Mike Florio

This year, they told us that they were going to release the ballots and they didn't.

And because one of the voters made Justin Herbert the first place MVP finalist, I'd love to be able to see all the numbers and I'd love to be able to crunch them backward and see whether or not that one decision swung the award forward.

from drake may to matthew stafford it could be that that one ballot determined the whole thing well and sam munson of pro football focus has said it was him so right because we've got 10 points for first five points for second or right there's a you know there's a formula for how many points you get but it was just a five point difference at the end between stafford and may

You look at that ballot, and it's possible that if you just flip a guy here or there, that's all the difference, and Drake may have won the thing.

And there's still a chance, even though a tie is very unlikely now because there's five people on each ballot, and the points make it just much harder for two guys to end up with the exact same number.

But it's possible it could have been May.

It's possible it could have been Stafford and May in a tie.

Well, that's right.

And it's funny.

He disclosed his ballot, I think, under the impression that the AP was going to do it for him.

If he had known the AP wasn't going to do it this year, because I'm informed that they aren't going to do it this year, and I'm trying to find out why, maybe he wouldn't have raised his hand.

I think the NFL is playing it very cool for now until there's a new executive director in place for the NFL Players Association.

That could happen as soon as March.

And then at that point, I think the NFL will embark upon its effort to renegotiate the CBA to create an 18th regular season game and to expand the number of annual international games from 10 to 16.

That's another thing that the NFL really wants to do.

And here's what we need to understand.

come 2031 when the current CBA expires, the NFL will lock out the players until they cry uncle on 18 regular season games and 16 international games and whatever else the NFL wants.

Because we learned in 2011 that when it comes down to it, the players are going to take the best offer because they don't want to miss game checks.

They don't want to not play games.

So for the players, the final question isn't going to be 18 games versus 17 games.