The NFL season has a few weeks left and this season is filled with intrigue. Will Peyton Manning play again this season or will Brock Osweiller keep the reigns? Which teams will claim a wild card berth? Does anyone want to win the NFC East? Are the Patriots losing it/are they just bad without Rob Gronkowski? Its all set up for quite an exciting end to the season. But since we're so close to the playoffs, chatter has also started about the offseason. I've done my part in that with my last two posts about Sean Payton and Peyton Manning, but many other questions will be asked over the next few weeks and months. With the holiday season upon us, here's my Wish List for issues I hope gain national attention and will hopefully be addressed by someone, as well as my take on the issue:
What is a catch?
The NFL has addressed this issue over the past few offseasons. We've seen Calvin Johnson an Dez Bryant lose touchdowns because the catch rule makes no sense. But the NFL's solution to fixing this issue has been to make it more confusing. Anyone surprised? Bryant has recently proposed letting players have a say in developing the rule. Even though I think he's a loud-mouthed arrogant jerk, I agree with him on this point. Let the NFLPA establish a 6-member group that will have the opportunity to have a say in rule changes, and split the group with 3 offensive players and 3 defensive players. And not just for this rule change, but for all of them. Owners don't play the game and should not have sole say in the rules that govern on the field play. If Goodell truly wants to start establishing a better relationship with players then he needs to let players have some voice (from actual players, not just their union reps) in rules for the game.
Hire full time game officials:
Every week there are numerous discussions amongst pundits and fans about poor officiating throughout the NFL. Goodell has offered the proposal of switching up the officiating crews each week in an effort to limit bias and even out the amount of particular calls each crew makes. While a novel suggestion, it doesn't address the issue of NFL officials being confused about the wording of particular NFL rules. Solution? At the least, make the crew chief of each crew a full time NFL employee. This way they can spend the offseason studying the rules, consulting with league officials for clarification, and watching film to help better determine when a penalty should and should not be called. These crew chiefs could then help better train the rest of their crew on rule changes and what is/isn't a penalty. The NFL could certainly afford to do this, and it will make for a better game day product - possibly even result in fans complaining less that the officials dictated the outcome of a game. We can all hope, right?
Don't make any more rules based on what happened to one player:
I'm an advocate for player safety, but not a fan of changing rules just because one star player gets hurt. Probably the most famous of such rules is the Brady Rule which states that defensive players cannot lunge towards a QB if that defensive player is on the ground. Makes sense. We want to protect out players. But in the wake of the most recent knee injury to Gronkowski, Brady has spoken out for the need of a rule change to prevent defensive players from hitting a receiver in the legs. This has been a common tactic for defensive players over the years, especially as tackling ability as declined across the league, but the receiver is not defenseless in this case. Defensive players already cannot dive at a QBs knees nor can they dive at players who are already engaged with another player. That makes sense. Another rule change to benefit Brady is not what the league needs. Look at player safety, but make rule changes that will benefit everyones' health, not just the stat line for an already babied QB.
Adjust the rules for offseason team/player contact:
Speaking of player safety, has anyone else noticed the increasing occurrence of hamstring injuries since the NFL limited how much time teams can have players practice together at team headquarters during the offseason? This has been especially problematic for skill players. I'm not advocating for an increase in padded practices (though that would certainly help with the tackling issue in the league), but rather that teams should have more opportunities during the offseason to have players come together to work out. This way the team's medical staff can monitor the players and help them better prepare their bodies to avoid these soft tissue issues.
Stop holding communities hostage:
This of course is in regards to one or two teams moving to Los Angeles. NFL owners love threatening the communities their in to get money for stadiums from local and state governments, even though these billionaire owners can afford to build a stadium on their own. These people have shown little to no regard with tight budgets and the programs that money could be better used for. On top of that, NFL owners are reportedly seeking a $500 million relocation fee from each team that wants to move from where they are to LA. Why? Because those other owners would lose the leverage of threatening to leave their current cities for LA. This is a despicable practice and shows a lack of respect for NFL fans in each city (except Green Bay - if only each NFL team had the ownership structure of Green Bay!) - despite fans being the reason the NFL Owners have received broadcast fees in the billions of dollars. These people aren't hurting for money, and they should be willing to invest in their teams if they want to own them through stadium upkeep/building, facilities for players, and medical staff.
Actually follow the concussion protocol!:
On the subject of medical staffs - what was the point of having team and independent doctors on NFL sidelines to pull players out of games to evaluate them if those players are suspected of suffering a head injury if they're not actually going to do it? Over the past few weeks players such as Ben Roethlisberger and Cam Newton have been allowed to stay in games to finish drives before being evaluated by medical staff. This certainly helps a team succeed, but how does this help player health and safety? It doesn't. If you're going to have a procedure in place to evaluate players for possible concussions, then you better follow it. Who cares if the player doesn't want to come out?! Take away their helmet until they are properly evaluated and pull them out right after the play in question. As far as franchises who do not follow the protocol - fine them, and if you have to doc draft choices. Maybe start with losing a 4th round for a first offense that changes to a 3rd rounder for the next offense and so on. The league, players, and teams need to understand how serious the concussion issue is and do everything they can to make sure players are properly evaluated.
And finally:
Fix the arbitration process for league discipline:
Better yet - appoint someone besides Goodell to oversee fines and suspensions. Major League Baseball has Joe Torre doing this for Commissioner Rob Manfred. Who couldn't the NFL do this? Goodell has lost all credibility when it comes to fining and suspending players so they need to do something. Appointing a separate person to oversee player/team discipline probably won't happen, but the next best thing would be to appoint an independent arbitration panel to hear grievances. Follow the MLB model of a 3 person panel where one person is selected by the NFLPA, one by the league office, and a third by both parties. This would allow for appeals to be fairly and properly heard and will avoid such unnecessary fiascos like the Tom Brady trial.
This is a lengthy list, though certainly incomplete, and I greatly appreciate you staying with me through all of this. I highly doubt that any of these ideas would ever actually be considered by the NFL, but it's nice to hope that businessmen might be sensible enough to establish an actual sensible business model. But then again that's probably asking too much from owners who became this rich for following a business model that's probably not fair and sensible for all. But we are in the season of hope and goodwill, so there's that.
