NFL Owners Face Big Decisions on 18th Game, Streaming, Rules

PALM BEACH, Fla. — The 2024 NFL season ended with a historic flourish. Now, the league is trying to figure out how to build on that late-season surge and pushing in several unprecedented directions.

Team owners and league personnel will hold their 2025 annual meeting here this week, relishing several milestones that includes the largest U.S. television audience ever for Super Bowl LIX last month, a record-setting streaming audience for a Christmas Day doubleheader on Netflix, and a tie for the most games in NFL history decided by seven points or fewer.

Those markers meaningfully reversed more tepid signs seen elsewhere last season, such as a 2% decline in regular-season viewership and audience retreats during initial playoff rounds. 

In that context of renewed growth, the NFL has an aggressive agenda for the next three days. Among the items on deck:

• Votes on a series of proposed rule changes, including a ban on the much-debated Tush Push, a new postseason seeding format, reworked kickoff and overtime rules, and an expansion on when teams can attempt an onside kick. 
• Visits from Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos and Verizon chair and CEO Hans Vestberg to detail the fast-changing media landscape. Netflix is in the midst of a three-year rights deal with the NFL for Christmas Day games, while Verizon is a long-time wireless sponsor of the league. Owners will also be voting on a potential extension of flex scheduling rules for Thursday Night Football games to help allow Amazon, with at least 28 days notice, to have better matchups in weeks 13-17 of the regular season.  
• Further discussion on a potential 18-game regular season. While it’s a long-desired schedule expansion among team owners, it would still require approval from the NFL Players Association, and could be the subject of tense labor negotiations. Last month, union executive director Lloyd Howell said, “When I have talked to players over the last two seasons, no one wants to play an 18th game.”
• Additional consideration of the NFL’s role in promoting flag football—a key league priority across multiple facets of youth participation and league marketing. The NFL is actively considering the formation of a new professional flag entity for both men and women. To help advance that notion, the league on Sunday brought in WNBA superstar Caitlin Clark, women’s tennis icon and Dolphins co-owner Serena Williams, and former Giants quarterback Eli Manning to participate in a panel discussion for team owners and NFL personnel. 
• More planning for a larger-than-ever slate of seven international games in 2025 that includes first-time regular-season trips to Spain and Ireland, and a return to Brazil after last season’s NFL debut in South America.
• A review of the recent flurry of free-agent signing activity that as of last week led total player compensation to approach $8 billion—with ever-rising levels of guaranteed money. 

“We’re going to talk a lot about the strength of the game, which has been on full display throughout these last few weeks as clubs have made an unprecedented commitment to player compensation,” said NFL EVP Jeff Miller. “I think this is a sign of the health of the league, and the [collective bargaining agreement]. The players are doing well, and the league is doing well, which is what the point of the CBA is in the first place.”