Back in 2014, Cuban, then the owner of the Dallas Mavericks, issued one of the most quoted warnings in sports business history. The NFL, he argued, was making a fatal mistake by aggressively expanding its schedule and flooding the market with more and more games. “I think the NFL is 10 years away from an implosion,” Cuban told ESPN bluntly. “Pigs get fat, hogs get slaughtered. And they’re getting hoggy.”

Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones was asked directly about Cuban’s famous “hogs get slaughtered” warning during Tuesday’s league meetings, and he fired back with a philosophy of his own.

“When the ducks quack, feed them,” Jones said, as quoted by Jon Machota of The Athletic on X. “We have that demand for our games because of the hard work and great players that we have. We have great demand. We should address it, respond to it, and feed it.”

In other words, the people keep showing up, so why on earth would you stop giving them more?

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Cuban’s main point was that the NFL expanding to almost every day of the week would lead the game to be oversaturated. Back in 2006, the NFL had added games on Thursdays and potentially Saturdays. Cuban argued the league was prioritizing short-term TV profits over the long-term interests of the fans. But then, as years progressed to 2026, everything turned opposite to what he had predicted.

The numbers definitely back up Cowboys owner Jones. While Cuban thought fans would get bored, the opposite happened. As of the 2024-2025 season, the games were broadcast from September to January across four main days of the week: Thursday, Friday, Sunday, and Monday. 

During this time, the NFL pulled in roughly $23 billion in revenue last season, which is about $9 billion more than what the league made in 2024, a total revenue of $14 billion. 

This means that the league will easily surpass the goal that Roger Goodell had set. Goodell had, in the year 2010, set his sights on a massive $25 billion goal by 2027. To get there, the league is pushing into every available time slot, playing games on Fridays, Saturdays, and even Christmas Day, to make sure they own the conversation all week long during the regular season.

This strategy is all about maximizing broadcasting rights and keeping streaming partners like Amazon happy. Even though federal law prevents the NFL from airing games on Friday and Saturday nights during the high school and college football seasons, the league is aggressively filling every other gap. But how will the NFL achieve this profit maximization goal of theirs? The answer is obvious: more games.

Jones speaks on the 18-game regular season

The NFL had followed a 16-game schedule for almost half a century. That tradition changed in 2021 when the league moved the games to 17 games. It felt like a massive shift at the time, but the league isn’t done yet. 

Only five years into this new era, team owners are already pushing to tack on another week, bringing the total to 18 regular-season games. But how will that be possible? They’d likely scrap another preseason game to keep the total calendar length roughly the same.

One owner who seems very enthusiastic about this adaptation is none other than Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones. But the reason he is citing is a little questionable. Jones isn’t just saying it’s good for business; rather, he’s pitching it as a massive win for the players.

According to Jones, moving a game from the preseason to the regular season creates a bigger scope to earn more. Under the current revenue-sharing rules, both the team owners and the players can make more money by playing for one more day in the regular season.

“My interpretation of the 18th game would be less preseason games. I like that. I think that’s great for the players—emphasize “great” for the players. It increases the viability of the financial aspect, more gate and more money for the players as well,” Jones said.

That’s not all; Jones also believes that playing more games will give the players more exposure to the athletes. But the problem for the Cowboys owner is that the players aren’t exactly lining up to thank him. 

The NFL Players Association (NFLPA) is understandably worried about the physical toll an extra week of high-stakes hitting takes on the human body. They’ve pointed out that their current contract runs through 2030, which means any big changes should probably wait until they can sit down and negotiate the terms and conditions.

Everything comes down to one last question: whether the players will compromise on their health to make more money or not.