https://fortune.com/2022/01/13/nfl-playoffs-expanded-17th-ex…
The NFL stands to make hundreds of millions of extra dollars in 2021–22 via its expanded schedule, which includes one extra week of regular season games completed last Sunday and two additional first-round playoff clashes set for this weekend, public documents and media reports show.
Slightly more than half of that money will flow to the league’s 32 owners, with the rest funneling down to players in the form of higher salaries.
For nearly two decades, the NFL’s schedule had been as consistent as Tom Brady: All 32 teams played 16 regular season games, with 12 teams reaching a single-elimination postseason tournament. The league blossomed during that stretch, with revenues rocketing to about $16 billion in 2019 before taking a pandemic-induced dip down to about $12 billion in 2020, according to the Sports Business Journal.