Decade Of Change: Eliminating Mediocrity In America's Favorite Sport

i love how OT is right now. 63% is a disparity, but not so huge as to warrant a change. the team that loses the flip should play defense (after all it is half of the game). there are numerous ways the offense can screw up and help out the team that lost the coin flip. its not like “you win the toss congrats you win that game.” the other team still needs to execute and preform. a great example of course is the GB-AR game. the defense won the game.

and i dont buy the argument that other sports do it the way you suggest. (such as the mlb). in baseball its impossible to score while pitching, in the nfl a score can come whether on defense, special teams or offense. i love the urgency that goes into sudden death OT. i would never want it any other way.

well said, Brian.

The pissing off the fans bit is the most important thing to fix in my opinion. I have been a loyal NFL fan my whole life but even I blow a fuse when I call my cable provider to ask for NFL Network and they inform me that they don’t carry it. So not only do I have to pay for NFL Network, but I can’t even pay extra for it if I want it?

Direct TV also hurts. Its expensive and its hard to get unless you get a dish. It should be offered on all platforms for a price. I promise fans will pay for it.

PSL’s are ridiculous. I didn’t even grasp the concept until someone brought it to my attention earlier this season. Its just plain wrong and needs to go.

Jerome Bettis’ legendary coin flip on Thanksgiving is a great example of why both teams should get a chance at the ball in overtime.

Well written, piece.

is a fantastic product and it would be so extremely successful if it could be offered to all football fans.

I live in Syracuse in an apartment complex that doesn’t allow for anything but Time Warner, but when I visit my parents at home, they have Direct TV so they have the NFL Network. The NFL Network has constant analysis and, after all, who doesn’t want NFL football 24 hours a day?

I was home for X-Mas break during the Bills-Falcons game and I got bored, so I switched to the RedZone channel. It is God’s greatest gift to mankind. Every big play, every scoring play, no commercials.

I swear, I’m not working for the NFL here, but man, if they could get things straightened out with the cable companies, they’d get a lot more satisfied television customers and that network would take off.

I especially like the idea of a minor league and the ability to send a guy down or up to the 53 man roster without losing the rights on their contracts. I think the quality of the game would improve dramatically.

Abolishing the PSLs is a great idea but I doubt they’d ever do it. The problem that might arise in time is exactly what killed NFL football in Toronto, greed. Obviously the Rogers Corp had ulterior motives behind the 8 game series but because of their initial greed they probably killed any chance that could have existed. A special thanks to Mr Rogers for being so greedy, it ultimately will help keep the Bills in Buffalo.

I agree with all that you stated and have to give you a lot of credit for the developmental league comment. I can’t believe more people are not lobbying for this. It makes a ton of sense, and would help justify eliminating a few pre-season games; games where young talent is evaluated while the real talent sits on the bench.

Make the UFL or the Vegas League the “developmental league” that is something done early in the season for only 6-8 weeks. Then have the April draft go 10 – 12 rounds. Teams then have their “rights” on players and can bring them to OTA’s, Training camp and then 1/2 way through camp, the clubs can be split and then farmed out to the developmental leagues. The pre-season can be shortened and even an extra game can be added to the season. After the UFL is over, teams will have the option to pull up a certain number of their players they have “rights” too, or after so many years (say 2-3) in the UFL and no “promotion” to another team, they become UFA’s for any team to sign. Coaches can also be “developed” and assigned accordingly too. If a player is “drafted” the rookie wage scale is in place through the first 2-3 years, then teams can have the option to renegotiate with the player before they are able to go to UFA. Any player within their first 2-3 years that plays in a current NFL game then gets an escalation in salary to the wage they first negotiated and agreed to after they were drafted. This will provide them with an incentive to actually “earn” their wage first, rather than getting it for just being drafted. If a team wants a rookie to start or be on the NFL roster right away… no problem, then can and will just have to pay the higher wage.

PSL’s… totally agree.

NFL Network, I have it with DirectV, but I am frustrated that DTV raises the NFL Ticket considerably every year. I am seriously considering dropping it so I can just go ahead and watch RedZone on NFL Network the following day. I will DVR it and watch most of the game, then I can watch full quick games on NFL Replay on NFL Network.

Overtime, Give each team possession like college except start at the 40 and go from there. A score isn’t always guaranteed.

I love the idea of the minor league system. NFL Europe was not cutting it and really the only benefits came from a few extra roster spots during training camp.

The UFL is clearly a good idea to help with that, but it is not run by the NFL and is kind of competing with the NFL. A spring/summer league that allows not only players but coaches to get bigger roles to help in development.

OT needs to be fixed I like the idea that each team gets the ball once and then it becomes sudden death after that.

1. The NFL already has one of the better marketed developmental leagues for any sport in the world: NCAA Football. Other discussions of the UFL, WWFL, Arena Football…all worthless for traditional football fans. The best bet is to continue the proliferation of American football and eventually just add 8 more teams (one per division), hoping that there are that many talented players in the world and the product isn’t too watered down. This is probably a 20-30 year plan.

2. Competition vs. Parity: the cost of equal competition across the board are a bunch of 9-7 teams getting into the playoffs. Parity, typically identified as a good thing, has led to a natural 6-7 year cycle of teams that tank and teams that dominate.

3. OT Rules clearly need to be addressed. I think the one idea I’ve never seen written about is the idea of just tacking on an additional two minutes to the end of the 4th quarter in the event of a tie, in which case it is treated like the last two minutes of the game until the clock goes down to zero and one team has a lead. No messy game stoppages, rule explanations, or coin flips.

4. Regarding their treatment of fans, the bigger question is how they’re going to recapture the market surely lost from the now permanent fantasy-playing, HD-watching computer user that would rather sit on his comfortable sofa with his laptop than paying mind-boggling prices for parking, beer, and otherwise (“Hey, I coulda gone to Taco Bell three times for the cost of that!”). The best thing they could do to recapture the experience is to drop concession prices and parking costs. Otherwise, it’s hard to imagine average SBN-blogger guy from mustering up either the energy or the money to leave that sweet-ass 42" LCD HDTV with all the angles and scores one could ever hope for (while catching his fantasy updates at arm’s length).

A developmental league is a must, but is not going to happen because it will cost the league and the teams money upfront. Same with abandoning PSL’s, which are the ultimate rip off.

OT, I like the “Sudden Death”. You HAD your chance to win the game in 60 minutes, lose the flip and you HAVE your chance to play Defense. Can you say urgency?

PSL, I paid it for the new Cowboys Stadium with a resignation that speaks to the way 21st century sports business operates.

Pre Season is my #1 complaint, players do not need to play their way into shape anymore, and I hate being forced to pay full price for Pre Season to get my Real Season tickets. Make it 2 games or do away with it alltogether. Charge me 1/2 price for the one home Pre Season game and maybe I will be okay.

Frankly, I’m not sure teams do make enough money to fund their stadiums outright. What I think is a travesty are teams who beg for money from their local or state governments to do it. People who don’t go to or care about games shouldn’t be forced to pay for new stadiums at the expense of new schools or real community programs.

The freaking Yankees even took gov’t handouts… It’s a joke. PSLs ensure that the people actually going to the stadium are footing the bill. Would it be great if teams had $700 million in cash laying around to pay for it themselves? Sure, but they don’t. My heart does go out to the average guy that might be priced out of his seats, but it goes out more to the kids in crumbling schools who won’t get any improvements because the Eagles and Phillies needed money for new stadiums.

Whether or not the way the NFL does it is more or less “fair” than the way college does it… College is more exciting. Shouldn’t that be what it’s about?

I really should have put all these thoughts in one post… But I think the biggest thing the NFL needs to do is restore the ridiculous lack of balance between offense and defense right now. It seems like every rule change in the past 5 years has favored the offense and it’s now completely out of control. The rules and refs favor offenses far too much right now.

Pass rusher can’t look at the QB wrong, DBs can’t breathe on a WR… What chance do these guys have?

- Having rounds 1-3 of the draft starting at 12:00pm EST on a Saturday in April, and then 4-7 the next day made for one of the best weekends of the year. Sensing the opportunity to cash in last year, they moved the 3rd round to Sunday and started Round 1 at 4pm. This year, they stepped WAAAY over the line putting the 1st round on Thursday night. Thanks for ruining the best weekend of the year, Roger.

- Piggy-backing on the NFL Network thing, the NFL Sunday Ticket is only available through DirecTV, which is the worst cable provider on Earth, that oh by the way, not everyone can have.

- The lack of explanations of fines and suspensions is really frustrating. There’s really no rhyme or reason. As an Eagles fan, I’ll cite the Michael Vick 2-game suspension to start the season. Apparently determining that spending 19 months in Leavenworth wasn’t quite enough, Commissioner Roger Goodell decided that suspending Michael Vick for 2 games was juuuuuust the right amount of extra time Vick needed to be away from football to satisfy his debt to society. A full year suspension? Fine, no problem. No suspension? OK, fine. 2 game suspension? Explanation please.

No change in the OT rules.

Please no expanding the regular season games or we’ll see more teams resting their starters earlier than ever.

Nix playing overseas. This is America’s game.

Move the Draft back to the weekend! Beginning it on a Thursday night is so inferior to an all-day party two days in a row on the weekend.