Larry Gude
Strung Out
...will be an 18 game season.
It's easy to look at baseball and hockey and see where they went wrong. It was, frankly, easy to see at the time.
It was easy to see where George Bush started going wrong, it was easy to see something was wrong with housing and it's easy to see where Obama is going wrong now.
It was easy to see how stupid the Treaty of Versailles was when it was being written.
So, are people simply doomed to to go right over the edge even though the signs all say "NIAGRA FALLS-DANGER AHEAD"?
Nothing is more popular right now than the NFL in terms of pro sports. Fans love it. The game is healthy. It works. So, what to do? Mess it up.
Right now there are two 16 team conferences, 8 four team divisions, a nice, symmetrical regular season where you play your division opponents twice and you play your way around both conferences and it works nice.
Most teams are in the hunt at least for 1/2 the season and crazy exciting stuff like the Chargers being out of it and the Broncos being a shoo in yet the whole thing turning around does indeed happen.
The flaws right now are a stupid, pointless preseason and two more teams in each conference need to make the playoffs to eliminate the first round bye which hurts as much as it helps. That means the Pats, at 11-5, would have gotten in. An argument could be made that rosters need to be expanded so teams aren't so thin and a key injury or two wouldn't be as devastating.
The salary cap is more an interesting novelty and a monument to Rube Goldberg but, hey, the NFL doesn't need to be PERFECT.
It also doesn't need to go over the falls and crash. An 18 game season is a disaster. That will demand larger rosters. More players will break down. A 10 year career will now be less than 9. And the record book will be thrown into an asterisk ridden farce for a generation.
On top of that, look at last years records after 16 games.
What is two more games gonna do for the Lions?
Would two more games have ruined the Chargers/Broncos story?
By conference it would have PERHAPS;
AFC East; Kept the Jets in the chase and made Buffalo have two more meaningless games.
AFC North; Given Browns and Bengals fans two more tickets to give away to friends and family.
AFC South; Late season Texans and Jags tickets would have been in more envelopes for the paper boy.
AFC West; Raiders and Chiefs fans would be looking forward to tornado and drive by season.
NFC East; This might have been interesting with a battle to the wire between Philly Dallas and the Skins.
NFC North; Do we really need to see more of Lambeau? In mid January? For a meaningless game? I mentioned the Lions. 0-18 and things only get uglier.
NFC South; Bucs and Saint's would have had an extra week or two of giving away sun tan lotion and beads to the first 10,000 through the door late season.
NFC West; Rams and Seahawks had nothing to play for for another two games.
Note to NFL; WARNING-DANGER AHEAD. It ain't broke. Don't fix it.
It's easy to look at baseball and hockey and see where they went wrong. It was, frankly, easy to see at the time.
It was easy to see where George Bush started going wrong, it was easy to see something was wrong with housing and it's easy to see where Obama is going wrong now.
It was easy to see how stupid the Treaty of Versailles was when it was being written.
So, are people simply doomed to to go right over the edge even though the signs all say "NIAGRA FALLS-DANGER AHEAD"?
Nothing is more popular right now than the NFL in terms of pro sports. Fans love it. The game is healthy. It works. So, what to do? Mess it up.
Right now there are two 16 team conferences, 8 four team divisions, a nice, symmetrical regular season where you play your division opponents twice and you play your way around both conferences and it works nice.
Most teams are in the hunt at least for 1/2 the season and crazy exciting stuff like the Chargers being out of it and the Broncos being a shoo in yet the whole thing turning around does indeed happen.
The flaws right now are a stupid, pointless preseason and two more teams in each conference need to make the playoffs to eliminate the first round bye which hurts as much as it helps. That means the Pats, at 11-5, would have gotten in. An argument could be made that rosters need to be expanded so teams aren't so thin and a key injury or two wouldn't be as devastating.
The salary cap is more an interesting novelty and a monument to Rube Goldberg but, hey, the NFL doesn't need to be PERFECT.
It also doesn't need to go over the falls and crash. An 18 game season is a disaster. That will demand larger rosters. More players will break down. A 10 year career will now be less than 9. And the record book will be thrown into an asterisk ridden farce for a generation.
On top of that, look at last years records after 16 games.
What is two more games gonna do for the Lions?
Would two more games have ruined the Chargers/Broncos story?
By conference it would have PERHAPS;
AFC East; Kept the Jets in the chase and made Buffalo have two more meaningless games.
AFC North; Given Browns and Bengals fans two more tickets to give away to friends and family.
AFC South; Late season Texans and Jags tickets would have been in more envelopes for the paper boy.
AFC West; Raiders and Chiefs fans would be looking forward to tornado and drive by season.
NFC East; This might have been interesting with a battle to the wire between Philly Dallas and the Skins.
NFC North; Do we really need to see more of Lambeau? In mid January? For a meaningless game? I mentioned the Lions. 0-18 and things only get uglier.
NFC South; Bucs and Saint's would have had an extra week or two of giving away sun tan lotion and beads to the first 10,000 through the door late season.
NFC West; Rams and Seahawks had nothing to play for for another two games.
Note to NFL; WARNING-DANGER AHEAD. It ain't broke. Don't fix it.
...that little frucker could haul 2 cords of wood.......easily.
...that was a tough little truck.
