Bill Streicher-Imagn Images
Perhaps no team in the NFL understands the physical demands of a long season quite as much as the San Francisco 49ers.
The Niners were among the most injury-laden teams in the league last year, including a season-ending achilles tear to star tight end George Kittle in the playoffs against the Philadelphia Eagles. Kittle spends a fortune to maintain his health during the season, but even he couldn’t fend off the injury bug.
So you can understand why Kittle would be opposed to the idea of the NFL moving from a 17-game to an 18-game regular season.
Although Kittle hasn’t completely shut down the idea, he does have two big demands of the NFL if he’s going to get on board with an extra game.
George Kittle Wants More Money And More Time Off If The NFL Expands Schedule
In an interview with Front Office Sports, Kittle made it clear that if the league wants to expand the regular season to 18 games, it has to both pay players more and give them an extra week off during the season.
“You got to have an extra bye regardless,” Kittle said. “This season is too long as it is. I think 16 games was perfect. They add an extra game for more TV stuff, which, hey, I get it makes everyone more money. If you’re gonna add an 18th game, you gotta add an extra bye.”
Kittle isn’t the only one to suggest an extra bye week. In fact, it’s been a topic of discussion ever since the league moved from 16 games to 17 games. And even New England Patriots’ owner Robert Kraft is in favor of the added off week, should the league add an 18th regular-season game.
But if Kittle is going to play an additional game, he also wants additional compensation.
“The one thing that didn’t really make sense to me is you sign a contract to play 16 games,” Kittle added. “They added the 17th game, and you don’t get paid anymore money, your paycheck just gets cut an extra time. So you’re making 17 paychecks instead of 16. So in my opinion, I’m just like if you bumped up the payment a little bit for that last game, instead of cutting it again, I think guys would be more interested in that as well.
“You can’t keep doing this cause the game is hard enough as it is. If you look back at last year, the amount of players who were hurt, it’s actually insane. Let’s take care of the guys a little bit here.”
It’s hard to argue with Kittle there, either. If you’re asking players to do more, they should be paid more. Eventually, it feels like an 18th game is inevitable. But for the league to get there, owners are going to have to make some concessions first.