NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said Thursday that the league is not currently planning on adding new teams, clarifying comments he made in early February about expanding in order to get a team to play in Los Angeles.
2012's notable free agents
Matt Flynn highlights a group of intriguing players waiting to hit the free agent market. Here's a list of some of the more notable ones. **More ...**
"We are not considering expansion," Goodell said in an interview with ESPN 1050 in New York.
Goodell had said on "Costas Live" on NBC Sports Network in early February that if the league were to place a team in Los Angeles, it would likely add two new teams rather than move one from another city. On Friday, he explained that he was answering a speculative question with a hypothetical response.
"When I was asked by Bob Costas recently (about expansion), he said, 'You just go to 33 teams.' I said, 'I don't think you would ever expand by one team, you'd expand by two teams.' But it was very clear that expansion's not something we've considered," Goodell said Friday.
He added that "it is something that we potentially could do down the road, having the kind of stability that we have, but we like our structure right now. We like the 32 teams. We think the scheduling is in a good place, we want to keep our teams where they are."
Organizations such as the St. Louis Rams and Minnesota Vikings have been dealing with unsettled stadium situations and have been mentioned as candidates for relocation. Without referring to any teams specifically, Goodell said the league is committed to preventing teams from moving.
"We are working hard to make sure we either get the stadiums built or do the kinds of things that are necessary to build the fan support to make those teams successful in those communities," he said, "and we'll look at the Los Angeles opportunity as it comes and try to figure out the right way to solve that problem if a solution can be determined."
Goodell did say that the league could do more internationally, such as "expanding our regular-season series in the UK and maybe even potentially in Canada."
