17 games “likely, not definitively” part of potential new CBA

Posted by Mike Florio on January 11, 2020, 6:51 PM EST
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As the NFL’s 100th season moves toward a conclusion, the NFL and NFL Players Association may be moving toward a new Collective Bargaining Agreement.

Per a source with knowledge of the situation, there’s a deal to be done now, if the economics can be worked out. And the thinking remains that the NFL would very much like the economics to get worked out, and to get a deal done, before the Super Bowl.

The biggest complicating factor regarding economics comes from the NFL’s desire to expand the regular season from 16 to 17 games. Per the source, a 17-game season is “likely, not definitively” part of the new deal.

Underscoring the momentum toward a 17-game season? The source explained that, if the regular season were to remain at 16 games, the new CBA already will be done.

So will it be done? If the two sides can work out the money that would be associated with a 17-game season, yes. And even if it doesn’t happen before the Super Bowl, March remains an important window for both sides, for reasons to be explained in a later post.

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36 responses to “17 games “likely, not definitively” part of potential new CBA”

  3. Get rid of conferences and divisions… and just have one singular league where every team plays 16 different opponents.(or 17 if that’s what they want)

    Tired of seeing same teams play same divisions. I want as many different opponents as possible for everyone. Helps balance strength of schedule, makes it more fun for fans to see their team play more of the league in a much shorter timespan. And the playoffs are simply by record… no automatic playoff spots. Playoffs won’t end up with a crappy NFC East team hosting a team that had 3 more wins than them during the season.

    Admit it, it’s much better than what the NFL(and all sports) currently do.

  10. just stupid! greedy bastards don’t give a poop about the players psychical toll it takes on the athletes body!

  11. Adding a game would have to require expanding the gameday rosters, right?
    That’s my thought also, increase the roster and salary cap. Seems like both sides would see more money, and that’s what it is all about.

  13. Almost all players who have spoken publicly on this have said “NO” to 17 games. Let’s see if the union leaders will go with what the players want or will they do what the owners want. Are those that are negotiating for the players union going to have to play in the extra game or are they retired where they will not have to play? I assume players will have to approve any agreement with 17 games. That will be interesting.

  15. I’m okay with adding a regular season game as long as they get rid of at least one, and preferably two, of those execrable exhibition games (I refuse to call them “preseason.”) Those things are a total ripoff, and are nothing but glorified scrimmages with mostly third and fourth string players. Yet, the owners have the chutzpah to charge full prices for those abominations. Nobody needs more than two exhibition games. Stop cheating the fans, NFL.

  16. In the previous CBA, the owners wanted to give Goodell more power to suspend and fine players. The players said no way, the owners gave the players a slightly larger percentage of the TV revenue, and 31 of the 32 teams voted to approve the CBA (the Steelers were the only team that voted down the CBA). How did that work out for the players?

    People here say the owners are greedy. They aren’t the only ones. Give the players a little more money and they will go for 17 games. And they won’t much care about the pensions of players who played before the current NFL athletes were born. Greed will win out on both sides.

  17. NFL and NFLPA are run by sleazeballs. It’s a cartel.

    Want to hear a joke? They both care about player safety.

  19. Actually they should expand it to 18 games. As it is, it takes 4 games before the teams are close to being in game shape because the preseason and off-season workouts and practices are a joke. So we get 12 games. Increase the season to 18 so maybe we can have 14.

  20. Each team should play a 15 game on a 17 week schedule giving them 2 bye weeks during the season. 8 home games and 7 away. This would help with players health specially seeing that a lot of the guys are getting hurt toward the end of the season. With that being said, Add two more teams to the playoffs. The two #1 seeds would be the only ones to get the first week off.

  22. I think they should go to a 20 game schedule, eliminate preseason, expand rosters and require players to be inactive for at least 4 games per season. Win for everyone. No more rip off preseason games, better competition as better teams will sit their best players vs poor teams. Players will only have to play sixteen games. Expanded rosters means more players. Another level of strategy.

  25. With 17 teams below .500 this season and such bad officiating instead of putting so much emphasis on putting more product on the field(17 ganes), they should be putting all that effort into improving the product that is on the field, PERIOD!

  26. This is so simple to get more money and not add games to the regular season. How about an 18 week season with two bye weeks? This is smart. The players and owners get more money. The players get more rest and the fans see more football. It’s a win-win-win!

  27. How do you balance revenue for home games on a 17 game schedule? Half the teams will have one more home game, and the other half will be forced to play one additional road game. Yeah, this makes sense, said no one, ever.

  28. I support Mr. Goodell and whatever he wants to do because he is among the most woke people I associate with.

  29. So I gather 8 home games 8 away games and 1 neutral site game. In other words an international game for every team per year.

  31. They should expand the season to 19 weeks.
    – 17 Game schedule
    – 8 home , 8 away.
    – 1 neutral site game for each team. (Random non conference opponent)
    – 2 Bye weeks for each team.
    – Every team plays their Thursday night game coming off a BYE week.
    – 19 football Sundays of NFL Redzone for the fans

  34. NFL sees that their in-person attendance is losing steam to people preferring to watch at home. Their counter punch is to increase the schedule by 1 game, which in result increases their revenue in two ways:
    1. The traditional method of having an additional game of television revenue.
    2. Forcing each team to play that extra game at a neutral site to keep the competitive balance “fair”, which means that they get to try to increase their markets in Mexico/Europe more freely.

    The NFL is seeing how much of a global impact the NBA has been able to create (not to mention an insane television deal) and they want a larger piece of the international pie.

  35. Been saying this for over 7 years now! Extra games played in cities with no fooTball, Vancouver, Montreal, Toronto, Portland, Sacramento, San Antonio, Rome, Munich, Paris, Madrid or Barcelona and a few cities in Midwset like Omaha, Des Monies…

  36. The 17th game should be scheduled after the first 6 weeks of the regular season. Cherry-picked matchups pitting the most (and least) exciting teams against each other. Send the garbage games overseas, play the others in San Antonio, San Diego, St. Louis, Hawaii, Alaska etc. Or have AFC matchups in NFC stadiums, or vice-versa

    OR just quit trying to chase every last filthy penny and start trying to fix inconsistent officialting and league discipline, and player safety. That Seahawks-Eagles game had something like 20 starters missing, we want to see the best go at it, not a bunch of also-rans learning on the job

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