NFL Considering Extra Regular-Season Game, Int’l Super Bowl

Goodell Says League Contemplating Adding Game To Regular Season

NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell during a meeting with sports editors in N.Y. said that league officials are “considering adding a 17th regular season game to accommodate the league’s desire to play overseas games, ... although the idea is in the formative stages,” according to Maske & Boren of the WASHINGTON POST. League officials had not discussed the possibility with NFLPA officials as of Thursday. If the NFL “decides to increase the number of regular season games it will play in foreign countries beyond the one to two per year to which owners now are committed, it could decide to add a week to the regular season ... while subtracting a week from the preseason.” Goodell said adding a 17th game “would create more inventory, and that has some appeal” (WASHINGTON POST, 4/27). Goodell also said that the NFL is “looking into the possibility of playing a Super Bowl outside the [U.S.], although not before 2012 at the earliest.” He indicated that the “three most likely spots would be London, Toronto or Mexico City because they are in time zones that would allow the game to be televised in the [U.S.] at reasonable hours.” Goodell added that the league’s medical committee “has been working on a way to implement” mandatory neurological tests, “perhaps as early as this summer” (AP, 4/26).