The “modern” era of professional football probably started in 1950, with the absorption of the All-America Football Conference into the fledgling National Football League. This brought the Cleveland Browns and their innovative ways into the NFL and changed the league—and its popularity—forever. One could argue the modern NFL was born in 1970 with the American Football League merger, but we favor the 1950 idea.

We bring this up to examine the current movement to extend the NFL regular season to 18 games. The league currently makes about two thirds of its revenue from TV and media rights, so it makes sense to add another week of games to the schedule, financially. Of course, that also increases the chances of player injury, but people still will tune in to watch America’s favorite sport regardless of who is playing, generally.

Here is the trend of expanding the regular season over the decades since that 1950 demarcation line:

  • 1950-1960: 12 games
  • 1961-1977: 14 games
  • 1978-2020: 16 games
  • 2021-present: 17 games

The shift to a 17-game schedule was a weird one, and it makes us all wonder why the league didn’t just continue its trend of increasing the games by 2 when that change was made. So, it kind of makes sense to add an 18th game soon, as it balances things out. Including a second bye week for each team as well would help, perhaps, with the injury risks to players—who will also see an increase in their salary structures, too.

Since the season usually starts right after Labor Day, this would mean the regular season and the postseason would be pushed into January and February, and the idea of having the Super Bowl held annually on Presidents’ Weekend is appealing to most Americans—giving them a federal holiday on the Monday following, since so many people call in “sick” or whatever the day after the Super Bowl, anyway.

Win win? Definitely. The NFL reported revenues approaching $19B in 2023, which was much higher than what MLB and the NBA reported (about $11B each). Football is king in America, and it has been for some time. That brings problems of its own, of course, as we have discussed many times, but it doesn’t change the end result: a lot of money is made for everyone involved … and there seems to be no end in sight for profits.