With NFLPA in disarray, NFL keeps pushing for 18 games

The NFL Players Association is currently in disarray, offering voluntary buyouts to half of its employees in advance of possible if not likely layoffs. Coincidentally, or not, the NFL is currently ramping up the rhetoric about adding an 18th regular-season game.

On the heels of the NFLPA sending out buyout offers, Commissioner Roger Goodell called a shift from 17 regular-season games and three preseason games to 18 and two "a logical step."

Appearing over the weekend on Jason Kelce's ESPN late-night show, Goodell was asked whether the regular season will once again expand.

"I would say I think we probably will because, one, I think restructuring and getting away from preseason games is a good thing; I think you guys agree with that, right?" Goodell said, drawing applause from the live audience. "And two, I think we've made enough changes to the game -- both the offseason and during the season -- from a health and safety standpoint."

When Goodell first started pushing for 18 regular-season games more than a decade ago, he focused on the low quality of preseason games to justify sliding the needle on the 20-game pre- and regular-season slate. Because more football didn't mesh with the league's health-and-safety epiphany, 18 games became 17.

Now, 17 will soon become 18.

NFLPA executive director Lloyd Howell isn’t resisting it. Which of course will make it harder to get the best possible deal for the players.

Regardless, more money for the league means more money for the players means more money for the union, which currently is in a money crunch (thanks in part to breaching its contract with Panini) and would benefit from. say, increased rosters and more union members and more dues being paid.