NFL owners are gathering on Monday and Tuesday in Phoenix for their annual meeting, where they expect to approve a new succession plan for the Raiders, award the 2029 Super Bowl to Las Vegas and open up local preseason game rights to streamers to streamers.
Owners will also hear an update on the Paul G. Allen Trust’s efforts to sell the Seahawks, the latest on NFL preliminary negotiations over new media rights deals with Paramount and others, including a five-game mini-package that would take effect this year, and financial and international updates.
One thing to watch: It’s possible the owners extend Roger Goodell’s contract at this meeting. The powerful compensation committee was scheduled to meet on Sunday, and his current deal is set to expire in a year, in March 2027, though there is zero doubt around the league Goodell has the job as long as he wants it.
Also on the agenda are sales of small limited-partner stakes in the Dolphins and Steelers, and a proposed change to a scheduling policy that limits teams to two “short weeks” per year, which today mostly works to restrict the number of Thursday night games for any given team.
If approved, the change would state explicitly that the limit does not apply to Friday games, sources said. This means that a team could play two short-week Thursday games and also be scheduled on Black Friday or Christmas, which is a Friday this year. TV rightsholders, specifically Amazon, would benefit from the added flexibility to get the biggest TV draws into the most standalone windows.
On the field of play, possible rule changes up for a vote include:
As they often do at the March meetings, NFL leaders will again bring in outside executives to speak to the assembled owners, executives and guests. On Sunday night, they were scheduled to hear an artificial intelligence presentation from OpenAI VP/Science & Chief Product Officer Kevin Weil, moderated by tech founder and former NFLer Andrew Hawkins. This morning, Kevin Allocca, YouTube’s global director of culture and trends, was scheduled to speak.