NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell has talked about expanding the NFL regular season to 18 games on multiple occasions recently and the NFL Players Association had a chance to respond from New Orleans on Wednesday.
In his opening comments at a press conference, NFLPA executive director Lloyd Howell referenced comments Goodell has made about improvements in player safety making a move to expand the season possible. Austin said "we're not sure how he's reaching that conclusion based on the data we've been given access to" and said "players are feeling the physical toll" of the move from 16 to 17 games.
Austin noted that the length of the season is a CBA-negotiated decision and that there have only been informal conversations about opening talks before the current collective bargaining agreement is up in 2030.
"Their side hasn't raised it, we certainly haven't raised it. . . . Any commentary outside of a formal negotiation is just commentary," Howell said. "It’s a players decision as to what they will agree to do or not. Right now when I have talked to players over the last two seasons, no one wants to play an 18th game. No one. 17 games, for many of the guys, is too long."
All that said, there are likely concessions the league can make in order to get agreement on going to 18 games. Neither Austin nor any of the players in attendance shared any details of what they'd be willing to negotiate about, but Austin mentioned issues like recovery time, the number of bye weeks, the offseason calendar, international games, and roster size before getting to one that looms over all the rest.
“Then we get to the economics," Howell said. "If I'm asking my workforce to work more, it's not as simple as I'm gonna fall back on the revenue split that already exists. . . . There are so many dimensions that hang off the length of the season."
It's unclear when formal conversations about adding an 18th game might begin, but the union laid out a lot of things that need to be discussed before anything is enacted.
