Former NFL stars weigh pros and cons of league's global expansion, streaming games

Today's National Football League sure looks a lot different than it did even less than two decades ago.

The schedule has increased to 17 games, with 18 certainly not out of the question. Those games are now played in more places globally than ever before, and you may need plenty of subscription services to watch your favorite teams.

It's another world that has its pros and cons, but the pros don't seem to be on the side of fans, who are spending more money than ever to watch their favorite teams.

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To catch all the action throughout the 2025 season, fans had to fork over at least $575, and some spent nearly $800.

"I'm all about having games on mainstream. I watched games growing up, all the games on mainstream. I actually didn't watch plenty of games this year because it was on a streaming network, and it was difficult to make an account real quick, wherever I was on the road, you know, in a hotel room. I wasn't home. I'm all about mainstream," future Hall of Famer Rob Gronkowski told Fox News Digital in a recent interview. "I understand the business side of the NFL, and as a businessman, I will never hate the way that it's going because it's all about the business, you know? You gotta keep it growing, you gotta get the money and all that good stuff. So you can't hate on that, but I'm a mainstream guy."

"It sucks ... There's pros to this thing and then there's definitely cons where everyone has to go, 'Where are we going for this game, that game, that game, this game?'" added Gronk's former teammate Julian Edelman. "So I think there's a bunch of good things about it, and clearly there's some things that, you know, that aren't good about it. So that's where I stand on it."

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The NFL has also talked more about players' safety, yet the conversation about going to 18 games is real, and the NFL will be playing in Australia later this year.

But Edelman hardly feels for today's players given their contracts.

"Do you see what these guys are signing for? They'll be all right," Edelman said. "The bigger the game gets, the more the guys are going to get paid, and it's going to feature them in the big picture a lot better. So I think this is a great thing for the league once the game gets bigger internationally, because if the game gets bigger, the players get paid more. So I'm all for that.

"I mean, [Jaxon Smith-Njigba] just got $42 million (per year) as a receiver. I think the bigger the game gets, I think it's greater for everyone... Would I have liked it as a player to play 18 games? No, but we're making the game bigger. It's a double-edged sword. It's gonna suck because it's gonna hurt a lot more, but the revenues are gonna be higher."

"That's why the salary cap just keeps jumping every single year. The game is expanding," Gronkowski added. "And on top of that, the NFL does a really good job with scheduling. For example, the Australia game this year, it's going to be the opening game of the year on a Wednesday or Thursday, and then when they fly back, they're going to gain all that time. 

"So they have all that time to go there, get adjusted, be there for five days, and then they can fly back to L.A. and then boom, they land and they gain a day back and then they can recover for three days and then have a normal week. So it's all about scheduling. So I like what they're doing, and it's all about expanding the business. So if they keep the scheduling the correct way, where the players can recover well, then I think it's great for the game, man. I really do."

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