18-Game Regular Season Schedule Still Under Consideration By Roger Goodell

One of the sticking points for the NFLPA in the collective bargaining agreement negotiations last summer was the length of the regular season. NFL commissioner Roger Goodell and the owners seemed to want the regular season to shift to 18 games, thereby creating more revenue. The players, on the other hand, preferred for the schedule to stay at 16 games, as a longer regular season could easily shorten their long-term careers.

Although the NFLPA did prevail on this issue in the negotiations last summer, the agreement was that the length of the regular season could be reevaluated at a later date. I highly doubt the players have changed their minds about lengthening the regular season (which is the only way it could change), and it's pretty clear Roger Goodell hasn't, either.

"Well I appreciate the enthusiasm for it and I hear it from the fans consistently. People want more football. I think they want less preseason and more regular season and that’s the concept we are talking about here. We wouldn’t add an extra two games without reducing the preseason and we are not going to do it without the players support, so we did that in the collective bargaining agreement instead of having the unilateral right, which we had. We determined that we were going to do this together. We are going to make changes in the offseason and during the preseason and during the regular season to make the game safer. If we can accomplish that we’ll look at the idea of restructuring the season and taking two preseason games away and the potential of adding regular season games, but I don’t think that will happen until at least 2013 or 14."

Personally, I want a shorter preseason and the regular season to remain the way it is. More football is not always a good thing. To me, part of the reason the NFL is so popular is because you only get 16 regular season games. Each one is highly anticipated. Perhaps adding only two wouldn't change that in the long run, but I like the way things are right now for the regular season.