State of the NFL

[grog]

As I watched the Superbowl last night as a pretty much completely neutral observer, I couldn't help but think of where the game I love has evolved. Here are a couple of my thoughts:

1) The quality of play has diminished a lot. It almost doesn't seem like tackle football at times anymore.

- A 22 point lead 20 years ago was a lock. There were few comebacks from that kind of deficit.

- Chucking the ball deep downfield and hoping your guy ran under it to catch it used to be a desperation play. The Ravens now do this three or four times a game with pretty good success. Why? DBs have been legislated through rule changes to suck. Mission accomplished commissioner.

- I can't help but wonder if officiating has a deliberate role in these comebacks. Otherwise I can't explain why they happen so often now. I don't like it. The game has been cheapened since Goodell took over.

2) It makes me sad that a player like Ray Lewis is treated like the second coming.

- He is a thug and cheater. He's had 6 kids with 4 different women. He's at the very least an accomplice in a murder. He cheated to get healthy. Yet the NFL promotes him.

- What makes this worse is that one of the greatest coaches of all time is treated like a mass murderer, vilified at every turn in the road, and hated by everyone outside of Patriot Nation. We should be celebrating Bill Belichick and what he has done for the game. It is a very sad and twisted world when Lewis is the revered and BB is hated.

3) The future looks grim.

- The rules are going to continue to change to 'protect' players. These guys know what they are signing up for and not one of them would walk away from it. Yet the NFL will continue to pussify the rules. Just make the players sign a contract acknowledging they understand the risks and leave the game alone and work on making safer helmets and other equipment.

The game last night was moderately entertaining, but not real good football. The Ravens made enough plays to squeek out a win, but it was hardly a thing of beauty. The only good thing to come of last night is Ray Lewis is no longer int he NFL. Maybe that is the silver lining to all of this.

[Jaric]

The Nfls move towards "protecting players" is a direct result of getting sued by former players.

[HarpoonIPA]

Nice breakdown Grog, as I was watching the game last night I could not stop thinking about we are just a few years away from the NFL becoming the NFFL.

[HSanders]

I agree with all the offense and less defense laments wholeheartedly.
Some of it is the CBA and its practice rules, and some is the new protection rules. This is another reason Goodell and ownership pushing towards 18 regular season and 2-3 preseaon games angers me. Imagine if you will the quality of play, especially on defense, at the beginning of a season following preseason where none of your starters gets even 3 quarters worth of actual contact work before the season starts AND they have all these practice rules??? Ye gods.

[midgar8784]

Its hard to believe though that 10 points still stands as the largest comeback in a superbowl.

[grog]

Originally Posted by HSanders

I agree with all the offense and less defense laments wholeheartedly.
Some of it is the CBA and its practice rules, and some is the new protection rules. This is another reason Goodell and ownership pushing towards 18 regular season and 2-3 preseaon games angers me. Imagine if you will the quality of play, especially on defense, at the beginning of a season following preseason where none of your starters gets even 3 quarters worth of actual contact work before the season starts AND they have all these practice rules??? Ye gods.

Heard a proposal that teams may go to mostly an every other week schedule in the future. Two weeks between games to give players time for minor head trauma to heal. There would be games every week, but each team would have a reduced schedule of about 12 games. The season would be longer, meaning more TV revenue, etc. Thursday night games would be much less of an issue as would overseas games. The playoffs would get expanded in this new format too. Interesting idea.

[dchester]

Originally Posted by Jaric

The Nfls move towards "protecting players" is a direct result of getting sued by former players.

And it likely will get worse, now that the league is also being sued by Junior Seau's family.

[HSanders]

Originally Posted by grog

Heard a proposal that teams may go to mostly an every other week schedule in the future. Two weeks between games to give players time for minor head trauma to heal. There would be games every week, but each team would have a reduced schedule of about 12 games. The season would be longer, meaning more TV revenue, etc. Thursday night games would be much less of an issue as would overseas games. The playoffs would get expanded in this new format too. Interesting idea.

I hate the idea of overseas games and expanded playoffs, but the rest of the idea isn't bad, except for reducing it to 12 games/team. The other thing it may do is make cold weather SB sites more palatable since the SB would be played in March or thereabouts.

[grog]

Originally Posted by HSanders

I hate the idea of overseas games and expanded playoffs, but the rest of the idea isn't bad, except for reducing it to 12 games/team. The other thing it may do is make cold weather SB sites more palatable since the SB would be played in March or thereabouts.

LOL. No doubt.

[Whaler53]

Usually once the superbowl is over, I'm already looking forward to the next season. This year, I could really care less. And that really says alot

[grog]

Originally Posted by Whaler53

Usually once the superbowl is over, I'm already looking forward to the next season. This year, I could really care less. And that really says alot

Is that because you think the game has changed too much? Cheapened so to speak? I think the product is not as good as it was 10 - 15 years ago with inflated QB stats and weak defenses.

[Jaric]

Originally Posted by dchester

And it likely will get worse, now that the league is also being sued by Junior Seau's family.

Which is a bullshit lawsuit. I have no problem with Seau but he made the decision to end his life, not the NFL.

[Whaler53]

Originally Posted by grog

Is that because you think the game has changed too much? Cheapened so to speak? I think the product is not as good as it was 10 - 15 years ago with inflated QB stats and weak defenses.

Yeah, pretty much. That and I have no faith that the games aren't being swayed one way or another to suit the league's desires. And this has nothing to do with the Pats' loss, they got handled pretty severely by the better team.

I just have no faith in "the integrity of the game" so to speak.

That, and it IS an inferior product from what it was.

[midgar8784]

Originally Posted by Jaric

Which is a bullshit lawsuit. I have no problem with Seau but he made the decision to end his life, not the NFL.

and this is why they are changing a rule every 5 minutes to stop hits to the head....because of lawsuits like this. I always said, I do not blame Goodell, I blame the former players coming back and suing. I always hear old players tells us how tough the game was and how wimpy the guys are today and you should put dresses on them, so maybe trying to sue the NFL because you got hurt is not the best method to show me how tough you are.