Report: NFL planning to shorten 2020 preseason to 2 games

The NFL is trimming the 2020 preseason from four games to two games, a source told Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk.

Preseason Week 1 and Week 4 are being scrapped, Florio adds.

But the National Football League Players Association has not yet approved the change, sources told NFL Network's Mike Garafolo, who adds some members of NFLPA leadership are questioning whether there should be any preseason games at all.

Teams will apparently now report to training camp in the last week of July and their two preseason games are scheduled to take place between Aug. 20-30.

Those contests will be adjusted so each team has one home game and one road game, Ben Fischer of the Sports Business Journal reports.

The 2020 Hall of Fame Game between the Pittsburgh Steelers and Dallas Cowboys, which would normally have kicked off the preseason, was canceled last week.

As a result of the shortened preseason, training camp rosters will likely feature fewer than 90 players, according to ESPN's Dan Graziano.

The NFL reduced its preseason from six games to four in 1978. The current format is expected to be cut to three games as early as 2021 when the new collective bargaining agreement takes effect and an extra game can be added to the regular-season schedule.