Kyle Hamilton isn’t pretending football is harmless.
The Ravens safety, speaking after Wednesday’s joint practice with the Commanders, laid out a blunt view of where the sport is headed and what he’s willing to accept as part of playing it. Hamilton expects the NFL to reach a 20-game regular season within the next decade, and he’s already thinking about the toll that kind of future could take on the next generation.
“It’s a dangerous sport, it’s a collision sport,” Hamilton says. “It’s something we all acknowledge.
If I can put my future self, my future family, my kids and their kids in a position of success, and I sacrifice a little bit, I’m fine with that personally. I don’t know how I feel about my kids playing football necessarily; there’s so many other things you can do.
But from my perspective, I see it as I fall on my sword for people who have provided for me and people that I will provide for.”
Hamilton, who is entering his fifth NFL season, has already watched the game’s risks play out in painful ways. Since arriving as a 2022 first-round pick out of Notre Dame, he saw Bills safety Damar Hamlin nearly die on the field in a game against the Bengals.
Hamlin remains on Buffalo’s roster. Hamilton is also part of a Ravens organization that recently lost O.J.
Brigance, who died on Aug. 17 after a long battle with ALS.
Brigance played seven seasons in the NFL as a linebacker and won a Super Bowl with the 2000 Ravens. Hamilton pointed to a recent Boston University and Mass General study that found NFL players are four times more likely to be diagnosed with ALS, using every player who appeared in at least one game from 1960 through 2019.
That reality shapes how Hamilton thinks about football at home, too.
“I’d probably push [my future kids] in a different direction,” says Hamilton of competing in football beyond high school. “But if they’re like, Dad, I love football and it’s what I love and what I want to do, then I’ll teach them about safety and all this other stuff. But there’s only one way to play football, and that’s physically.”
Hamilton doesn’t expect the league’s appetite for more games to slow down. Around the NFL, there’s a sense that an 18-game schedule is coming before the decade ends, with each team getting nine home and nine road games, or possibly an international game each season, along with two byes.
The league has already shown how far it’s willing to stretch the calendar. Black Friday and Christmas games are now part of the yearly slate, and Netflix paid $150 million for the rights. In 2024, the Chiefs played on every day of the week except Tuesday, including three games in 11 days from Weeks 15 through 17.
Even with JC Tretter now leading the NFLPA, Hamilton doesn’t see the union stopping the league’s momentum. He views 18 games less as a final stop and more as a step on the way to something bigger.
“I don’t think it’s really realistic in terms of union versus shield power,” Hamilton says. “I think everything these days dilutes itself.
… I think we’ll be at 20 games before we know it. I wouldn’t be surprised in the next 10 years or so if that happens.
It’s about money at the end of the day.”
Hamilton also floated an idea for changing the sport itself, though he was quick to acknowledge it might be a bad one. He suggested two 45-minute halves with running clocks and added time, like soccer, along with cutting the play clock from 40 seconds to 25. In that setup, he thinks the regular season could grow to 20 to 25 games.
For now, though, Hamilton’s focus is on the 2026 season, Jesse Minter’s new defense, and whether the Ravens can win their first Super Bowl since 2012. He knows the bigger debates are well above his level.
Still, his view on the sport is clear: he’s willing to take on the danger now, but he’d rather his own kids choose a different path.
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