By Frank Pingue
SAN FRANCISCO, Feb 3 (Reuters) – The NFLPA pushed back on Tuesday against the idea of expanding the regular season to 18 games, warning that players see little upside and significant long-term risk in adding to an already punishing schedule.
National Football League Players Association Interim Director David White cited injuries suffered during the opening round of this season’s playoffs as an example of what an extra regular-season game could cost players.
“Our members have no appetite for an 18-game regular season,” White told reporters during the NFLPA’s annual pre-Super Bowl press conference ahead of Sunday’s championship game between the New England Patriots and Seattle Seahawks.
“Those injuries they cost players pay, they can shorten careers, they can diminish lifetime earnings. And when your average (NFL) career is already 3-4 years that becomes something that is existential.”
White’s comments came a day after NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said in a news conference that the league has not held formal talks with the players’ union about an extra regular-season game.
They also followed remarks by New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft who two weeks ago confidently spoke about the league expanding to 18 games and having each team play one international game per season.
White said while players understand the added exposure international games offer there are also concerns about what he called an “arbitrary approach” with some clubs flying out well in advance and others the day before.
“We do have some sense of what makes a positive experience when you’re traveling internationally, what makes a positive experience when you’re traveling a long time, and the time that you need before you get back in the ring to get run over by freight trains, which is what these well-honed bodies are doing,” said White.
“So that’s what’s going to be important to us — how they’re rolling that out and how the players are experiencing that and making sure that the players are at the center of that feedback.”
Expanding the 17-game season would require the league and union to renegotiate the current NFL collective bargaining agreement, which expires in March 2031.
But given the NFLPA said the majority of players see a lot of difficulties with international travel there is little desire to open the contract.
“I don’t think the union is in any rush or player membership is in a rush to open that deal,” said NFLPA President Jalen Reeves-Maybin.
“If the league wants to get in a situation where they want to have conversations that would be something we could open our ears to but we are not being proactive in that.”
(Reporting by Frank Pingue; Additional reporting by Angelica MedinaEditing by Toby Davis)
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