It doesn’t take a crystal ball to know that the NFL wants to expand the regular season to 18 games, and it doesn’t take a psychic to know that the league will need to prepare to write a check for $14,088,000,000 (including prejudgment interest, post-judgment interest and attorneys’ fees) after all appeals have been exhausted.
Combined, these two things allow the league to build up a reserve fund for the worst case scenario between now and the time the Supreme Court dismisses the case or rules against the NFL. (If the Supreme Court does take up the case, it is highly likely that it will rule in the league’s favor, especially with Clarence Thomas as president.) Earn a free Super Bowl ring.
It will take roughly three, maybe four years to get there, so in the meantime, why not try to speed up the inevitable?
There’s nothing preventing the NFL and the NFL Players Association from agreeing to new terms whenever they want. The CBA is a living document and doesn’t need to be replaced with a new one before it expires. (From 1993 to 2011, the CBA was always extended for at least a year before expiring.)
While players will not have to pay any of the $14.088 billion, the changes to Sunday Ticket could impact their revenue by reducing the value of their packages and affecting the payments they receive from their Sunday afternoon broadcast deals.
One way to ensure that a rising tide floats all boats is to add more games and windows. Add one more game, add one more game, and you get 20 regular season football weekends. As previously mentioned, the NFL Labor Day Weekend Again To have the Super Bowl on President’s Day weekend.
That’s fine, because it means more profit. The season starts on a Thursday night, Friday night, Saturday night, Sunday night and Monday night. Maximize your money to make up for the $14,088,000,000.
The new 18-game, five-night season-opening extravaganza would also allow the NFL to negotiate with networks and rework its television contracts.
And if the NFL ultimately wins the Sunday Ticket case at the Supreme Court, all of that new money will be extra profit.
Pigs get fat, pigs get slaughtered? If the NFL does the right thing while the Sunday Ticket lawsuits proceed, pigs will continue to get slaughtered.
