“No one wants to play an 18th game. No one.” That’s what NFLPA executive director Lloyd Howell had to say to the NFL’s push for yet another expansion of its regular season. They had already changed their 16-game schedule, which went on for 45 years between 1978 and 2020, to a 17-game format in 2021. And now just a few years later, they are willing to add another game to the format. And not everyone is on board with this idea; at least not San Francisco 49ers star George Kittle.

“This season is too long as it is,” he told Front Office Sports on May 28. “I think 16 games were perfect. They add an extra game for more TV stuff, which, hey, I get it, makes everyone more money. If you’re going to add an 18th game, you’ve got to add an extra bye.” For Kittle, though, the issues actually go beyond scheduling alone.

The 49ers star also didn’t like how the league handled the compensation when it expanded to a 17-game season back in 2021. 

“The one thing that didn’t really make sense to me is you signed a contract to play 16 games,” Kittle explained. “They added the 17th game, and you don’t get paid money anymore; your paycheck just gets cut an extra time. So you’re making 17 paychecks instead of 16. So, in my opinion, if you bumped up the payment a little bit for that last game instead of cutting it again, I think guys would be more interested in that as well.”

When the NFL transitioned to a 17-game schedule, players got the short end of the stick with their contracts. But at the same time, under the Collective Bargaining Agreement, the NFL had to increase players’ share in its revenue from 47% to 48.5%. But from a player’s perspective, the existing contracts were effectively stretched over an additional game. “You can’t keep doing this because the game is hard enough as it is,” Kittle said.

However no matter all these pushbacks, Goodell still wants to implement an 18-game NFL season as early as 2028 as per Pro Football Talk’s Mike Florio. The change for sure will not happen immediately, but the NFL appears to be laying the groundwork for it. And to make that proposal more appealing, owners have floated around certain compromises on their part.

Things like reducing the number of preseason games have come to light. New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft has in fact advocated for another bye week with an additional game. But the reality is that amidst all the business aspects of things, people are forgetting that health is a major factor for a player. And Kittle understands those risks personally. 

During their Wild Card game, he suffered a torn Achilles tendon. Stars like Patrick Mahomes and Micah Parsons also went down with injuries, forcing backups and inexperienced players to be thrust into the fire before their time. If another game is added to the schedule, teams will have to play in such conditions for a longer time, which will affect their playoff chances.

“I’m not a big fan of it,” Mahomes said about the 18-game plan in July last year. “You’ve seen the amount of injuries that have kind of piled up there at the end of seasons, and you want to have the best players playing in the biggest games.”

“Let’s take care of the guys a little bit here,” Kittle added.

This year, the 49ers are set to play two international games and seven road contests in the regular season. In total, the Niners will travel over 38,000 miles, which will take a toll on the players’ bodies. It forced defensive end Nick Bosa’s mother to call league commissioner Roger Goodell a “devil.” 

George Kittle thinks NFL might be overdoing football

NFL Sundays are like a sacred tradition in the country, but let’s face it, Monday and Thursday nights have also become associated to the sport’s culture as of late. The league saw a viewership increase of almost 10%, a clear sign the NFL has no plans on stopping its expansion. This year, there are nine international games, and the NFL is capitalizing on holidays by moving more games to Christmas week. Kittle thought that the league is now pushing this beyond necessary.

“Football was always fun growing up because you had to wait until Sunday, and then you got Monday night, which was a blessing,” Kittle told Front Office Sports. “Then, they added Thursday Night Football, which is fun. And as a vet, I thoroughly enjoyed Thursday Night Football.

“But now you get games on Black Friday, now you get games on Saturdays, and it’s just, I don’t wanna overdo football to people. I think that making it special means a lot. But I get it. You get a game on Amazon Prime, a game on Netflix, a game on Peacock, I get it. But I don’t want people to get fed up with streaming football too many times.”

In an EssentiallySports Newsletter poll, 48.6% of fans agreed that streaming platforms are taking away part of what made the sport special. This season, Netflix has the exclusive package of five NFL games. Prime Video will continue to carry 15 Thursday Night Football matchups, and Peacock has exclusive rights to air a Week 17 NFL game. And if fans want to watch all Sunday games, they need to purchase the NFL Sunday Ticket.

Fans are getting more football, but it’s costing them more than what the sport used to charge them. According to News Nation, the number could go as high as $1,000 to watch the whole season.

An 18-game season would add to this number, but it is definitely going to take a lot out of the people who make the sport so special.