In an appearance on the Pat McAfee Show on Friday, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell voiced his desire to the see the league move to an 18-game regular season.
The idea of an 18-game season has seemed "inevitable" ever since the NFL moved to an 18-game schedule in 2021, and in fact many believed that 17 was just an incremental step toward the ultimate goal (for now) of 18.
As Goodell explained, expanding to 18 would fall in line with many of the NFL's priorities:
-- More money
-- Reducing the preseason (Goodell said he would eliminate the entire preseason if it were up to him)
-- More money
-- Adding another bye week to expand the NFL calendar
-- More money
-- Another bye week would create flexibility to further the NFL's international expansion, arguably the league's top priority at the moment
-- And, finally, more money
"I'd rather replace a preseason game with a regular season game any day. If we got to 18 and two (preseason games), that's not an unreasonable thing," Goodell said. "That ends up on President's Day weekend, which is a 3-day weekend. (The game) is Sunday night, and then you have Monday off."
The bigger the NFL has gotten, the hungrier for more it becomes. Rather that cement itself as the No. 1 professional sports league in North America (and, in time, the world), it increasingly seems as if the NFL wants to be the only professional sports league in North America.
The topic didn't come up during the McAfee interview, but it surely wouldn't have broken Goodell's heart to learn the NBA All-Star Game just so happens to fall on the Sunday before Presidents Day.
The NFL has already taken Christmas from the NBA; its Christmas Eve and Christmas Day games averaged nearly 30 million viewers this past year, while the NBA's 5-game slate fell below 3 million. The NFL announced earlier this year it would again play a Christmas doubleheader this December despite the holiday falling on a Wednesday.
"I think we've looked for those opportunities where we can create an event out of it. Holidays... that's what we do," Goodell said. "I don't ask permission (from the NBA). We go where the fans are."
And of course, the interview came during the NFL draft, which overshadows the first round of the NBA and NHL playoffs during the final weekend each April.
As always, stay tuned to The Scoop for the latest.