Mike Tomlin Reveals Thoughts on an 18-Game Schedule
PALM BEACH, Fla. — Pittsburgh Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin weighed in on the possibility of the league expanding to an 18-game schedule last week at the NFL owners meetings. With it being talked about for several years by the owners, Tomlin thinks it’s bound to happen.
“I listen and hear like you guys do,” Tomlin said. “I think (an 18-game season has) been thrown about so much with so much regularity, I think it’s probably inevitable.”
The NFL owners and NFLPA begin discussions on adding an 18th game to the regular-season schedule at owner’s meetings last week.
Adding an 18th game was not on the official agenda, but has been part of NFL commissioner Roger Goodell’s agenda for quite some time.
Goodell has not been shy about pushing for an 18-game schedule, despite the league just moving from 16 to 17 games in 2021. He has committed to doing so at the expense of another preseason game, keeping the totality of the regular season and preseason at 20 weeks.
“I think if we continue to focus on the safety, I think 18 is a potential,” Goodell said in January. “As you know, we would take a preseason game away. We would keep within that 20-game framework. We actually started at 14 and six preseason. We went to 16 and four, and now 17 and three. So 18 and two is a logical step. But we would only do that with the players.”
The NFL played a 12-game schedule from 1947 to 1960, moved to 14 games from 1961-77 and played 16 games from 1978-2020. Beside the last four seasons, the only other times the league has had an odd number of games on the docket strike-shortened 1982 and 1987 seasons, and an 11-game schedule before and after World War II, from 1937-42 and again in 1946.
One of the reasons the NFL is keen to expand the schedule further is to continue to add international games to the docket, without taking games away from home fans. Goodell said he hopes to get the NFL to 16 annual international games, which is double the current amount.
Jonathan Jones of CBS Sports reported that many are speculating the league could expand to 18 games beginning in the 2027 season.
Steelers safety DeShon Elliott isn’t a fan an 18-game schedule. He thinks the NFL is already taking advantage of the players.
“They’re not paying us enough money already,” Elliott said last season, per ESPN’s Brooke Pryor. “They’re stingy with their money, so they want to make us play 18 games, as a player union, we should get way more money than what we’re getting—and not just the top guys.
“And the thing is, they’re not out here playing football. They’re not here running around putting their bodies on the line. They don’t care. All they care about is making money, but if you’re going to make money on the top end, the bottom end has to make money too.”
Alan Saunders contributed reporting from Palm Beach, Fla.