseason over and the regular season here, it’s easy to forget how much everyone dislikes the games that don’t count. The NFL hasn’t forgotten, and the NFL potentially is planning to do something about it.
Per a source with knowledge of the situation, the NFL actively is calculating the revenue that would be lost by reducing the preseason by as many as two games.
The league has the unilateral right under the 2011 labor deal to dump up to two preseason games without NFL Players Association consent. However, the NFL no longer has the power to expand the regular season without NFLPA agreement.
If the preseason is reduced, the goal would be to balance out the lost revenue either by increasing the regular season or expanding the postseason. And the objective in calculating the lost revenue could be to entice the union to agree to a plan for recapturing the money, especially since the owners and players now share the wealth on a basis of roughly 50-50.