The NFL moved to 17 games in recent years, which is mostly annoying because it's an odd number (this 9-8/8-9 nonsense is for the birds) and it threw all statistical achievements of the last several decades in the dumpster. But it's equally frustrating because 17 games is just a pitstop to an 18-game NFL season.
Everyone knows this, or should know this. Count Joe Burrow as one of the former, and let's give him credit for coming up with a pretty perfect scheduling solution that is really quite simple. Burrow, appearing on Pardon My Take, was asked by co-host Dan Katz (a.k.a. Big Cat) what the "perfect football schedule" would be, to which he responded "how many games are we playing" (which was coupled with a knowing sigh about where this was headed, more on that in a bit).
"Gotta have two bye weeks," Burrow replied after some quick banter. "And I think it'd be cool to do normal bye weeks like it is now. Have it spread out. But then, like, Week 13, do the Pro Bowl break. Where you have the 7-on-7 and all the skills challenges, like the NBA does. Because I think that would give more ratings for the Pro Bowl and then it would also give everybody that bye week going into the last six games of the year."
Big Cat then floated the idea of having Christmas off for the whole NFL as a "reset," which Burrow dovetailed into his Week 13 idea.
"And then you have guys that are injured that would be able to potentially come back," Burrow continued. "And you want your best players out there as a league. You want them out there the last six weeks of the season. You want your best players on the field. So I think that would be a smart idea."
Burrow's been on a fun little media tour the last week or so, talking about learning to play an instrument as a healing process for his wrist, promising the Bengals will "give people something to talk about" in 2024 and even making his ~modeling debut~ at the Vogue World fashion show.
A healthy Burrow is important for the league this year and really important for Cincinnati, who will certainly contend if he plays 17 games. But I gotta tell you, I'm WAY more intrigued at his scheduling concept -- at least in the optimistically humid days of pre-training camp July -- and how it could impact the NFL.
Player finances/health
Former NFL quarterback turned analyst Chase Daniel suggested "the NFLPA is already having meetings" over Burrow's comment, and most players won't be happy with what he said, because -- pretty obviously -- NFL players don't want to expand the season.
I'll push back here on that (even though I'm not an NFL player): the NFL going from 16 games to 17 games without adding any extra time off? Very bad. The NFL adding more Thursday games? Bad. The NFL force feeding games on Christmas even thought it's a Wednesday? Just awful. But the NFL going from 17 games to 18 games while also incorporating a second bye? That's just good for players.
Think about it. Right now you've got 17 games with a single bye. It's a brutal schedule, especially when you factor in several teams coming back from freaking London to play the next week or a group of teams banging out three games in 10 days because of the aforementioned holiday greed.
But if you add just a single game and it comes with an entire extra week of rest as well? That rest positives would FAR outweigh the additional playing negatives, especially when you factor in the additional revenue the players would rake in as a result of an additional regular season week. Joel Corry has a fantastic breakdown here of concessions the players should seek before agreeing to 18 games, with an important note on an additional game check likely factoring in (versus diluting the contract over an additional game).
So despite Daniel's reasonable complaint here, players should be fairly amendable to the 18th game if it comes with a bye and a significant revenue increase plus potential concessions from NFL owners.
Statistics
You might not care, but I do! 18 games would give us 9-9 and 10-8 and lots of round numbers. It would make life easier for tracking playoff tiebreakers (I think). Teams could go .500 again!
The NFL would also likely settle in at 18 games for a long time in my opinion. It would allow the little 17-game statistical record blip to evaporate into the maw the way it should.
The Pro Bowl bye week
I hadn't thought of this until Burrow brought it up, but it's a great point -- end the endless, annual complaining about the Pro Bowl that occurs the Sunday before the Super Bowl when everyone whines about how meaningless it is. Nevermind that 1) YOU DON'T HAVE TO WATCH IT, PEOPLE and 2) it still does insane ratings every single year even though "no one watches it."
But even the NFL's admitted it became a dumb exhibition and changed things up. Do the skills competition and whatnot later in the season on the league's "full" bye week. Give everyone a chance to reboot, reset, recharge, whatever late in the season in order to have teams at maximum strength and health heading into the home stretch.
It'll mean better football with better players, and the league will also get to highlight those who have performed at their best earlier in the season.
The voting window will be earlier (start around midseason) and won't recognize everyone who ends up having the best years, but it already doesn't do the latter anyway. Plenty of guys -- especially those deep in the playoff hunt -- will opt out, but plenty of guys will also take the chance to show off in a friendly exhibition setting. The NFL can incentivize guys to show up and play midseason and it can be early enough (Week 13, as Burrow suggested) where it's not completely in the thick of the playoff race.
The Super Bowl
The PMT guys mentioned it, but this is a key one as well: the 18-game NFL season would obviously push the playoffs back a week, but that fits perfectly with what America wants, because it could mean putting the Super Bowl on President's Day weekend.
Has the NFL ever cared about soaking up MORE of the year-long calendar? Nooooope. If anything, the league has been too aggressive in trying to steal away the public's attention throughout the entire course of the year.
Currently this year's Super Bowl is scheduled for Feb. 9, 2025. Bump it back a week and it would be on Sunday, Feb. 16, with Monday being President's Day.
Not everyone gets that Monday off, but enough of America does where it would be a massive benefit to the millions and millions of people watching on Sunday night at Super Bowl parties. We'd probably even get some additionally lenient bosses and corporations.
In conclusion
Joe Burrow is a genius, he fixed football's future and the NFL should take his advice. Give us 18 games, give them an extra bye week and give America the day off after the Super Bowl.
