Mike Florio has done a nice job building his Web site into a national phenomenon. But he was better when he had to pick and choose the issues on which he weighed in because of time constraints stemming from his legal job (though it rarely seemed like he actually had any law-related work to do). Now it seems as though he feels he has to weigh in on every single little thing that comes up. And much of what he floats is simply ridiculous.

In recent weeks, he has posted his opinion that:

– The Vikings should bench Adrian Peterson because he fumbles too much – did he look up the per carry fumbles of other young, future star running backs like Eric Dickerson, Tony Dorsett, Walter Payton, et al? And when he fumbled at the end of the Chicago game (which by the way was lost at least equally if not more so by an ineptly played special teams performance and a defense that generated no pass rush and gave up 36 points to the Bears) it was his first drop in four games. Furthermore he ran for nearly 1400 yards and 18 touchdowns this season – and was criticized throughout the season for not breaking enough big runs. For those numbers in, potentially, a down season, I’ll take seven fumbles.

– The NFL eliminating supplemental revenue sharing likely wouldn’t affect the league’s competitive balance because it never has before. This simply ignores the fact that there has been a salary cap preventing teams from dramatically outspending their league brethren the way the Yankees outspend every other team in Major League Baseball. Does he seriously think that owners like Daniel Snyder and Jerry Jones wouldn’t do the same thing the Yankees do in an uncapped NFL?

– He picked Washington to go to the Super Bowl from the NFC. Not that I saw them collapsing to the degree they did, but anyone who thought the Redskins would be better than Dallas, Philly or the Giants heading into the season was delusional. Florio was at his best when he was watch dogging hypocritical ownership moves, updating the days-between-arrests count and sniping at questionable media decisions. As an analyst of games and personnel decisions, nowadays he seems to think he’s as good as the “experts” and those making the calls. I disagree.

But just in the last week or so, he has posted two articles that are possibly the most ludicrous yet:

– In a recent brief piece on the Chris Henry tragedy, Florio tries to show off his legal knowledge in analyzing the situation around his fiancé publicly claiming Henry jumped from the truck—while basically accusing Chris Henry’s fiancé of lying.  She may be lying, she may be telling the truth, but for Florio to say “the explanation doesn’t make a whole lot of sense” implies that the entire scenario has any chance of ever making sense when in reality it’s very possible based on current reporting and past experience that Henry was distraught or under the influence of something or who knows what else.

I’m not saying that is what happened, but to ignore the possibility that this could just be one of those situations where every possible explanation is a head shaker is idiotic – if not libelous, if it CAN be proven that Henry’s fiancé’s statements are true. Hell, media accounts differ on the specifics, but depending on different accounts reports indicate that a witness told authorities and/or media outlets that Henry either threatened to his fiancée that he would kill himself or to specifically jump out of the truck if she didn’t stop. To basically discount the possibility that this might be what happened … dangerous territory.

– In another recent post, he proposes a “solution” to the late season “dilemma” of teams resting starters, in which he basically proposes that the NFL go to an NCAA Men’s Basketball approach by having a non-biased (good luck finding that) committee decide upon playoff seedings.  While we’re at, let’s go NBA/NHL style by adding a couple more playoff teams to the mix (because nothing says you’re the best like being one of 50% of the teams to make the playoffs)—but just to make sure that it’s ridiculous as possible, let’s decide those last two playoff teams not by wins and losses, but by how they play late in the season.

That’s right, under his proposal, he would have the 5-11 Browns in the playoffs, despite winning 4 fewer games than the Steelers, who finished ahead of them in the standings.

“Let’s face it – a revolutionary adjustment is needed …,” he wrote.

NO!

No adjustment is needed. The Colts are facing the wrath of their fans. That’s all that needs to happen there. The fans have a right to voice their opinions. They paid the money to go to the games. But let’s not blow this completely out of proportion. Don’t screw up a system that works very well with the asininity of turning it into some committee-driven crap. The Saints won 13 games. So they lost the last three – the first 13 don’t mean anything then? They don’t deserve to play at home?

Hogwash.

They won MORE GAMES THAN ANYONE ELSE. They deserve to play at home.

The reason it’s not random anymore like it was in 1972 when the Steelers hosted the undefeated Dolphins (as Florio cites as evidence in his post) IS BECAUSE IT MAKES SENSE TO REWARD THE TEAM THAT WON THE MOST GAMES WITH HOME-FIELD.

And furthermore, while I can understand why the Colts’ fans are upset that they didn’t make a more concerted effort to go 16-0 – and I acknowledge that the following week’s decision to play Manning, Clark and Wayne until they each achieved their individual stat paddings is a confusing contradiction to their week 16 decisions – at the end of the day, they won more games than any other team in the AFC – weeks 16 and 17 couldn’t change that – and they are entitled to protect their stars/give their young guys some experience as they see fit.

Sure, 19-0 would be impressive. Even historical. But the Super Bowl is the big goal and fans, journalists, bloggers and guys like Florio need to remember that. If the Colts win the Super Bowl this will be a side note.

Now, this isn’t an original thought – it’s been posted in many other places already. But let’s take the other scenario: The Colts continue playing their starters through each of the last two games and Peyton Manning suffers a serious knee injury that takes him out for the rest of this season and affects him into next year (This is not all that unrealistic – ala Wes Welker from this Sunday. Welker had played in 14 games this year, 16 games the last four seasons and 15 as a rookie in 2004 before shredding his knee, according to NFL.com).

In that scenario, instead of Curtis Painter playing in garbage time, he becomes the quarterback for the last two regular season games and the playoff. Now I’ll wait for Florio or some other critic to paint some rah rah scenario where the Colts gain mythical inspiration and rally around their inexperienced starter to go the distance. Sorry, the Colts don’t win the Super Bowl with Painter, nor do they complete the 16-0 historical season they are being decried for not chasing.

Beyond the complaints of the fan base this is a non-issue. Teams that lock up playoff seedings early have been resting guys late in the season for years. The only reason anyone cares this year is because the Colts were undefeated heading into week 16. Should they have “chased history?” Maybe. But they also should make sure the core of the team that got them there is available to try and win the Lombardi Trophy.

Teams that “need help” to get into the playoffs should quit whining because they had just as many opportunities to take care of business during the season as every other team. Take the Steelers this year. They lost twice to division winner Cincinnati and once to division rival Baltimore. Additionally, they were beaten by Chicago (7-9), Kansas City (4-12), Oakland (5-11), and Cleveland (5-11) on the way to a 9-7 record.

That’s four losses to teams with a combined record of 21-43 to finish one win better than .500. Win one of those games and they are in. You don’t get to complain about someone else when you lose those four games, Pittsburgh Steelers. Your city, your franchise, and most importantly your coach are and should be too proud to whine about what other teams are doing to keep you out of the playoffs. You brought this upon yourselves. You did not earn your trip to the playoffs this year, regardless of what teams like Indianapolis, Cincinnati and New England did in week 17.

Texans owner Bob McNair was complaining that the Bengals didn’t take their “A-game” to New York for the Jets Sunday night. Guess what. The Texans lost twice to the Colts in games they led, twice to the Jaguars (a non-playoff team), and once to Arizona, Tennessee and those same Jets to whom they lost the final playoff spot. Again – win any one more of those games and you’re in the playoffs.

Or take the Jets, for example. They got into the playoffs on the strength of beating the Colts team that benched some of its starters and then dismantling a Bengals team that couldn’t do much to change its playoff seeding.

Also too bad. Sure, the Jets did get the luck of the draw to some degree. But they still had to win the games. They still have a defense that gave up just 236 points on the season, best in the NFL. And they have one of the league’s best run games. The Jets can go to the playoffs without offering apologies to anyone. Even if the Bengals had been on their game it’s unlikely they would have beaten New York on that night.

Take your playoff situations out of the hands of your rivals’ opponents. Take care of business when you are on the field. Then it won’t matter who Indianapolis, New Orleans, Cincinnati and whoever else plays in week 17. You’ll be the one deciding whether or not to play your starters.

The playoff scenario Florio proposes – adding two teams based on how they play at the end of the season (Cleveland, Houston, Carolina, and San Francisco or Atlanta) and seeding the six that do get in there using a committee – it’s laughable that this scenario ever made it to print. The beauty of the NFL as opposed to college football’s BCS and the NCAA tournament is that the participants are decided on the field. Wins and losses – and yes, wins and losses in games being played by starters or backups – determine who gets in, where the games are played and who stays home.

I don’t want some back room collection of stooges determining that the Saints’ 13-3 season is less deserving of a home game in the playoffs than the Cowboys’ 11-5 record because Dallas played well in December or because they have a nice new stadium with a giant-ass television screen. And I sure as hell don’t want that same committee deciding that because Cleveland played hard and won its last four games (two of which came against Oakland and Kansas City, by the way), the Browns now deserve a place in the playoffs despite starting the season 1-11. That’s ridiculous. They looked much better the last month of the season and they gave their fans some hope for the future. But they don’t deserve to be anywhere near the playoffs.

The season is 16 games long. Each game needs to count. And they count under the scenarios they are played under, whether it’s Cleveland knocking off whoever they beat in the last four meaningless games or it’s Indianapolis trying to go undefeated using backups instead of starters (and yes, it’s not like Curtis Painter handed the ball to the defense every time he took a snap – these are NFL players and they were most definitely trying to win, whether they were successful or not) so they knew they would head into the playoffs healthy.

I’m not saying I agree with the Colts’ decision. Resting their stars hasn’t worked well for them in the past. But they have the right to do it. And making some rash change to a playoff system that works just friggin’ fine as it sits would be massively foolish. Ridiculously, massively foolish. Like league-altering dumb. Like worse than a bunch of billionaire owners locking out a bunch of millionaire players because these two groups of rich clowns can’t figure out how to cut up their massive pie of dollars.

And that last part is why I’m writing this response – because the clowns that run this league and these teams are just out-of-touch enough to act in such a magnanimously stupid way.

I’m not saying Florio should pull the plug. He’s what many bloggers are shooting for – he turned his near-decade-old one-man shop into a partnership with NBC, regular gigs on multiple radio shows, spots on Notre Dame’s halftime shows and on dozens of other appearances for which he now constantly pimps himself. He’s been successful, probably one of the most successful of his kind.

And he continues to do a nice job shedding light on some stories mainstream media outlets are missing on, such as what should probably be a bigger controversy in Washington, D.C. stemming from whether or not the Redskins shirked the Rooney Rule before hiring Mike Shanahan as their new head coach.

Those are the types of things he was great at before landing the NBC partnership and deciding he had to have a voice on each and every aspect of every decision made by every facet of the NFL.

Some of his posts have been getting more and more out there all season long. And this radical proposal to re-write the playoff format was so stupid as to need a response.