Will the NFL Add Another Game to the 2024 Season?
By Movieguide® Contributor
The 2024 NFL football season started last weekend, and fans are already catching big changes the League made this year.
On Friday, the Philadelphia Eagles and Green Bay Packers played the first-ever NFL game in South America in São Paulo, Brazil, to demonstrate the League’s “ongoing expansion of our global footprint,” per NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell.
Later this season, the NFL will stream the Christmas Day game on Netflix.
“The Netflix Christmas Day games will also air on broadcast TV in the competing teams’ cities, and they’ll be available on U.S. mobile devices with NFL+. Netflix will pay about $150 million total for the Christmas Day games this year ($75 million per game),” Variety reported in May.
Another possible change is expanding the season to 18 games versus the current 17 games over 18 weeks.
This would mean that Super Bowl Sunday would fall on President’s Day weekend, giving fans across the nation that Monday off.
“I think that would be great for your schedule, and I think it would be great for all the fans,” Goodell told TODAY.
However, he emphasized that safety is the NFL’s number one priority.
“It’s something that’s been discussed for a long time,” he added. “To get to 18 games, it would take a long period of time because what we do is we’re looking to make our games safer. We work with our players’ association on changes to the game. We have been successful with that.
“We have seen tremendous strides in safety to our game,” he continued. “That’s one of the things we want to make sure we’re doing correctly. But I can see this being discussed in the next bargaining agreement.”
Overall though, Goodell seems to be on board.
“I think people look at the pre-season and regular season and say, ‘Would I like to have one more regular season and one less preseason?’ I think the answer to that is yes,” Goodell said.
Week 1 just wrapped up last night, and Week 2 promises another slate of incredible match-ups:
Thursday, September 12
• Bills – Dolphins (8:15 p.m. ET on Prime Video)Sunday, September 15
• Raiders – Ravens (1:00 p.m. ET on CBS)
• Chargers – Panthers (1:00 p.m. ET on CBS)
• Saints – Cowboys (1:00 p.m. ET on Fox)
• Buccaneers – Lions (1:00 p.m. ET on Fox)
• Colts – Packers (1:00 p.m. ET on Fox)
• Browns – Jaguars (1:00 p.m. ET on CBS)
• 49ers – Vikings (1:00 p.m. ET on CBS)
• Seahawks – Patriots (1:00 p.m. ET on Fox)
• Jets – Titans (1:00 p.m. ET on CBS)
• Giants – Commanders (1:00 p.m. ET on Fox)• Rams – Cardinals (4:05 p.m. ET on Fox)
• Steelers – Broncos (4:25 p.m. ET on CBS)
• Bengals – Chiefs (4:25 p.m. ET on CBS)• Bears – Texans (8:20 p.m. ET on NBC/Universo)
Monday, September 16
• Falcons – Eagles (8:15 p.m. ET on ESPN/ESPN2/ESPN Deportes)
