Richard Sherman: NFL Putting 'Price Tag' on Player Safety with 17-Game Proposal

The NFL is pushing to extend the regular season to 17 games as part of its ongoing negotiations for a new collective bargaining agreement with the NFL Players Association, but the idea has met significant resistance among some prominent players.

San Francisco 49ers cornerback Richard Sherman is among them, and he confirmed his stance Wednesday by saying that the league is putting a "price tag" on player safety with its proposal.

"It’s odd to me...when you hear players safety is their biggest concern, but it seems like player safety has a price tag," Sherman said per 95.7 The Game.

"Players safety up to the point of 'hey 17 games makes us this much money so we really don’t care how safe they are...'"

Sherman noted he doesn't think the two sides are "in the same ballpark in that regard," per the Santa Rosa Press Democrat's Phil Barber.

The current CBA expires after the 2020 season.

Sherman isn't the only player to express doubts surrounding the idea, with Jacksonville Jaguars defensive end Calais Campbell providing the following thoughts to ESPN's Jenna Laine and Michael DiRocco:

"When I talk to the guys, I don't think many people want to do it. Really, you talk to guys and I don't think anybody wants to do it. It's going to be very, very tough. I know the ownership's really hard on it. We're definitely talking, trying to figure out what we need to do, how we can make this thing work.

"It's going to be a process, but 17 [games], that's very tough."

Per CBS Sports' Jason La Canfora, the league would drop the number of preseason games from four to two and add an extra bye week.

The 17th game for each team would be an out-of-market contest.

Despite the truncated preseason, Baltimore Ravens guard Marshal Yanda noted that it likely wouldn't have much of an impact on the team's starters, per Laine and DiRocco.

"Most of the starters don't play in that last [preseason] game anyway, so if you take away that one preseason game, you're not taking away anything for us. You're just adding a game. I'm not for the extra game. I think the game's long enough. It's physical enough, tough enough on people's bodies to play 16 games and also playoffs, so I'm just not for that.

"I understand that it's going to be hard to stop it, but I'm not for increasing the games at all."

On the other side, La Canfora wrote that rosters would expand, so more players would have jobs with this new proposal.

Still, Sherman isn't the only Pro Bowler to express concerns about player safety as it relates to a 17-game season. Falcons tight end Austin Hooper had similar thoughts on the matter, per Laine and DiRocco:

"I don't have the answers, but I think if the NFL says they care about player safety and tell the parents of kids in youth football how much they care about player safety, then it doesn't make sense to play football without more rest. So it'll be interesting to see if their actions align with their words.

"... I mean, the NFL is coming under a lot of player scrutiny -- there's a lot of former players taking their own lives and having a lot of issues -- and their answer now is to play more football and have more traumatic brain injuries. If they care as much as they say they do publicly, I feel that they should add another bye week."

The NFL has played a 16-game season since 1978, when the league increased the schedule from 14 matchups.