Brooke PryorFeb 3, 2026, 04:56 PM ETCloseBrooke Pryor is a reporter for NFL Nation at ESPN who has covered the Pittsburgh Steelers since 2019. She previously covered the Kansas City Chiefs for the Kansas City Star and the University of Oklahoma for The Oklahoman.Follow on XMultiple Authors
NFLPA: Players ‘have no appetite’ for 18th game (1:07)NFLPA: Players ‘have no appetite’ for 18th game (1:07)
SAN FRANCISCO — Despite a renewed push from NFL ownership to move toward 18 regular-season games, NFL Players Association leadership made it clear Tuesday that the players aren’t in support of an expanded regular-season schedule.
“I want to tell you guys that we’re going to push like the dickens now to make international [games] more important with us,” Kraft told the “Zolak & Bertrand” show. “Every team will go 18 [regular-season games] and two [preseason games] and eliminate one of the preseason games, and every team every year will play one game overseas.”
As it stands, NFL ownership can’t expand the regular-season schedule unless the league and the players’ association agree to open negotiations ahead of the March 2031 expiration of the collective bargaining agreement.
White added: “An arbitrary statement carries no weight. It’s a free country. People could say what they like, but … is it increasingly inevitable? … The answer is absolutely not. It’s a point of negotiation.”
“It’s punishing, and we can see that on the teams that have deep postseason runs,” White said. “And we saw it this year. … Those injuries, they cost players pay, they can shorten careers, they can diminish lifetime earnings. And when your average career is already three to four years, that becomes something that is existential.”
“I think that’s an important mark for us to go for,” Goodell said. “I think we’re well on our way, with the desire we have from our side, but also the desire for people to have this in their communities, and some of the greatest cities in the world are asking to do this.”
In addition to the locations where games are being played, White and Reeves-Maybin also discussed concerns over the surfaces the games are being played on as it relates to player health and safety.
While NFL executive vice president Jeff Miller and chief medical officer Dr. Alan Sills said the NFL’s data shows a nearly identical injury rate on artificial (.43) and natural grass (.42) surfaces in a recent news briefing, White said Tuesday “90%” of players prefer to play on grass.
“The data that we do have access to shows that the energy return from a synthetic surface is significantly higher than it is on natural grass,” White said, “which reinforces what players say just from their experience and from common sense, it’s just harder. It’s harder on the body.”
“It’s well-maintained grass,” White said. “Scrubby grass that’s full of mud or it is hardened by ice or what have you, that’s not helpful. It’s maintained grass. It’s the playing field that’s good for players and good for their bodies so they can play the game that we all love.”
“Our members have no appetite for a regular-season 18th game,” NFLPA interim executive director David White said at the union’s annual Super Bowl week news conference, citing player health and safety concerns that come with a longer regular season. “… The 18th game is not casual for us. It’s a very serious issue. It’s something that comes out of negotiations, and nothing will move forward until players have the opportunity to account for all of those factors, take that into consideration and then through negotiations, agree or not to the 18th game.
NFLPA: Players ‘have no appetite’ for 18th game (1:07)NFLPA: Players ‘have no appetite’ for 18th game (1:07)
Brooke PryorFeb 3, 2026, 04:56 PM ETCloseBrooke Pryor is a reporter for NFL Nation at ESPN who has covered the Pittsburgh Steelers since 2019. She previously covered the Kansas City Chiefs for the Kansas City Star and the University of Oklahoma for The Oklahoman.Follow on XMultiple Authors
CloseBrooke Pryor is a reporter for NFL Nation at ESPN who has covered the Pittsburgh Steelers since 2019. She previously covered the Kansas City Chiefs for the Kansas City Star and the University of Oklahoma for The Oklahoman.Follow on X
“But as it stands right now, players have been very clear they don’t have any appetite for it.”
Goodell added Monday that he hoped to have a 16-game international slate in the future.
NFLPA: Players ‘have no appetite’ for 18th game (1:07)