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Joe Flacco has seen the NFL make plenty of changes over the course of his nearly two-decade career.
But as the former Super Bowl MVP prepares for his 19th season, there’s one shift he’d like the league to stay away from: the addition of an 18th regular-season game.
In fact, Flacco favors the NFL’s previous 16-game format, which he experienced throughout the first 13 years of his career before the league expanded to 17 games beginning in 2021. For the 41-year-old, the addition of yet another regular-season game would be a bridge too far, potentially diminishing the postseason product.
“As a player, I loved playing 16 games. And I think the NFL had an awesome formula for 16 games and four rounds of playoffs, and I think it was super competitive,” Flacco told Front Office Sports. “I don’t think people realize that when you have to put guys through an 18-game regular-season schedule. I think what could happen is the playoffs start to suffer and you get teams that are so beat up by that point in the year that they’re not really at their best.”
Still, Flacco conceded that an expansion of the NFL’s regular-season schedule is likely inevitable. While he acknowledged that an 18th game would mean an increase in revenue—and thus, the salary cap—he also warned that it will likely only be a handful of top-level stars who see a noticeable increase in their future paychecks.
“It’s just like every time that there’s more money in the pot,” he said. “It usually goes to two or three guys. It doesn’t get spread out and diluted evenly.”
While most seem to agree that an 18th game is a matter of not “if” but “when,” the subject has remained a hot-button topic in league circles in recent months. That included in the lead-up to this year’s Super Bowl, in which then-NFLPA interim executive director David White made it clear the players “don’t have any appetite” for an additional regular-season game, referring to the matter as “not casual for us.”
Although NFL commissioner Roger Goodell downplayed the league’s desire to expand its schedule at his own pre-Super Bowl conference, multiple owners are already on record regarding their desire to make it happen. That includes powerful figures such as the Cowboys’ Jerry Jones and the Patriots’ Robert Kraft, each of whom has indicated that an 18th regular-season game is on its way.
Considering that any additions to the schedule would need to be negotiated between the NFL and its players, there are clearly still hurdles that need to be cleared before an 18th game comes to fruition. Like most, however, Flacco expects it to happen, even as he continues to warn about the potential pitfalls.
“It’s gotta stop at some point. What happens when we go to 18 [games]? Are they going to want 20? Are they going to want 22?” he said. “The last couple of years, the Super Bowls haven’t really been super competitive. And I think maybe you have to look at that a little bit.”
