{"id":703943,"date":"2026-05-30T15:01:09","date_gmt":"2026-05-30T15:01:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/703943\/"},"modified":"2026-05-30T15:01:09","modified_gmt":"2026-05-30T15:01:09","slug":"george-kittle-has-one-condition-before-agreeing-to-nfl-adding-an-18th-game","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/703943\/","title":{"rendered":"George Kittle has one condition before agreeing to NFL adding an 18th game"},"content":{"rendered":"

George Kittle<\/a> is open to the NFL adding an 18th regular-season game, but only if players get an extra bye week to help them handle the longer schedule.<\/p>\n

The San Francisco 49ers<\/a> star is not pretending the league\u2019s financial thinking is hard to understand. More games mean more TV windows, more money, and more ways for the NFL to grow its audience.<\/p>\n

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His issue is the physical toll. If the league wants another week of football, Kittle feels players deserve more recovery built into the schedule.<\/p>\n

\"Photo<\/p>\n

Photo by Kara Durrette\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

George Kittle says San Francisco 49ers players need another bye before NFL adds 18th game<\/p>\n

Speaking to Front Office Sports<\/a>, Kittle explained the condition that would make an 18-game regular season easier for players to accept.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou got to have an extra bye regardless. This season is too long as it is. I think 16 games was perfect,\u201d Kittle said.<\/p>\n

He added, \u201cThey add an extra game for more TV stuff, which, hey I get it makes everyone more money. If you\u2019re gonna add an 18th game you gotta add an extra bye.\u201d<\/p>\n

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That answer gets to the core of the player argument. Kittle understands why owners would want the extra game, but he is not interested in pretending the current 17-game structure is easy on bodies.<\/p>\n

An additional bye would not erase the toll of another game, but it would at least give players one more built-in recovery window during a season that already stretches deep into winter.<\/p>\n

George Kittle knows NFL\u2019s 18-game plan still needs player protection to move forward<\/p>\n

The 18-game conversation has been building for years because the league has already moved from 16 to 17 regular-season games and continues to grow its media and international schedule.<\/p>\n

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A common idea would be reducing the preseason again while adding another regular-season game, but that still leaves players absorbing more meaningful contact.<\/p>\n

That is why any serious push has to go through the NFLPA. The league can see the business upside, but players will ask for rest, salary adjustments, and better protection before agreeing to another game.<\/p>\n

Kittle\u2019s stance fits that tension perfectly. He is not shutting down the idea completely, but he is making it clear that the NFL cannot simply add revenue without adding recovery.<\/p>\n

For him, the condition is simple. If the league wants Week 18 to become a real game, players need another bye to survive the season properly.<\/p>\n

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Read more:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"George Kittle is open to the NFL adding an 18th regular-season game, but only if players get an…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":703944,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[436],"tags":[49,48,42952,29896,34999,514,26080,948,82],"class_list":["post-703943","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nfl","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-front-office-sports","tag-george-kittle","tag-kittle","tag-nfl","tag-regular-season-game","tag-san-francisco-49ers","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/703943","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=703943"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/703943\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/703944"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=703943"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=703943"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=703943"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}