Owners & Players Open to Cutting NFL Preseason

NFL preseason is up for debate each and every August when the warm-up games begin to take place.

Coaches like the NFL preseason. Diehard fans like it, as well. Players would prefer to be playing meaningful games. 

Meanwhile, TV executives would likely be glad to do away with NFL preseason in favor of more regular season games.

Either that, or extend the playoffs. This is what will be up for debate in 2022, according to reports.

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Per FoxBusiness, NFL players and owners are open to the idea of cutting the preseason short. As a result, the the playoffs would be expanded from 12 teams to 14 teams. Preseason would be three games instead of four. Then, the regular season would extend to 17 or 18 games rather than the current 16.

According to Mike Ozanian, co-host of Forbes SportsMoney, the playoff games are where the money is. However, he knows it won’t be easy to do once the current collective bargaining agreement expires in 2022.

“What you have is much higher TV ratings for the playoffs than you do the regular season and certainly the preseason,” Mike Ozanian said.

“So if they’re able to add another round of playoffs, it’s going to be far more lucrative to the league.”

Given the NFL has spent the last two years pushing through new concussion regulations, more games could be controversial.

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“They just went through a big concussion settlement, so from a [public relations] standpoint, it would be very hard for the league to push through more games where the likelihood for injury would be even greater,” Ozanian said.

“This is all about increasing that $8 billion without extending the regular season,” Ozanian said. 

“And playoffs are the way to go.”