How to “Fix” Practice of Resting Starters

by | Jan 3, 2010 | Business of Football

NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell has come out and said that the NFL will consider offering incentives to teams playing late-season games to discourage them from resting their starters for the playoffs, after the Indianapolis Colts were widely criticized by fans and media for pulling many starters with a 15-10 lead in the 3rd quarter of a game against the Jets in Week 16.

The Colts were 14-0 at the time, and the Jets scored 19 unanswered points to win the game, including a backup QB Curtis Painter fumble that was returned for a touchdown.

One of the options likely to be considered would be awarding teams that play their starters draft choices.

Personally, I think I’ve got a better idea–how about you get the labor negotiations solved, and make sure to preserve some of the ideas that have kept the league competitive (revenue sharing & salary cap) in place, so that the likelihood that teams will have the opportunity to rest players in 2-3 games remains on the low end?

Realistically, I would think that rewarding teams for playing their “starters” seems more likely to cause problems–I’m guessing that some teams would find some loopholes, and manage to get some backups declared as starters so they could rest their stars and get the extra picks too.

Additionally, unless the picks were earlier picks–probably 2nd or 3rd round selections–I really wonder if teams would consider it worth the extra risk.

Another alternative, raised by a friend of ours over drinks this evening, would be to reward teams not with extra picks, but possibly with moving them up in draft position–and not just for playing starters, but for actually winning–by coming up with a point system for determining draft order rather than pure record, and figuring out some way to reward teams with extra points when they win games that they don’t need to win late in the season.

(Admittedly the details we have on this idea are slim, but I’m guessing that the league has some PhDs in an office somewhere that could fine tune things).

That way, at least teams are being rewarded for performance rather than just participating–and it wouldn’t add picks to the draft–which the NFLPA should and probably would be against in the first place, since it would reduce the amount of the rookie pool available for players, possibly cost more veterans spots, and reduce the number of guys that could negotiate where they go if not drafted late.

Anyone have any other thoughts on how the league could encourage teams to compete in late season games, without making a mockery of the game?

Decade’s Top Draft Busts

by | Dec 30, 2009 | NFL Draft, NFL History

With the end of the decade approaching, a lot of people are putting out top 10 lists for the decade–so of course we figured, why should we be any different?

Rather than talk more about hall of fame level players, though, we decided to take a different approach–who were the top draft busts for the decade?

The criteria we tried to stick to for defining a bust was this:

  • Had to be a first round pick–it sucks when later round picks don’t pan out, but they don’t have the expectations of first round guys.
  • Not playing for a lengthy period of time due to football related injuries doesn’t necessarily equal a bust (think Ki-Jana Carter or David Pollack).
  • However, injury due to a guy being an idiot can qualify him for bust status (Andre Smith’s getting fat, holding out, Charles Rogers possibly making his bones more brittle by smoking dope, etc).
  • Obviously guys from this year’s (and maybe last year’s) aren’t fully qualified busts–but first round guys should always contribute something in their first season, second at worst, so they can be on the list.
  • The rest of the first round does influence things—so if there are a bunch of busts early (like in 2002), it may be less likely that a guy is a bust later in the round, because there was probably quality to pick from…

With that, here’s our list:

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Indianapolis Lawmaker Wants Refund For Colts Fans

by | Dec 30, 2009 | Business of Football, NFL News

Former Indianapolis City-County Council President Beurt SerVaas apparently wasn’t too happy that the Colts decided to rest key starters in the second half of their loss to the Jets on Sunday.  The Colts led the Jets 15-10 with about 10 minutes to go in the 3rd quarter when Colts’ coach Jim Caldwell, who had led the Colts to a 14-0 start to the season, decided to pull them.

The Jets came back to win 29-15, and Caldwell and the Colts have been taking heat ever since, including a Yahoo! Sports reporter ridiculously calling it a bigger mistake than Marty Mornhinweg taking the wind rather than the ball to start overtime.

But none of the criticism appears to be more ridiculous than that of SerVaas, who has said he will petition the council to ask for refunds for all fans upset about the loss (he hasn’t found anyone on the council to sponsor his proposal).

“They came to see a game played honestly. It was not played honestly, ” he said.

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Stay Classy, Philadelphia Eagles Fans

by | Dec 21, 2009 | We Forgot

I’m sure this is already posted all over the interwebz, but we just had to post it as well:

Stay classy, Philly fans.

While we frequently criticize the league and/or teams for trying to take the fun out of the game, someone needs to step up on this one–the team should be going after anyone that they can catch for throwing the snowballs, and suspending their ticket privileges, whether season ticket holders or single game ticket buyers.

And if the team doesn’t go after the guilty parties, then the league needs to step in with fines for the team, and/or suspensions–hell, make them play in front of an empty stadium.

A bit harsh?  Well, just wait until some of the fans start pouring some water or beer on the snowballs to make them ice balls–or putting batteries in them, or something else more solid than snow.

And you know it will happen–and then someone is really going to get hurt, or worse.

Fan’s Choice Hall of Fame Semifinalists

by | Nov 29, 2009 | Hall of Fame

Earlier this season, the Hall of Fame and Van Heusen announced that fans would finally have a voice in the Pro Football Hall of Fame selection process.  While unclear what role the fan voting at FansChoice.com would actually have, the results of the first round of voting were announced late yesterday, after the actual 2010 Hall of Fame Semifinalists were announced.

There were a total of 11 differences between fan voting and the actual semifinalist lists.  Unfortunately, in my opinion, the results expose some flaws in the way voting is being handled on the Fan’s Choice site.

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