Could The NFL Schedule An Annual Game Between Las Vegas And San Francisco?

When the NFL mandated that its 32 teams add a 17th game to their respective schedules for the 2021 season, commissioner Roger Goodell immediately began itching to increase the number of regular-season contests to 18.

Never mind that producing a 16-game schedule for a league with 32 teams was so easy a caveman could do it, Goodell was convinced that the fans were clamoring for at least 17 games before the playoffs commenced.

Looking forward, and with Goodell currently fixated on 18 games amid rumors that at least a 33rd team could be added to the NFL stable, cobbling together a fair-and-reasonable schedule could become so difficult that even Stephen Hawking would balk at attempting to try it.

So, while the league is obviously dead-set on adding an 18th game - as well as playing one game a week in a foreign city, but that's a topic for another day - no one has been quite able to pin down just exactly how the new bigger-and-better(?) schedule would look.

That is until Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones - who appears to have accepted with open arms the role of league gadfly - let slip on Oct. 2 that one solution to the 18th-game conundrum would be to have each franchise play one yearly "rivalry" game against a specific team from the opposite conference.

Reporting for Silver and Black Pride, Bill Williamson wrote that Jones had hinted that the NFL could have its teams play annual games between geographic rivals. This led Williamson to wonder if an annual battle between the Las Vegas Raiders and San Francisco 49ers might be palatable, writing, "If the league does adopt that policy could the Las Vegas Raiders and San Francisco 49ers be included? It would be interesting."

Of course, it would have been a heckuva lot more interesting if the Raiders still played in Oakland, CA, but that ship sailed in 2020 when the Raiders embarked for Sin City.

Also, couldn't an annual grudge match with the Los Angeles Rams also be appealing? After all, the Raiders and Rams once upon a time did share an actual stadium - LA's Memorial Coliseum from 1982-94 - and not just a body of water. Plus, Las Vegas is 300 miles closer to LA (229 miles) than it is to Santa Clara, CA, (532 miles), which the Niners technically call home now.

That being said, an annual Raiders-Rams matchup also wouldn't make much sense given that the Rams currently share SoFi Stadium with the Los Angeles Chargers, making it a more natural "rivalry" choice.

That appears to be the true inspiration that is sparking this potential rivalry-game boondoggle.

According to an Oct. 4 report by Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk, the NFL - as verbalized by Jones - likes the idea behind what Florio calls "no-brainer" annual interconference rivalries, such as Rams-Chargers, New York Jets vs. New York Giants, Baltimore Ravens vs. Washington Commandeers, Pittsburgh Steelers vs. Philadelphia Eagles, Dallas Cowboys vs. Houston Texans and, if you squint a bit, Tennessee Titans vs. Atlanta Falcons. And, yes, Florio also includes Raiders-49ers in his list of natural rivalries.

Side note: Florio also thinks it's inevitable that the league will eventually adopt a 19-game schedule. Yeesh.

"We obviously have a rotation involved that is the best as far as fair, complete competition year-in, year-out, around the entire league. But it’s certainly something that I would look at," Florio quoted Jones as saying on Oct. 2 during his weekly radio show in Dallas. "I’d look at the entire league, you saw a game on TV [on Oct. 1]...between Cleveland and Pittsburgh. They’re in the same division, but those kinds of proximities, those kinds of ‘my town against your town, and who’s the best town?’ Which I think is a fundamental of our game of football. ‘My town against your town. My school against your school.’ That’s a big part of it. It’s hard to emulate anyplace but in the United States to get that rolling.”

But that's just focusing on low-hanging fruit. Sure, the Chicago Bears and Indianapolis Colts would make some sense, especially if the Bears end up relocating to the Hoosier State. Something could also probably be worked out with the three Florida teams, but if Tampa Bay Buccaneers-Jacksonville Jaguars is designated a rivalry game, does that make Miami Dolphins-Carolina Panthers another one, or does Miami-Jacksonville/Tampa Bay-Tennessee make more sense, but then what to do with Carolina, the New Orleans Saints and Atlanta?

The number of rabbit holes that will need to be negotiated in these scenarios will have orthopedic surgeons on 24-hour call waiting to repair the next broken or twisted ankle that results from tripping in one of those aforementioned rabbit holes.

And we haven't even begun to consider what "natural rivalries" will be available to outlier teams like the Minnesota Vikings, Arizona Cardinals and Buffalo Bills. Anyone looking forward to an annual Vikings-Cincinnati Bengals matchup or showdown between the Cardinals and Kansas City Chiefs?

Thankfully, this discussion appears for now to be in its earliest stages, with a measured, well-thought-out approach hopefully prevailing when, not if, the NFL moves to an 18- or 19-game regular-season schedule in the near-future.