Have you ever watched the NFL playoffs and said to yourself, “Man, I wish two more teams that weren’t good enough to have a chance to win it all got a shot in the playoffs!”
Probably not, right?
Yeah, me neither.
But that’s what could happen as early as this coming season as a report by Adam Schefter on Wednesday night had details on a CBA proposal that would push the season to 17 games and expand the playoffs to seven teams in each conference. Oh, and only one team in each conference would get a bye week.
It’s just a proposal and still would need to be voted on but it’s very likely that it could happen.
Which would be silly.
We’ll get to the 17 games part in a second, but do we really need to allow two more teams in the playoffs? Last year the Steelers and Rams would have made the playoffs and neither team would have had a chance to win the Super Bowl. Do we really need to watch more mediocre teams try to win a playoff game in January? Why are more leagues trying to push rewarding mediocrity on us?
I know why – more money, duh. But is this really good for the overall product?
No. It wouldn’t be. Stop watering things down, let’s just go right to the hard stuff!
Six teams and two bye weeks is the way the NFL should continue to go. The football season is a long stretch that takes more than its toll on the players. The top two teams in each conference should be rewarded with a week off at the most important time of the season. While upsets do happen (hello, Titans) the top two teams in each conference are generally the four teams with the best chance of winning the Super Bowl. The others teams are OK but chances are they have no shot at winning the Lombardi Trophy.
And now you want to add two more blah teams to the mix?
No thank you.
Oh, and yeah, that 17-game season is a bad idea. These players put enough damage on their bodies during a 16-game schedule, why put them through another week that can put them all at more of a risk of suffering injuries?
Would it be fun for fans to have another regular season game? Maybe, but it could also just add another week of meaningless football games to the schedule. By Week 17 we know who the best teams are. And we know who the bad teams are – which are normally a lot come the end of December.
Stay with 16 games. Stay with six teams in the playoffs.
This thing isn’t broke and doesn’t need fixing.
Wednesday’s biggest winner: Ryan Newman.
The NASCAR driver walked out of the hospital with his two daughters on Wednesday, just two days after his horrific crash at the end of the Daytona 500. If you saw that crash then you know just how awesome that above photo is.
Quick hits: Wilder, Fury get in lame shoving match… Cowboys fans fight over Romo… Patrick Reed allegedly cheated more than once… And more!
– Deontay Wilder and Tyson Fury had one of the lamest shoving matches you’ll ever see between two fighters on fight week.
– Dallas Cowboys fans battled over a ranking that Tony Romo as the No. 5 QB in franchise history.
– Peter Kostis explained how he saw Patrick Reed cheat a number of times on the PGA Tour.
– Josh Reddick said the Astros are going to shut everybody up by winning. Good luck with that.
– Here are 10 NFL stars that could be traded this offseason.