Could Super Bowl Monday become holiday? NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell floats idea

Some changes may be in store for the NFL, but nothing is set in stone yet and they may take years to happen.

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The NFL commissioner said Friday on “The Pat McAfee Show” that the preseason model the NFL currently uses could change in the future.

Instead of playing three weeks of preseason games, he would like to get rid of one preseason matchup and add an 18th regular-season game to the schedule, USA Today reported. But previous attempts to add another game have been an issue for the players and their union and would need to be approved by the NFL Players Association.

The union has said that more games would lead to more injuries.

The league added a 17th game to the 2021 season, CBS Sports reported.

Nothing has been proposed yet, but Goodell could be open to making the changes.

“I think we’re good at 17 now. But listen, we’re looking at how we continue,” Goodell said, according to USA Today. “I’m not a fan of the preseason. ... And I don’t think these guys [the fans] like it, either.

“But the reality is: I’d rather replace a preseason game with a regular-season (game) any day. That’s just picking quality, right? So if we got to 18 and 2, that’s not an unreasonable thing.”

Adding an 18th game to the season would put the Super Bowl on President’s Day weekend, allowing many fans to have their “Super Bowl Monday” holiday.

“The other thing it does, [Super Bowl Sunday] ends on up Presidents’ Day weekend, which is a three-day weekend, which makes it Sunday night and then you have Monday off,” Goodell said, according to CBS Sports.

Right now, the Super Bowl is on the second Sunday of February.

Goodell is also looking at the possibility of expanding the league internationally.

“We can become a global sport,” he said, adding that at least 16 games a season could be played outside of the U.S. eventually. He predicted that there could be a team from another country involved, but said that won’t happen in more than a decade.

In the near future, Goodell said that there could be eight or nine games played overseas, The Associated Press reported.

In 2024, three games will be played in England, while one each will be played in Germany and Brazil, the AP reported.

“The reaction we’re getting from the fans every time we play in a new market is incredible,” Goodell said, “so we’ll continue to play in London, we’ll continue to play in Germany and I hope to continue to play in Brazil. We’ll be back in Mexico, but there are a lot of other markets that — obviously, we’re going to go to Spain next year, we’ve already planned that — but there are a lot of markets that want us to play there and we’re actively looking at all those, exploring that.”

Goodell’s comments came as the NFL held its draft in Detroit. Next year, the draft will be held in Green Bay, Wisconsin.

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