NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell says expanding the regular season to 18 games is ‘not a given’

SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) — Not so fast on an 18-game NFL season.

A week after Patriots owner Robert Kraft made it seem inevitable, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said expanding the regular season to 18 games is “not a given.”

“We have not had any formal discussions about it and, frankly, very little, if any, informal conversations,” Goodell said Monday at his annual state of the NFL news conference ahead of the Super Bowl. “I’ve heard people talk about it in the context. It is not a given that we will do that. It’s not something we assume will happen. It’s something we want to talk about with the union leadership.”

Last Tuesday, Kraft made it seem 18 games was a foregone conclusion.

“I want to tell you guys that we’re going to push like the dickens now to make international (games) more important with us,” Kraft told 98.5 FM last week. ”Every team will go to 18 (regular-season games) and two (preseason games) and eliminate one of the preseason games, and every team every year will play one game overseas.”

Clearly, word reached Goodell.

He mentioned that the NFL Players Association will be going through a leadership transition and that the conversation will be complex. Goodell pointed out p...