Roger Goodell Answers Bill Cowher On NFL's Referee Dispute, 18 Games, & More

The NFL Draft has transformed from a theater event to a massive outdoor festival, attracting hundreds of thousands of fans. Goodell attributes this success to moving the draft to different communities, allowing fans to 'wrap their arms around it' and take ownership, making it the 'ultimate fan event' that is free and showcases local pride.

The Pittsburgh draft saw 320,000 attendees. Goodell states, "It's just bringing it to the fans and once you brought it to the communities, they just wrapped their arms around it and they made it theirs ultimately."

The NFL is focused on making officials more accountable, ensuring the best performers are on the field, and improving officiating overall. The league is prepared for a potential lockout if an agreement isn't reached, but their primary goal is better performance. There's also a strong push to integrate technology to correct obvious errors and prevent career-altering missed calls.

Goodell states, "What we are trying to do though is make our officials more accountable, get the best performers on the field, and make officiating better." He adds, "How do we use technology to be able to correct that so that we do get the right outcome and we don't have people losing jobs because of the wrong crop."

While an 18-game season is discussed, Goodell emphasizes it is 'not inevitable' and player safety remains the primary concern. Any expansion would necessitate discussions with the Players Association and Competition Committee regarding double bye weeks and increased roster sizes to mitigate player wear and tear.

Goodell states, "If you can't do it safely for our players, we're not going to do it. And that's why I would say it's not inevitable." He adds that "double buys will be a question. Roster sizes will be a question. All of those things are going to be really important to consider."

The NFL is actively expanding its international footprint, with a goal that every team could play an international game if the schedule expands. Market selection is highly data-driven, leveraging fan engagement metrics from platforms like YouTube. Flag football is a key strategy for global fan development, especially among young women and new international fans, due to its accessibility and lower cost.

Goodell mentions, "if we if we went to the 18, you could do that easily enough. Um, where everybody plays an international game every year." He also notes, "We put 42,000 tickets on sale [in Australia]. They were gone in less than an hour."

The NFL has tweaked the new kickoff rule, primarily on the formation side, to enhance player safety, specifically for returners and tacklers. Despite initial visual adjustment challenges for fans, the rule has successfully brought more returns back into the game, making it a more exciting play while continuously seeking safety improvements.

Goodell explains, "we did tweak it this year. It was really just more on the formation side of it... we brought,00 returns back into the game. An exciting play."