Report: NFL may shorten preseason, add regular-season or playoff games
The NFL is exploring the revenue implications of shortening the preseason, Pro Football Talk’s Mike Florio reports.
The league is actively “calculating the revenue that would be lost by reducing the preseason by as many as two games” with the intention of compensating for lost revenue by adding regular season or playoff games, Florio reports.
Several notable players suffered season-ending injuries during the preseason this year, including Green Bay Packers receiver Jordy Nelson and Carolina Panthers receiver Kelvin Benjamin.
NFL owners have supported an 18-game regular-season schedule since at least 2010, while commissioner Roger Goodell has repeatedly expressed support for adding two games.
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The NFL players union opposes expanding the regular season to 18 games on player safety grounds.
“I won't let it happen,” union president Eric Winstontold USA Today in 2013. “I don't think any of these other guys are going to let it happen. It's a safety issue. Now, if you're start talking about playoff games, how is that structured? How is that worked out? What are we talking about here? How's that other team getting in? I think it goes to a broad structure and it speaks differently than we're talking about having 32 teams play two more games apiece. That's a very microscopic view of one more playoff team (per conference), and that's something that will be looked at and looked at hard by the players because there are some guys that might want it. But if it's some broad stroke, then we're probably not going to go for it.”
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- Dan Gartland
