With the month of April almost here, the start of the 2025 NFL season draws closer. But first things first: the NFL Annual Meeting. All 32 owners will convene March 30-April 1 at The Breakers in Palm Beach to discuss potential rule changes. among many other things Chief among the changes would be a ban of the “tush push” but also an expanded 18-game season, the later of which likely wouldn’t occur any time soon. Rule changes must be agreed upon by 24 owners or a 75% majority. Popularized by the Super Bowl-champion Philadelphia Eagles, the tush push has become a thorn in the side of NFL teams based solely on its effectiveness in short yardage situations. The play is simple: the quarterback lines up under center with two or more players behind him. At the snap, the players essentially push the quarterback forward for yardage.
Although the Green Bay Packers initially proposed the rule change, it’s unclear whether they have rallied enough votes for the play to be banned. Miami Dolphins coach Mike McDaniel, for one, appears to be a fan of the play. “It’s tough because I have a hard time making things illegal because of success,” McDaniel said during the NFL Combine on Feb. 25. “However, I think in my mind it’s a different thing if it’s a safety issue. For me in the game of football, when your job is to take 11 people, possess the ball, move it down the field to try to get in the end zone to score points, I think because it’s successful I have a hard time being that the teeth of the argument to move on from it.”
Outside of the potential end of the tush push, a potential 18-game season seems to be one of the bigger discussion points at the owners meeting. Two team executives even told Yahoo Sports that they expect talks to intensify this week at The Breakers. “Everyone understands consensus-building time is coming for both [the NFL and NFL Players Association],” one league executive told Yahoo Sports. “It’s going to take time to get to [negotiations] opening a [Collective Bargaining Agreement] and rolling up sleeves on whatever gets put onto the table. It might take a year or two, but you really can’t do that without a broader conversation [among owners]. I think that starts to get some momentum in Florida.”
The motivation behind an 18-game season is obvious: more games equals more money in the owners’ pockets. For players, however, more games also equals increased opportunity for injury. “No one wants to play an 18th game. No one,” NFLPA executive director Lloyd Howell Jr. said in February. “Seventeen games is already, for many of the guys, too long. Seventeen games is also so lengthy that you’re still dealing with injuries going into the next season. So there are a variety of issues that hang off of the length of the season before any formal negotiations.”
A potential 18-game season comes about four years after the NFL added a 17th game ahead of the 2021 season. Commissioner Roger Goodell first floated the expanded season in January, calling it “a logical step.” ‘ “We would keep within the 20-game framework,” Goodell told Bloomberg. “We went to 16 and four, and now 17 and three. So 18 and two is a logical step.” The players, however, have a bit of leverage as the NFLPA will have to agree to the increased number of regular season games for the change to go into effect before the next collective bargaining agreement that won’t expire until 2030. One of the points that Goodell made in favor of expansion centered around a lack of increase in the number of injuries during a 17-game season, something that made Howell a bit skeptical. “Frankly, we’re not sure how he’s reaching that conclusion based on the data we’ve been given access to,” Howell said.
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