Time for a Change

After sitting through a very un-compelling final regular season Sunday of what will likely be the last NFL season for 20 months, I like the person who invented the DVR or Larry David, said there has to be a better way. Roger Goodell has had a tough year; changing the rules of tackling for player safety, forgetting about player safety by calling for a 18 game season, not suspending players for on field assualts, failing to seriously investigate Brett Favre's stalker like tendency to sexual harass (this case was so open/shut that Bobby Brady and his detective kit would have moved on to who stole Alice's meatloaf by noon after the Favre investigation), but he could totally redeem himself by telling the Seahawks and Chiefs to stay home and seeding the playoff teams 1 through 12 regardless of conference or divsion. Even though Goodell has shown a tendency to change the rules mid-season, just ask defensive players, this might be too harsh to do after the season to the Seattle and KC fans, who are still to shell shocked to watch Thunder or Florida highlights, but it should be a no brainer when the NFL returns from the looming lockout.



The NFL has always been saved by the on-field product, but after a comatose Week 17 with so little to play for that the primetime game was two under .500 teams from the NFC West and no anticipation for Wild Card weekend, a change is in order. The NFL can keep their precious conferences and divisions as they are currently formatted as to keep natural rivalries and long time fan interest. This will still lead to sizeable advantages for teams that play in weak divisions like this year's AFC/NFC West, but enough already with the automatic playoff spots for division winners and the disadvantage of playing in a dominant division or conference. If the two best teams in football are in the same conference shouldn't they both be able to make it to the Super Bowl? In past years, instead of having to suffer through NE/Carolina and Indy/Chicago, the league would have had the two best teams meeting in the Super Bowl and not in the AFC title game. Also, if two of the best teams are in the same division it makes absolutely no sense that one has to start on the road as a heavily favored Wild Card. Under this new plan the top four teams would still get a first week bye and would host re-seeded playoff games in round 2 and all ties in overall record would continue to be broken first by head to head play, and then by division and conference records, still another advantage for teams playing in awful divisions. Under this plan the playoffs for this year would look as follows:



(1) New England (14-2)

(2) Atlanta (13-3)

(3) Pittsburgh (12-4)

(4) Baltimore (12-4)

(5) Chicago (11-5)

(6) New York Jets (11-5)

(7) New Orleans (11-5)

(8) Indy (10-6)

(9) Green Bay (10-6)

(10) Philadelphia (10-6)

(11) NewYork Giants (10-6)

(12) Tampa Bay (10-6)



Do you think we might have seen a little more urgency and better games yesterday with first round home games and byes on the line for teams like Chicago (Cutler looked as happy to be in GB as most people who are in GB in January), New Orleans (still waiting confirmation that Sean Payton attended this game), and Philly (who played less NFL starters than the Carolina roster)? This playoff format would also spice up Wild Card weekend, which has only one intriguing game, GB @ Philly, and even that is a rematch. The other three games will get as much hype and be just as underwhelming as a Nicholas Cage blockbuster.



NO @ Seattle: Nothing like a double digit Wild Card road favorite to initiate a change, over/under on Chase Daniel time is halftime.



Balt @ KC: 2-4 in your putrid division and the inability to protect your QB is not a good formula against a team that does everything better than you.

NYJ @ Indy: Hopefully this game can come down to a foot for the Jets, isn't the alternative to claiming that was you filming your wife in sexually compromising situations much worse? Really, if I would have told you a month ago that a NFL coach would have a food fetish video leaked, Rex Ryan would have been the first name you said with Pete Carroll and Norv Turner in a second place tie. Rex Ryan running his mouth about his team being a Super Bowl contender is like Kim Kardashian claiming she is a serious musician and the Colts have as much of a chance to go to Texas as Rick Barnes does of winning the tourney.

Under this new plan the four games this weekend would be; Tampa Bay @ Chicago, Giants @ Jets (home locker room), Philly @ NO, and GB @ Indy. All four are better games, more interesting matchups, and more importantly feature better teams who deserve to be in the playoffs. Come on Roger, at least make this your vow to fans after the lockout. As for this weekend, at least IFC is showing the "Larry Sanders Show".