Two years ago, the NFL got its long-coveted wish for an expanded regular season. Which meant a reduced preseason.
As the third season of a three-game preseason commences tonight with a pair of games (Texans-Patriots, Vikings-Seahawks), it’s fair to ask when it will happen again.
And it will happen again, at some point. The NFL wanted 18 regular-season games and two preseason games all along. It accepted 17 and three in response to withering scrutiny regarding the contradiction between inflating the regular season and promoting player safety.
The NFL jammed the extra regular-season game into the latest Collective Bargaining Agreement. It probably will try to add another regular-season game into the next one, early next decade.
Will the players refuse to do it? And will the owners want another game badly enough to lock the players out over it until they cry uncle?
The broader goal, when it comes to making the game safer and safer and safer, could be to make it safe enough that the league can then say, “Let’s play 18.” And if/when the league moves the regular season to 18 and the preseason to two, the question becomes whether the push will continue.
Money drives the bus. And regular-season games generate far more money than preseason games.
When making the case for 18 and two, the NFL argued that the season consists of 20 games. In 1978, the split of 14 and six moved to 16 and four. In 2021, it moved to 17 and three.
Next stop, 18 and two.
Next stop, 19 and one.
Next stop, 20 and none.
When, not if. Although when might be decades away, when is coming. Eventually.