“CTE about to do a number on the league” – NFL’s aspirations to expand the season to 18 regular-season games doesn’t sit well with football fans on social media

NFL executives are planning to add an extra game to the regular season.

“CTE about to do a number on the league” – NFL’s aspirations to expand the season to 18 regular-season games doesn’t sit well with football fans on social media

Rodger Goodell (Image via IMAGO)

The NFL has not abandoned the idea of hosting a season with 18 games. Presently, the league authority hosts league with 17 games in each season. It has been increased from 16 earlier. Now, Commissioner Roger Goodell is reportedly planning to increase the number by one game again.

The proposal is not new. Nearly three years back (in 2021) the NFL came up with the idea of extending the number of games to 18 by 2025. But, in the same year, the league ended up increasing the number of games from 16 to 17.

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Now, the proposal is again doing rounds. According to Marca, the NFL authority is trying to pursue more profit, and hence they are keeping the health concerns of the players at stake. The decision has met with severe criticism and backlash.

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Last year, the audience witnessed a lot of injuries occurring in the league. Multiple quarterbacks were ruled out due to Achilles injuries. In addition, other players were also subjected to a lot of injuries. In this context, the proposal to increase the game numbers to 18 did not go well with fans and experts. Several people asked about the issue of players’ welfare. They further questioned the intentions of the league.

Marca’s report further sheds light on the agendas that came out of the meetings of the associates of the team in the league. Andrew Berry, General Manager (GM) of the Cleveland Browns team shared proposals to extend the trade deadline by 14 days. In addition, the 18 games on the roster also remained one of the agendas for the authority.

NFL fans disapproved of the idea of 18 regular season games on social media

The proposal of the NFL authority to extend the number to 18 games triggered a lot of wild reactions from the fans. They disapproved of the idea of the NFL compromising the players’ safety issues for their profit.

Roger Goodell NFL 18 regular season football games
Roger Goodell (Via Imago)

Presently, multiple suggestions are making rounds regarding the 18-game seasons. There are suggestions that the league might increase the number of bye weeks to two concerning the players’ safety. Presently the players get only one bye week with 17 games. If a bye-week gets extended, the players will get some more rest.

However, it was not enough to convince the fans. On Twitter, fans slammed the league for being too greedy. Check out some of the comments that they made on social media.

The NFL authority could end up facing some issues in its expansion plans since the Collective Bargaining Agreement will not expire until 2030. Nevertheless, they can accelerate serious discussions regarding it.

The NFL executives might discuss the plan in the upcoming Annual League Meeting, which is scheduled to happen from March 25 to 27 in Orlando, Florida. Apart from this, many rule changes are expected to be discussed in the meeting.

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