NFLPA's interim boss: Players 'have no appetite' for 18th game - ESPN

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.

«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.

«But as it stands right now, players have been very clear they don't have any appetite for it.»

While NFL commissioner Roger Goodell said adding an 18th game was «not a given» at his pre-Super Bowl news conference Monday, New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft spoke about an expanded schedule with certainty in a January radio appearance on 98.5 The Sports Hub from Gillette Stadium.

«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.

On Tuesday, White and