18-game season a possibility

INDIANAPOLIS -- It seems NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell is in favor of more games in the regular season and fewer in the preseason.

The topic of adding one or two regular-season games to the schedule and subtracting an identical number from the preseason was broached again this year after several key players were injured.

"We're giving serious consideration to it," Goodell said shortly before kickoff of the Bears-Colts game, the first at Lucas Oil Field. "We're doing a lot of analysis from the football standpoint, and we're doing a lot of financial analysis as it relates."

There are several steps to be taken before any change is implemented, though.

"It'll be subject to a three-quarters vote of the ownership, but also media contracts and the labor negotiations," Goodell said. "There are still significant challenges ahead, but we think it's compelling from the standpoint of the quality of our preseason. It'll improve the quality of those two remaining (preseason) games, and it'll improve the quality of our content, which is something we're always looking to do."

There is, as of yet, no consensus on whether the majority favors 17 regular-season games and three preseason games or 18 and two, and Goodell doubted that any change would occur for the 2009 season.

"I think the 18 and 2 is one alternative," Goodell said. "That's the furthest we would go; 17 and three is still something we'd consider, maybe as an initial step into an 18 and 2."