NFL chief Roger Goodell believes adding an 18th game to the calendar is a ‘logical step’ for the league.
But the commissioner confirmed that the NFL would only change its schedule with the blessing of its players.
All 32 teams currently play 17 games – with one bye week – between September and January, before the top 14 compete in the postseason.
The possibility of adding more games to the calendar has been discussed for some time and on Friday, Goodell said there is ‘potential’ to expanding the regular season.
‘If we continue to focus on the safety, I think 18 is a potential,’ the commissioner told Bloomberg. ‘We would take a preseason game away. So we would keep within that 20-game framework.
‘We actually started at 14 games and six preseason. We went to 16 and four, and now 17 and three (from 2021).
NFL chief Roger Goodell believes adding an 18th game to the calendar is a ‘logical step’
Goodell confirmed the NFL would only change its schedule with the blessing of its players
‘So 18 and two is a logical step. But we would only do that with the players (in agreement).’
Goodell also discussed the idea of expanding the NFL beyond 32 teams by forming entirely new conferences overseas.
The NFL is expecting to hold a record eight games outside the United States during the 2025 season, taking football to places such as Madrid and London.
‘Our hope would be at some stage to get to 16 (overseas) games in the next few years,’ Goodell said before being asked about the possibility of basing a team outside the US.
‘We have 32 now. We think that’s a really good number for the NFL. But also, we would probably look at it potentially as building out by divisions as opposed to individual teams,’ he said.
‘You have a lot of issues with a team that’s in — say Europe — and having to travel over playing — games and teams going back over to Europe to play — I think the competitive issues still need to be worked out.’
