Commissioner Goodell made headlines 10 days ago at the Draft in Detroit when he said he was not a big fan of preseason games. Fans, alumni, and active players have been saying the same thing for many years.
Senior alumni may recall playing six preseason games in intense summer heat for little financial reward as recently as the mid-1970s.
The number of preseason games was reduced to four when the owners and players union agreed to a 16-game regular season schedule starting in 1978.
The current CBA was signed in 2020 and it gave the owners the option to increase the number of regular season games to 17 so long as the preseason schedule was lowered to three games. The league exercised that option the following season during the height of the COVID pandemic. This upcoming season will be the fourth time there is a 17-3 game format.
Commissioner Goodell made his remarks about preseason games while being interviewed by former Colts punter Pat McAfee on the NFL alum’s popular ESPN TV-radio show.
“I think we’re good at 17 regular season games right now,” Goodell said, “but we’re looking at how we can continue to improve. I’m not a fan of the preseason. I don’t think we need three preseason games. I don’t buy it…and I don’t think the fans do either. I’d rather replace a preseason game with a regular season game any day. So, if we got to 18 and two preseason games, that’s not an unreasonable thing.”
It is not clear how the new NFLPA leadership would react if the owners approached them about changing the CBA, which right now runs through 2030. Lloyd Howell, a Booz Allen Hamilton executive before appointed NFLPA Executive Director last June, and Lions linebacker Jalen Reeves-Maybin, who is the new NFLPA President, are less than a year in office. They certainly would have a shopping list for the owners to consider if negotiations were to begin.
We at NFL Alumni will keep you informed if there are labor negotiations in the near future.
