NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell wants to hold 16 international games per year. He linked this development to 18 regular season games.

So when will there be 18 regular season games? It will depend on when the NFL wants to expand to 16 international games.

“We hope to be 16 (international games) within five years“Goodell said Thursday at Liberty Media’s investor day, via Ben Fischer of Sports Affairs Journal. Goodell also confirmed that expanding to 16 international games would require increasing the regular season to 18 games.

“We’re looking at a change from the 17-3 format to maybe 18 regular season games and two preseason games,” Goodell said. “And it will open up more inventory for us to play globally.”

Technically, 16 games could currently be exported. With 17 games per year per team, each franchise could play eight traditional home games, eight traditional road games and one neutral site game. And with 32 teams each playing a neutral site game, that’s a total of 16 neutral site games.

So, frankly, the NFL wants to expand to 18 regular season games because they want to expand to 18 regular season games. Linking it to more international games is practical, but not very decisive.

And after 18 years will come the 19th, and in time the 20th. Mark my words, and I hope to live long enough not to eat them.

To expand to 18 games within five years, the NFL and NFL Players Association would need to reach an agreement before the current collective bargaining agreement expires. However, they can revise their agreement whenever they wish; for example, they redid the current collective agreement just a few months after it was signed, due to the pandemic.

Stakeholders will have more leverage if this happens before the existing collective agreement ends in 2031. The owners’ hammer is to lock out players. Before the contract expires, owners can’t cut players – and players can hold out and ask for more.

Sixteen international games and 18 regular season games would also arrive just in time for the end of current television deals, if the NFL exercises its prerogative to terminate all broadcast contracts after the 2029 season.

And, given what the NBA has been dealt recently, the NFL is absolutely going to pull that plug.