Changes are coming to the NFL, and those changes will almost certainly include more games. As in, a 17th regular-season game and expanding the playoffs from 12 teams to 14.
“It’s been inevitable probably for six or eight years,” NFL analyst Peter King said on The DA Show. “I don’t think it helps the quality of football at all. I just think it helps the owners get richer, and it helps the players make some of this money also. I think the big issue is who is crying for more playoff games, more playoff teams? It’s like candy. When the Wild Card weekend comes next year, instead of two Wild Card games per conference, now there’s going to be three. Nobody’s crying for these games because the two teams that would have made the playoffs, neither deserved to make the playoffs.”
That would be the Steelers and the Rams, who finished 8-8 and 9-7, respectively.
“It’s a money grab for the owners,” King said. “That’s what this is. It’s not because they want to make the sport of football any better. It’s that they want to make more money.”
An extra regular-season game, meanwhile, could result in more international games for the NFL.
“The devil is in the details,” King said. “Part of it, obviously, is having this 17th game. So if there is a 17th game, what form exactly will that take? There’s been a lot of discussion that that 17th game will make it so much easier for the NFL to schedule and to program teams overseas because there’s this extra game. Now they’re going to have to figure out what to do with it. Are all 32 teams going to play a neutral-site game? Are some teams going to get an extra home game one year and an extra road game another year? Those are details that we just don’t know yet.”