NFL Confidential: Why 18-Game Regular Season Remains a Hard Sell for Players and Coaches
#NFL #18-game season #regular season #owners #coaches #revenue #injury risk #TV rights
📌 Key Takeaways
- NFL owners are pushing for an 18-game regular season to increase revenue and meet fan demand, with support from figures like Clark Hunt and Jerry Jones.
- Coaches and players express concerns that an 18-game schedule could dilute game quality and increase injury risks, making it a hard sell.
- The league has already expanded its schedule and postseason in recent years, including adding a 17th game and more international matches.
- The proposal is tied to ongoing TV rights negotiations, as more games offer greater inventory for broadcasting deals.
📖 Full Retelling
PHOENIX — An 18-game,regular-season schedule seems like an inevitability after listening to NFL owners discuss the topic during the league’s owners meeting at the Arizona Biltmore Hotel in Phoenix this past week. In fact, owners of multiple teams flat-out said they want to add another regular-season game to the ever-growing NFL slate. "Growing the number of international games, that’s something we’re very supportive of," Kansas City Chiefs owner Clark Hunt told reporters. "From a schedule dynamic, having 18 games would facilitate that." Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones said expanding to 18 games is just a matter of giving fans what they want – more football. "When the ducks quack, feed them," Jones told reporters in Arizona this week. "And we have that demand for our game because of the hard work of our great players that we have. We have that demand. We should address it, respond to it and feed it." The NFL transitioned to 17 games and three preseason games in 2021. But with the league engaging in talks to renegotiate the NFL’s TV package with networks and streaming services, having more games to add to that inventory creates more revenue and opportunities to make more money. More football is great for everybody, right? Well, not so fast. Here's what I've learned after hearing other people speak in Arizona and talking to other people around the league about the possibility of adding an 18th regular-season game. NFL coaches say 18 games ‘will water down the product’ If the NFL added another game to the regular season, it would be just its latest move to expand the product over the last decade. Since 2020, the league has expanded its postseason from 12 to 14 teams, added annual games on Christmas Day and continues to increase the number of games played internationally. Of course, that's also on top of adding a 17th regular-season game. [4 Takeaways From the NFL Owners Meeting in Phoenix] With all the expansion, particularly the two teams added to the postseason field
🏷️ Themes
NFL Expansion, Player Welfare
📚 Related People & Topics
Hard sell
Type of advertisement
In advertising, a hard sell is an advertisement or campaign that uses a more direct, forceful, and overt sales message, as opposed to a soft sell. The term is also used to describe aggressive sales techniques used by company representatives, particularly in the context of doorstep selling.
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PHOENIX — An 18-game,regular-season schedule seems like an inevitability after listening to NFL owners discuss the topic during the league’s owners meeting at the Arizona Biltmore Hotel in Phoenix this past week. In fact, owners of multiple teams flat-out said they want to add another regular-season game to the ever-growing NFL slate. "Growing the number of international games, that’s something we’re very supportive of," Kansas City Chiefs owner Clark Hunt told reporters. "From a schedule dynamic, having 18 games would facilitate that." Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones said expanding to 18 games is just a matter of giving fans what they want – more football. "When the ducks quack, feed them," Jones told reporters in Arizona this week. "And we have that demand for our game because of the hard work of our great players that we have. We have that demand. We should address it, respond to it and feed it." The NFL transitioned to 17 games and three preseason games in 2021. But with the league engaging in talks to renegotiate the NFL’s TV package with networks and streaming services, having more games to add to that inventory creates more revenue and opportunities to make more money. More football is great for everybody, right? Well, not so fast. Here's what I've learned after hearing other people speak in Arizona and talking to other people around the league about the possibility of adding an 18th regular-season game. NFL coaches say 18 games ‘will water down the product’ If the NFL added another game to the regular season, it would be just its latest move to expand the product over the last decade. Since 2020, the league has expanded its postseason from 12 to 14 teams, added annual games on Christmas Day and continues to increase the number of games played internationally. Of course, that's also on top of adding a 17th regular-season game. [4 Takeaways From the NFL Owners Meeting in Phoenix] With all the expansion, particularly the two teams added to the postseason field
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