NFL Players Association interim executive director David White has broken his silence, giving his first interview since taking the job a month ago.
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White spoke with Rob Maaddi of the Associated Press and addressed one of the biggest questions facing the league's future: whether the regular season will expand from 17 to 18 games.
"The league has the right to bring any issue they want to the table and, presumably, to propose what they're willing to give to receive what they want in negotiation but we'll see when that happens," White said. "We haven't talked about it yet, and it certainly is not inevitable and should not be presented as such."
Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk, however, has a different view. Florio writes that 18 games is inevitable, pointing to 2031 as the year it will almost certainly happen.
His reasoning is simple: owners will be willing to shut down the NFL to get it, while players will not be willing to miss more than a paycheck or two. In Florio's words, unless White can convince players to call the league's bluff and withstand a work stoppage, an 18-game schedule is coming.
Florio also suggests the union would be better off negotiating sooner, with 2027 as a potential target date. That year marks the first Super Bowl that would not be built off a 17-game formula. Waiting until the next round of CBA negotiations in 2031, he argues, will mean missing out on both leverage and financial concessions.
Florio makes clear he's not advocating for an 18-game schedule. He doesn't believe it's a good idea. But he calls it a reality the NFL players will need to accept and ultimately use to their advantage.
