My Thoughts on a Possible 18-Game NFL Regular Season

The 2024 NFL Draft kicked off on Thursday, April 25, 2024, with the opening round, and during the coverage of the Draft, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell was interviewed. The interview saw something I had seen coming for a few years now: Goodell mentioned the possibility of the NFL's regular season increasing from 17 games to 18 games.

For several decades, the number of regular season games was quite erratic. It would be 12 games some years, then 11, then 10, then back to 11 before going up to 12 again. Beginning in 1961, the NFL played a 14-game regular season; the number of weeks changed, but the game total didn't, even after the merger in 1970. It was in 1978 that the NFL started playing a 16-game regular season, and with the exception of a slightly strike-shortened 1987 season that saw 15 games played, 16 games was the norm until the league added a 17th game beginning with the 2021 season.

When Game #17 was added, I knew it was a matter of time before we would hear talk of an 18th game being added. For one, I'm a CFL fan. The CFL has an 18-game regular season that follows two weeks of preseason. When the NFL added a 17th game, they took one game from preseason. According to Goodell's proposal, they would do it again for the 18th game, which I would think would be fine with most fans, myself included. The fans don't really care about preseason. It's not really necessary.

So what would be the results of an 18-game regular season? For one, more international games, according to Goodell. I do love the international games, because I live in the West Coast, and that means NFL football at very early hours in the morning. Also, we would see a Week 19 added to the schedule, which would be a complete first in NFL history. As it stands now, Week 16 is the Christmas week, Week 17 is the New Year's week, and Week 18 is the current finale that falls after the New Year's celebrations are done. If we get an 18th game, we'll see Week 19 played during MLK Weekend, and the playoffs would start that following weekend.

Which brings us to the Super Bowl. Under this proposal, the Super Bowl would be played on the third Sunday in February, during Presidents' Day Weekend. As it stands now, Super Bowl LIX--the championship game for this upcoming season--will take place on February 9, 2025, which will be the fourth season that the big game takes place on the second Sunday in February. They won't make the change now, but if they did, the Super Bowl would take place on February 16, 2025, and it would also mean that Championship Sunday would be in February for the first time ever.

So how would a team's 18-game season play out. I do have some ideas. I would definitely think that the division games would increase; a team could play their division rival three times each, which would total nine division games--which is half of the season. As for the other nine games, they can keep the interconference rotation of playing four games against a division from the other conference. Regarding the rest of the conference games, five remain. They could play four of them against one of the other three divisions, and then the remaining conference game would be against a team from either of the two divisions--who finished in the same placement. 18 games also means the home and road games would be even at nine each, but with nine division games, it would be interesting to figure out the home field advantages in those season series.

I love this idea! I know it won't happen this year, but I can see the NFL increasing their regular season schedule of games from 17 to 18, and making their preseason two weeks long. At this point, it's the logical route. Yes, it's a money grab, but it's a sensible money grab, and I hope that we see this happen withing the next three seasons.