Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones and New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft have reportedly been leading the charge at the latest collective-bargaining session with the National Football League Players Association that would have the current 16-game schedule moved to 18 games.
On Thursday, Andrew Beaton of the Wall Street Journal reported the players’ union “resisted” the idea, which could create “potentially billions of dollars annually.”
“At the most recent collective bargaining session between the NFL and its players union, Patriots owner Robert Kraft, Cowboys owner Jerry Jones and the league decision-makers proffered one of the most tantalizing ideas in professional football: What about an 18-game regular season?
The idea has been on the owners’ wish list for years because of an upside that’s both simple and lucrative. Two more games might drastically increase revenue. The country’s richest sports league could become even richer.”
Along with an 18-game schedule comes a stipulation that players can only play in sixteen of those games.
This proposal goes to show just how much the league drastically wants to expand the regular season to bring in more revenue for owners and shareholders. But, what about the players and will the rosters be expanded? There are many more questions that need to be answered before that 18-game schedule can even get off the ground.