The NFL announced that they have expanded the regular season to a 17-game schedule for all teams.
The move is sure to please the league’s broadcast partners, who just shelled over $100 billion to the NFL in the most recent round of negotiations. The expanded season is probably less popular among players in the league, who will add another game’s worth of wear-and-tear to their bodies every year.
But the extra game might come with a bonus for fans watching at home. Beyond just getting an extra week of NFL Sundays during the regular season, the additional week could serve to push the entire NFL calendar back and thus move Super Bowl Sunday in line with Presidents’ Day weekend.
In a roundabout way, it feels that the reality of the Super Bowl being treated as a holiday is closer than ever.
Mark Maske, who covers the NFL for the Washington Post, explained that the extra game will initially stay a week ahead of the holiday, but that could change by the time we reach the 2023 Super Bowl.
—MarkMaske (@MarkMaske) March 30, 2021
According to Pro Football Talk, the math could get complicated depending on the year. As Presidents’ Day is the third Monday of every February, and the NFL is likely moving the Super Bowl to the second Sunday in the month, on select years, the dates would line up perfectly. That said, the league could also potentially expand the season to 18 games soon or add a second bye week for teams in the middle of the season to make the math work.
Regardless of where the NFL eventually lands, it feels as though the Super Bowl is closer than ever to being a holiday.