NFL owners approve 17-game regular season, 3 preseason games

By BARRY WILNER The NFL is increasing the regular season to 17 games and planning to have full stadiums for those games. While reducing the preseason to three games the league will be able to generate additional revenue, of course. America’s most popular sport also will provide more content for the broadcast partners who soon will be spending a total of about $10 billion a year on rights fees. Team owners at a virtual meeting on Tuesday approved the 17th game as expected, marking the first time in 43 years the regular season has been increased. It went from 14 to 16 games in 1978. The Super Bowl now will move back a week to Feb. 13, which places it directly in the middle of the Winter Olympics in Beijing. Coincidentally, NBC has the broadcast rights to both. Each extra NFL game will