An 18-game NFL season is inevitable. And a former NFL Players Association executive believes inevitable will be soon.
George Atallah, who spent 15 years in the inner circles as the NFLPA’s chief of external affairs, was asked on Tuesday whether 18 games will happen before or after 2029.
“I mean, before,” Atallah said on #PFTPM. “My gut tells me before.”
Why before?
“I think there is a massive push by the owners to get to a place where they can time it with the last of the — you know, with the expiration of the TV deals, the upcoming broadcast deals,” Atallah said. “And this 18-game thing, look, a little bit of history. [The NFL] wanted it in 2009. They directly stated that they wanted to lock players out in 2011 which was one of their goals was to get 18 games. The 2011 deal prevented them from doing that and the 2020 deal prevented them from going to 18 without collective bargaining and bargaining a new CBA.”
The current goal will be to get to 18 games for the TV/streaming deals that will replace the current contracts, which the NFL can escape after the 2029 season.
“When you look at the landscape of media and broadcast rights moving forward,” Atallah said, “and this ties in I think to the international opportunity, my gut tells me that they’re gonna want to time a new collective bargaining agreement with 18 games around the broadcast deals or before that so that they can get one last, potentially one last consolidated set of media deals before who knows when the next fracturing of media and streaming is gonna come. And that’s why I think it’s gonna be before.”
The earliest it can happen is 2027, because the Atlanta Super Bowl to be played in February 2028 does not yet have a firm date. If it’s going to happen before 2029, then, it’s coming in 2027 or 2028.
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