Roger Goodell wants NFL season to run to Presidents' Day – creating three-day Super Bowl weekend

NFL commissioner Roger Goodell said Friday that he is "not a fan of the preseason" and would prefer to replace one of the three weeks of preseason play with an 18th regular-season game − something that has been a hot-button issue for players and their union in recent years.

In an appearance on "The Pat McAfee Show" on ESPN, Goodell said the NFL does not have any immediate plans to go to an 18-game schedule, a move that would of course have to be collectively bargained with the NFL Players Association. But he floated the idea of an eventual 18-game schedule in which Super Bowl weekend would align with Presidents' Day weekend, which means many fans would have the Monday after the game off.

"I think we're good at 17 now. But listen, we're looking at how we continue," Goodell said on ESPN. "I'm not a fan of the preseason. ... And I don't think these guys [the fans] like it, either.

"But the reality is: I'd rather replace a preseason game with a regular-season (game) any day. That's just picking quality, right? So if we got to 18 (regular-season games) and 2 (preseason games), that's not an unreasonable thing."

The league office has shown a continued interest in adding games to the schedule, in part because of the significant television revenue that comes with each additional game.

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In 2020, the NFL expanded the playoff field from 12 teams to 14, which added two more playoff games to the schedule. And in 2021, it went from a 16-game regular season to a 17-game regular season following the ratification of a new collective bargaining agreement with the players' union.

Any future expansion of the schedule would again have to be negotiated with players, many of whom have expressed concerns that longer seasons will lead to more injuries. In the most recent round of CBA negotiations, the NFL attempted to assuage some of these concerns by offering players a slightly larger chunk of the revenue and making other concessions, such as the expansion of gameday rosters and a reduction in training camp practices.

On Friday's appearance with Pat McAfee, which followed the conclusion of the first round of the NFL draft on Thursday night, Goodell also touched on another hot-button issue that figures to loom over the league's future hopes for expansion: The possible increase in international games, and maybe even a team or division eventually being based overseas.

Goodell said the NFL believes "we can become a global sport" and sees at least 16 games per season being played abroad "at some point in time."

"Will (an international) franchise ever happen, or a division? Maybe," he told McAfee. "I think that's beyond 10 years, though."

Contact Tom Schad at [email protected] or on social media @Tom_Schad.