The lure of more money was too much to pass up.
NFL owners did the expected Tuesday and approved a 17-game regular season beginning this fall.
Owners built the right to expand the regular season into their collective bargaining agreement last spring, and the move was widely expected — despite the protests of players during CBA negotiations — after a revenue shortfall due to the coronavirus pandemic in 2020.
Under the league's new scheduling formula, teams will continue to play two games against each of their division opponents, two intraconference games based on the prior year's standings, four interconference games against another division on a rotating basis and single games against every team from another division within the conference.