Jerry Jones wants an 18-game NFL regular season.
And the Cowboys owner thinks it could soon be a reality.
“No, I don’t think we’re far away from it,” Jones said Friday on 105.3 The FAN. “I don’t know, what is far away? Next month, no. Next year? Maybe.”
The league changed the schedule from 16 regular season games to 17 as part of its most recent collective bargaining agreement in 2020 and implemented the change in 2021 — decreasing from four preseason games to three in the process.
The CBA runs through the 2030 season, but negotiations on changes could happen sooner.
“That has to be negotiated with the players,” Jones said. “But it’s in everybody’s best interest. You’d cut back on the preseason games. You’d have teams more developing the first few games as the type of thing you were trying to get done in preseason. But it’s in everybody’s interest and it certainly is in the players’ best interest, in my mind, for sure.
“Having said that, I would anticipate that coming.”
NFL commissioner Roger Goodell has been aggressive in trying to build on the league’s overwhelming popularity, especially with international games.
There are nine international games this year, one fewer than the maximum of 10 allowed under the current CBA.
But Patriots owner Robert Kraft, at the last owners meetings in January, outlined a proposal to increase to 16 international teams, along with an 18-game schedule.
It would mean every team would have an international game. A second bye week could be part of the new schedule.
“I want to tell you guys, we’re going to push like the Dickens now to make international more important with us,” Kraft said on the “Zolak & Bertrand” show.
“Every team will go to 18 (regular-season games) and two (preseason games) and eliminate one of the preseason games. Every team, every year, will play one game overseas.”
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