An extra neutral-site game could see teams like the Eagles and Steelers play at Beaver StadiumGETTY IMAGES
NFL owners have raised the prospect of adding a single game to the regular season that must be played at a neutral site, Packers President & CEO Mark Murphy said Friday. That idea has been floated as one of several suggestions to restructure the NFL’s season during the early phases of CBA talks with the NFLPA. The 17th regular-season game would replace one current preseason game, and the resulting neutral-site revenue would be shared among the clubs evenly, a league source said. The change could expand both the NFL’s international schedule and open the door to domestic neutral-site matchups, such as Bengals-Browns at Ohio Stadium in Columbus or Steelers-Eagles at Beaver Stadium in Happy Valley. "That could be something that would really help everybody in terms of growing the game, and growing interest in the game, not only in NFL cities, but internationally and beyond," said Murphy, a member of the league's management council executive committee. A union source said the players have not seen any formal proposal regarding the season structure. The conversations so far have been brief and not detailed, sources said. After being rebuffed by the union in their attempt to add two games to the regular season in the last round of union talks, NFL owners are mooting a variety of options this time -- including simply removing one preseason game, replacing two preseason games with regular-season games or to expand the playoffs by adding a third wildcard team in each conference. Murphy threw cold water on the suggestion that the regular season would expand to 18 games but each individual player only be permitted to play in 16. "Quite honestly to me, that's a hard one to sell to fans," Murphy said (Ben Fischer, THE DAILY).
OPENS UP DIFFERENT OPPORTUNITIES: PRO FOOTBALL TALK's Mike Florio wrote Murphy "supports 17 regular-season games primarily as a way to continue to grow the game internationally, ensuring that every team would have, every year, eight true home games, eight true road games, and one neutral-site game, with most of those 16 neutral-site games played in other countries." Florio: "Personally, I like the 17-game regular season, for many reasons." Florio also wrote he likes the idea of 16 neutral-site games, "especially since it could mean a game at Ann Arbor or a game at Notre Dame or a game at Happy Valley or a game at Ohio Stadium or a game at some other large, iconic venue, which of course could be wired for real-time video communication with the league office" (PROFOOTBALLTALK.com, 7/12).
