Colts' Carlie Irsay-Gordon in Favor of 18-Game Season

The NFL moved away from a 16-game schedule in 2021, the first intentional alteration to a season's duration in 42 seasons.

With five seasons of a 17-game schedule in the books, the league is evaluating the implementation of an 18-game season, something Indianapolis Colts' owner Carlie Irsay-Gordon is a fan of.

“I think, as long as the players want it, which I think they would, because it would mean more revenue, and I think ultimately a better product," Irsay-Gordon said. "I think it’s reasonable and something we should work towards."

Colts owner Carlie Irsay-Gordon (blue background) talks to the local media. — Carlie Irsay-Gordon speaks with media Monday, Jan. 5, 2026, during a press conference held at the Indianapolis Colts practice facility. Irsay-Gordon, the co-owner and CEO of the Colts, addressed questions about the team retaining head coach Shane Steichen and general manager Chris Ballard. | Mykal McEldowney/IndyStar / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

The issue Irsay-Gordon referenced regarding the player's desire is a current obstacle to the potential schedule increase. The NFL Players Association's interim executive director, David White, has already expressed the collective disinterest from the group.

"Our members have no appetite for a regular=season 18th game," White said. "The 18th game is not casual for us. It's a very serious issue. It's something that comes out of negotiations, and nothing will move forward until players have the opportunity to account for all of those factors."

The current collective bargaining agreement between the NFL's owners and the NFLPA isn't set to expire until March 2031. No decisions to expand the schedule can occur unless the NFLPA agrees to open negotiations ahead of that period.

"An arbitrary statement carries no weight," NFLPA president Jalen Reeves-Maybin said. "It's a free country. People could say what they like, but ... is it increasingly inevitable? ... The answer is absolutely not. It's a point of negotiation."

If the NFL reworks its 11-year, $110 billion media deals, it could impact everything from a push for an 18-game schedule to more international games.

Roger Goodell and the NFL have already signaled a desire to rework those deals.
— Front Office Sports (@FOS) December 30, 2025

The biggest hurdle for the league and its players to overcome is the likely increase in injuries that would follow suit with an expanded season. This is something Irsay-Gordon is aware of, but believes can be dealt with through continued innovation of team's offseason regiments.

“Another game means more impact on the body, so I think we need to just make sure we’re continuing to innovate with our method and approach during the offseason program,” Irsay-Gordon said. “We’ve improved a lot with the ramp-up period to training camp, because a lot of injuries go down there.”

In meeting with all 32 NFL owners in Phoenix, Arizona this past week for the annual league owners meeting, Irsay-Gordon also added that she is in favor of the NFL's preseason despite it not being the league's most marketable product.

"Preseason is, as far as the fan product goes, I know the commissioner’s been open that it’s not the best product that we have," Irsay-Gordon said. "I would say, for development of our team, I don’t think we can get rid of it.”

The NFL shrunk the preseason from four games to three when it moved to a 17-game season in 2021.

New England Patriots' owner Robert Kraft has detailed that growing the schedule to 18 games would decrease the preseason once more, down to just two games. He also added that each team will play at least one international game each year.

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Why doesn't the 2028 Super Bowl in Atlanta have a date yet?

🤔🤔🤔#NFL pic.twitter.com/7bDZ6a8n1U
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Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk believes the NFL will leverage the 2031 expiration of the collective bargaining agreement to get players to agree to an increased schedule.

Last May, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell called into question the "integrity" of the league's cap space system.

"We did spend time today talking, at length, about areas of our Collective Bargaining Agreement that we want to focus on," Goodell said. "The two areas that we spent time on were really the cap system itself, the integrity of that system, how’s it working, where do we need to address that in the context of collective bargaining, when that does happen. That was a very lengthy discussion.”

The league's owners currently have a nearly 50-50 split between them and the players regarding how revenue is divided among the two parties.

A move to 18-games both increases total revenue for all parties, but specifically for an ownership group that has to take on paying all the league's expenses as well.

Florio's belief is that Goodell and the NFL would look to change that split with the players and the NFLPA to benefit the league's owners at a higher rate than the players, citing expenses as the main justification.

In pursuit of an 18-game schedule, Florio stated that keeping the ~50-50 split would be the NFL's "compromise" if the players were to agree to a larger schedule.

“If the league's like, ‘We really want to change this model. I'm only sticking with 50-50 if you go to 18 because we need more revenue. We need more revenue to maintain this model. You choose. But let's go to 18 and we'll continue to give you a half, at least for now,' " Florio said.

"They're eventually going to be on one of the networks or streamers every night of the week."

—@ProFootballTalk and @PabloTorre on the NFL's masterplan to take over every day of the week pic.twitter.com/NPF4uakIiE
— Pablo Torre Finds Out (@pablofindsout) March 24, 2026

The Irsay family has often been among the more open-minded of the league's owners. It was the late Jim Irsay who was vocal about voting former Washington Commanders owner Dan Snyder out of the league.

In 2024, the team proposed a rule that would allow head coaches to challenge any referee penalty call with under two minutes remaining in a half.

In 2022, the Colts and Philadelphia Eagles were the two teams to jointly propose both teams in a postseason game receiving an offensive possession in overtime, a proposal that was ratified by a vote of 29-3.

To see Irsay-Gordon advocating for an 18-game schedule is a solid indication that the process is a matter of if, not when. While the NFLPA can put up a fight, the league's union may be left with no other choice but to accept the newly formatted season.

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