The NFL is about to make this massive change to the Super Bowl
The Super Bowl is the biggest annual event of any kind in America.
Every year the country comes to a standstill to see which team takes home the Lombardi Trophy.
But now the NFL is about to make this massive change to the Super Bowl.
NFL mulling a President’s Day Weekend Super Bowl
There’s long been a push to declare the day after the Super Bowl a national holiday because more than 120 million Americans watch the big game and attend parties for a game that starts at 6:30 PM and doesn’t end until well after 11 PM on the East Coast.
Those hoping for a day off after the Super Bowl to recover from the previous night’s festivities may get their wish.
When the NFL expanded to a 17-game season before the 2021 season, that pushed the Super Bowl to the second week in February.
That led to the natural question of how to extend the season another week to align the Super Bowl with President’s Day Weekend so the Monday after the game would be a federal holiday.
NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell appeared on The Pat McAfee Show to promote the NFL Draft and revealed that the league is considering moving to an 18-game regular season by eliminating one preseason game.
This would allow for another bye week which would push the Super Bowl to President’s Day Weekend.
“I think we’re good at 17 now,” Goodell stated. “But, listen, we’re looking at how we continue. I’m not a fan of the preseason.”
Then, gesturing toward a group of fans assembled nearby, Goodell said, “And I don’t think these guys like it either.”
He continued, “The reality is, I’d rather replace a preseason game with a regular-season game any day. That’s just picking quality. If we get to 18 and 2, that’s not an unreasonable thing.”
“And then you have Monday off,” Goodell added.
Why a President’s Day Weekend Super Bowl makes sense
In the 1990s, teams began making fans purchase exhibition game tickets.
But fans chafed at paying regular season prices for games featuring players fighting to be the 53rd man on the roster.
Moving two preseason games would allow the NFL to add another regular season game to give fans a better bang for their buck and to generate more TV revenue by expanding the inventory of games.
And moving the Super Bowl to a holiday weekend would eliminate the “Super Bowl flu,” the phenomenon where Americans call out of work that Monday to recover from their hangovers.
“An estimated 16.1 million U.S. employees plan to miss work the Monday after Super Bowl LVIII, including over 6 million U.S. employees who will risk a workplace penalty for faking sick or ‘ghosting’ work altogether and not showing up,” according to a Harris Poll conducted by the UKG Workforce Institute.
