NFLPA Takes Aggressive Stance in Prelude to CBA Talks

NEW ORLEANS — It’s a little early for the first battle of the NFL collective bargaining negotiations to commence, but not for skirmishes. This 2025 Super Bowl week may well become known for the initial grappling over the CBA, which expires in 2031.

NFL Players Association executive director Lloyd Howell, who’s been in the post for 18 months, took a decidedly different tone than he did in his introductory press conference at the 2024 Super Bowl in Las Vegas, where he was conciliatory and seemed open to an 18-game season. This week, however, Howell slammed the idea.

“The first time I heard Roger mention 18, I think it was draft weekend, and he did an interview on The Pat McAfee Show,” Howell said of NFL commissioner Roger Goodell. “And so the first conversation we had was, ‘Did I hear you?’”

Players on the Super Bowl week panel with Howell, including NFLPA team president Jalen Reeves-Maybin and Austin Ekeler, threw scorn not just at 18 games, but also 17, which the NFL went to in 2021. NFLPA players narrowly passed the 2020 CBA that added the 17th game, suggesting the league will have a tough negotiation on its hands in the future if it pushes for one more game, given the disdain expressed for 17.

That’s likely why Goodell sought to turn down the temperature Monday in saying 18-game discussions would wait for formal CBA talks, after pushing the idea last year.

The NFLPA also rained on the NFL’s announcement of a regular-season game in Australia in 2026, saying hours later it had concerns about the lengthy travel effects on player health and safety.

The NFL locked out the players in 2011 when CBA talks hit an impasse. After four and a half months of litigation and further talks, the sides signed a 10-year CBA. In 2020 the parties agreed to another decade-long labor pact, which had substantial player opposition. CBA talks typically heat up several years before expiration. But as this week’s muscle-flexing signals, the public jockeying starts even earlier.