It’s amazing how the NFL can’t get all 32 owners to collectively agree on whether or not instant replay should be allowed in the game, but they sure as hell come together when they feel they’re not making enough money.
Recently all 32 NFL owners unanimously decided to opt out of the league’s Collective Bargaining Agreement, which means a potential lockout looms on the horizon.
The biggest problem is that the owners thought the current labor agreement didn’t generate enough profit, so now they’ll go to battle over the next however many days, weeks, months or years to try and work out a deal that does.
One question: Instead of bitching about profit (these are millionaire owners by the way), why don’t the league and owners come together and work on ways to improve the game?
Football is by far the most popular sport in America, but it doesn’t come without its flaws. If the owners and league are going to squabble over money, they should also fight to improve the game, too.
Here are 10 ideas on how to improve the NFL, both on and off the field. There’s more that could be done, but let’s start with baby steps, because the owners need to get back to concentrating on how many more millions they’re not making. They can’t be bothered with too many ideas that could actually help improve the game.
This isn’t ranked in any particular order. All the ideas are worth discussing.
1. Have a rookie cap
The Falcons recently signed 2008 third overall pick Matt Ryan to a $72 million contract with $34.75 million in guarantees. The deal is the third largest in NFL history. Does anyone see a problem with this? The kid hasn’t taken one snap, yet he’ll make more than several quarterbacks who just led their teams to the postseason last year. The league needs to put a cap on rookie contracts so it can avoid holdouts fostered by money-grubbing agents. The NBA has employed a rookie cap and thus far, it has eliminated holdouts. There’s no way a rookie should waltz into his first training camp making more than his Pro Bowl teammate.
2. Cut the preseason down to two or three games and add a 17th regular season game
Coaches say they need all four preseason games so that they can completely evaluate their roster. It seems understandable at first, but when you consider the amount of film coaches can use from mini camps, training camps and preseason contests, do they really need four exhibition games to decide who the backup center is going to be? Instead of four preseason games, why doesn’t the league give fans an extra regular season game? This also helps the owners in that they’ll make much more profit from an additional regular season game than they would from a fourth preseason contest. (Do I have your attention now, Mr. Owner?)
3. Change overtime rules
I’ve fought this idea for a while because I thought it was unique that the NFL had a do-or-die mentality to overtime and college football didn’t. But when you really think about it, how ridiculous is it that a coin flip could essentially determine the end of a football game? A team could battle for 60 minutes, only to eventually lose the game because a coin came up heads instead of tails. Overtime is exciting in college football because each team gets an opportunity to win. The same idea should be applied to the NFL, although instead of having each team start at the opponents’ 25-yard line (which is instant field goal range in the NFL), how about having the starting position at the 35 or 40-yard line? Make an offense drive a little.
4. Have all BYE weeks Week 8
How fair is it that some teams get BYE weeks in Week 3 and others in Week 8? Sure, a team might have injuries and could use the rest after only two games, but then that team has to play 14 straight games to finish out the season. Some teams automatically get an advantage over their opponents just based on when their bye week occurs, so why not make one universal BYE week at the midway point of the season? Yes, it would undoubtedly be lame to not have NFL football for one whole week, but we’re only talking about one weekend. Think of it as an All-Star break for the NFL.
5. Make pass interference a 15-yard penalty
I’m tired of watching teams chuck the ball downfield, hoping to get pass interference called so that they can immediately move into scoring position. It completely takes away from the strategy of the game – something that makes football so great. Given that the rules are currently designed to give wide receivers an advantage, why help the offense even more by giving them loads of field position just because they were lucky enough to get a call? A 15-yard penalty should be the max a team is awarded for pass interference.
6. Teams forfeit any game if caught cheating
Remember what would happen if you were ever caught cheating in school? In most cases, the teacher would rip up your test and give you a zero. No mercy, baby. The NFL should adopt the same policy and cut the bullshit. Caught videotaping your opponents’ signals? You forfeit the game. You lose. You get a zero. Both teams caught cheating? They both get a loss. The only potential problem is coming up with evidence to prove that a team cheated (especially coming up with evidence quick enough on a week to week basis). Plus, what if a team goes an entire year cheating and doesn’t get caught? (I’m looking at you, Belicheat.) Do they forfeit all of their wins once the season is over with? There’s one problem – if win-loss record determines draft position, and the Patriots cheat in all 16 games during a season, they would technically get the first pick. Obviously, details would have to be ironed out and it’s going to be hard to regulate, but the point is that there has to be a more severe punishment for cheating.
7. Leave the replay system alone
Don’t change the replay system because you’re worried about slowing down the game. This isn’t baseball – the tempo of the game is fine. If the league is worried about picking up the pace, then it should limit all of the commercials in between damn near every play (more on this below). Referees are human and if they need a little help from the vast technology at their disposal, then they should be able to use it. While I don’t advocate having replay for every single play, getting the call right should be the only thing that matters. The current replay system is fine.
8. A fumble is a fumble
How can the ground not cause a fumble? If a player is on the field of play and he loses control of the ball, that’s a fumble. The whole idea behind the game is hanging onto the ball and moving it down field to score. So why does the league reward a fumbling player by giving him the ball back just because the ground caused the gaff? This isn’t golf – there are no mulligans. It doesn’t matter how the ball comes out – it came out. And if the opposing team recovers, then it’s their ball. This would limit some of the guesswork for referees too, something that they could definitely use.
9. No more TV timeouts directly following kickoffs
This is more of an annoyance than anything. As a fan, you’re all jacked up for the start of another week of NFL action and the kickoff just occurred. What happens next? Well, a commercial, of course. You just waded through 27 commercials through all the pregame coverage, now you have to make your way through five more until the actual game gets going? It’s a crap I tell you! Crap!
10. Offer Sunday Ticket to ALL your fans, not just DirecTV subscribers.
We all know that DirecTV would have never earned its current market share if not for exclusive rights to offer Sunday Ticket to subscribers, but now that they have a strong foothold in the satellite TV market, isn’t it time to offer Sunday Ticket to all NFL fans? There are a lot of people who can’t subscribe to DirecTV for various reasons, and they’re stuck with whatever games their local networks decide to cover. DirecTV pays the NFL a big fee for the exclusive rights, which is why the league is willing to keep things the way they are, but sometimes it’s not all about money. Besides, if they offered Sunday Ticket on cable networks, wouldn’t the additional subscribers offset the loss in upfront revenue?
