Even though the NFL and NFLPA pushed across a Collective Bargaining Agreement that didn’t finalize a 17-game schedule for 2020, there has long been an inevitability regarding adding another game to the league’s schedule.
So it comes as no surprise that the topic is coming up in the latest round of owners meetings:
The 12th league meeting of the year is currently underway. Among the issues to be discussed is a potential 17th game next year…
— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) December 16, 2020
As was the case when the new CBA went into effect last March, the earliest a 17-game schedule can be enacted is 2021. But because that was pushed through before the pandemic went into full swing in the United States, there is some uncertainty regarding how quickly the NFL can put together a 17-game schedule for itself and its media partners. In the wise words of the Wu-Tang Clan, “cash rules everything around me … C.R.E.A.M … get the money, dolla dollar bills, y’all.” So long as the NFL has big-money media deals on the table, there will be a desire to add more games to satisfy those partners’ financial investments in the league. More on that later today.
Whether it comes to a vote during this meeting is pretty much irrelevant. What matters here is that it’s still at the core of league talks. And if it feels like we’ve been traveling this path for a while, that’s because that’s what’s been happening. It started in September 2019 when NFL owners dropped their proposal of an 18-game season for 17 games (with expanded playoffs). The league has since pushed through an expanded postseason schedule thanks to a new CBA. However, it has yet to come around to finalizing a future with a 17-game schedule. But that they’re still talking about it tells us that it’s still a real possibility.