The interim head of the NFL Players Association has not had any conversations with league commissioner Roger Goodell about a move to an 18-game schedule.
Having expanded the season from 16 games to 17 in 2021, with the number of preseason games lowered from four to three, it has long been thought that the NFL will eventually look to an add an 18th game.
In February, Goodell said an 18-game regular season with just two preseason games “might be a possibility”, pointing to data that showed concussions at a historically low level in 2024.
Then-NFLPA executive director Lloyd Howell Jr. quickly pushed back, saying: “No one wants to play an 18th game. No one. Seventeen games is already, for many of the guys, too long.”
A further expansion to the season would require the NFL and the NFLPA to renegotiate the NFL Collective Bargaining Agreement, which does not expire until March 2031.
Howell stepped down from his position in July, saying: “It’s clear that my leadership has become a distraction.”
He was replaced by David White last month, with the interim executive director dismissing the thought that a move to an 18-game schedule is a foregone conclusion following the expansion to 17.
White told The Associated Press: “The league has the right to bring any issue they want to the table and, presumably, to propose what they’re willing to give to receive what they want in negotiation but we’ll see when that happens.
“We haven’t talked about it yet, and it certainly is not inevitable and should not be presented as such.”
