by: Michael Steffes
Well, it looks like this playoff reseeding issues is going to be a little harder to get rid of than initially expected. While many of the executives were expecting this measure to fail this morning, instead, the issue has been tabled until the next meetings, which I believe take place in August.
While many of the executives from different teams are not supporting this measure, including Tim Ruskell, it does have a big supporter in Roger Goodell. What Goodell is concerned about is what happened with Tampa & Indy last year. Tampa- making many of its starting players inactive for several weeks after clinching, and Indy playing back ups against Tennessee during the final Sunday night game, when Tennessee and Cleveland's playoff lives were at stake. To see my opinion on this....
Don't get me wrong. I am all in favor of teams not devaluing the product late in the season, but it is just the nature of the beast. It is a rough and violent game. If you earn the ability to rest before the playoffs, it is the teams duty to rest players. Things will work themselves out. Maybe after the Giants, teams will be less likely to do this.
As a fan, it doesn't bother me. I am willing to sacrifice the final two games to make sure that I see the teams best performance in the playoffs. Whether this is because the team goes every year, or hasn't been in a decade, it shouldn't matter. If the fans who are taking their families to one game a year want to avoid this, they should get tickets earlier in the year. It is all about planning. I feel for them if they pay a lot of money to watch a back up quarterback, but the team forces me to buy preseason games every year, which I rarely make, which showcase backups too. It is part of the game. Pick a first half divisional game.
Resting players is just part of the game. I mean, it is not like this issue is what is holding the league back from being a success, the moment the playoffs start, people forget. The league even advertises, that it is a whole new season. Hopefully in the end, this will be defeated, and the league can look to remedy this another way.
This is not good. This means Goodell is trying to push this hard. I gaurantee he will campaigning this to the owners over the course of the next couple of months. I don't like this at all. Leave everything how it is. It is the decision alone of the coaching staff of individual teams wether or not they wish to rest their players after clinching a playoff birth. I don't see why they have to change everything just because those games don't make for exciting television. The fans are what matter not Television ratings. I want my playoff tickets if we clinch.
ReplyDeleteAt the end of the day, it just doesn't have the votes. There's no way they'd change the 2008 rules in AUGUST, so I think we have very little to worry about, particularly this season.
ReplyDeleteThis is just like Ashcroft making the people of Oregon revote and revote thier right-to-die law---he kept saying that the people didnt understand what they were doing so they needed to revote...in other words, if you dont vote the way I want you too, you're ignorant and I'm gonna make you revote untill I get the results I want....(and since Im not an Oregon resident, my only beef is that the people should not have had to revote just becuase Ashcroft didnt like the result)
ReplyDeleteWhat a dick! Goodell is a scumbag, and is ruining the NFL. No one cared when the Hawks lost out on the playoffs twice in the eighties, partially due to teams that had allready clinched resting starters.
Now that its teams like the Browns and the Vikings and Tennessee, NOW its a big deal...Goodell is determined to keep every team at least Mediocre, and he is determined to make the largest market teams stay on top...its for the good of the whole, right?! The guy is a commie!
Goodell has done everything he can to manipulate things for the good of the top-market teams--he fiddles here, he fiddles there--and what he wants is to keep upstart teams like Seattle down, and help the large market teams get back on top and stay there.
Every teams goal is to have thier division locked up with several games to spare, and nothing will change that. When/If the Goodell BS rule is instituted, teams will try just as hard to have the best record locked up by the 14th week, and still be able to rest thier starters..nothing will change except the teams that are able to rest starters....
Goodell is a businessman looking to make the NFL more money, he cares very little about the integrity and history of the game. Otherwise he wouldnt be trying so hard to monkey with a system that isnt even broken.
Goodell is Ashcroft all over again---if the owners dont vote the way he wants them too, he'll just make them revote and revote and...
-SlaveToTheBusinessman
Cold chill, anon. I disagree. Goodell has been an excellent commissioner so far, and I think us Hawks fans are WAYYYY too worried about this re-seeding thing that ISN'T GOING TO HAPPEN.
ReplyDeleteThe owners don't want it, and Goodell works for the owners. Until a popular big market 11-5 wild card team loses a playoff game at an 8-8 division champ, I doubt it will get a serious look again.
Slave, I think you might be over reacting a tad. Goodell has been very good for the game.
ReplyDeleteWhat he is doing very well is focusing on the how the league can make itself better.
Just because this is being tabled doesn't mean he is forcing it through. My guess is they want to hear ideas from those against it, on how they can avoid the late season dog games.
I agree completely with you Mike. It seems like they want to turn the system sideways. You know, they might as well say "Hey, if you get X number of wins.... YOU'RE GOING TO THE PLAYOFFS!". That doesn't work.
ReplyDeleteAlso, I think that in the end, its an issue that kind of pits the teams against the fans. Yes, Its a spectator sport, WE buy the tickets, jerseys, and memorabilia that fuels the organization. But one must also consider the players and coaches who not only play the game for the money, but for the love of the game.... and for themselves. Do we really have the right to demand this much from a team that's already playoff bound? I think not. This WOULD be a great time to ask the fans for their opinion though.
Now you done-did it Mike... I'm officially addicted to this blog. Keep up the great work.
GO SEAHAWKS!!!
The only good thing Goodell has done is to ban Pacman Jones, who should be banned for life because he is such a douche. But he could have banned half of Cincinatti's team....
ReplyDeleteTake a good, hard look at what he has tried to change since getting head-honcho status: it always hurts teams like the Hawks, it always seems to help the largest-market teams. Communism is not sporting or fair play.
I dont trust the guy, and I dont think he is a football fan, he's just like Upshaw--$$$$ in his eyes. Just my opinion though.
How about a system where, instead of the Titans playing the Colts backups, they play the Browns instead? Just swap teams, Colts will play the Browns opponent, and Titans and Browns will play a pre-wildcard wildcard game.
ReplyDeleteWhile that is virtually impossible, its way more intriguing.
The issue here is seldom the 3rd and 4th seed "resting" players. The only teams that can afford to do this are teams that have established seeds, which in most seasons are the #1 and #2 seeds in each conference.
ReplyDeleteWhat changing that rule does is makes winning the division worthless, it means your divisional games are much less important to where you finish overall.
Declare me a paranoid, but this is directed at the Seahawks. What some of these shortsighted twerps are not seeing is that many times the SB winner comes from a contentious division, where teams beat each other to smithereens during the regular season, witness the old battles in the AFC West, nobody every won more than 10 or 11 games, because nobody went undefeated in division, the old AFC Central and AFC East were the same until fairly recently. The NFC East and North are still a bitch to pick games in, because those home division games mean sooooo much and those rivalries are so ingrained.
Here is an idea I had, (actually originally to encourage late season particupation in the scoring contest).. revalue the points given for the last 4 games of the Season. Value weeks 1 through 13 at 2 pts per. Value weeks 14 and 15 at 3pts instead of 2, and weeks 16 and 17 at 4 points each. This now allows a team that "win out" to score 14pt in the last 4 games, the first 12 are worth a max of 24, so "resting" will potentially cost a team the #1 or #2 seeding.
Is it perfect? hell no, I can see a million things wrong with it, but what I am shooting for is a way to force teams to field 1st class efforts for the last month of the season which is the reason given for the proposed change of rules.
The only people overly concerned with messing with the division winner rules are Roger Goodell and whatever team got shafted out of the playoffs due to the team they needed to win resting starters. (they should blame themselves for only being good enough to back into the playoffs, not blame everyone else).
ReplyDeleteEveryone else seems to think the system is fine the way it is.
So whats the big deal?! Answer: Goodell wants what he wants, and he's determined to get it.
No matter how badly Goodell wants something, he still needs 24 votes, AND THE VOTES AREN'T THERE.
ReplyDeleteJeebus, guys... Even if it IS directed at the Seahawks, it ISN'T GOING TO HAPPEN.
In addition: Don't any of you expect that this might be irrelevant.. That we MIGHT get the #1 or #2 NFC seed this year?
Yeesh.
well, we once thought it impossible that the Hawks would be forcibly removed from the AFC West and dumped into the NFC west, destroying our awesome rivalries with the hated Raiders and Broncos...and it happened too.
ReplyDeleteThe NFL wanted to bury the hawks in the NFC West because they figured the Rams and Niners would continue thier winning ways....that time the joke was on them.
Now that we consistently dominate our Division, they want to change the rules again...
Whether or not it happens, it stinks of meddling.
If we are so concerned with the ability to rest players. Make the pre-season 1 or 2 games instead of 4 or more.
ReplyDeleteObviously many starters play only a fraction of the preseason, but if all this is not about the allmighty TV dollar then just stop preseason. It's worthless being that long - that many games.
The point is: if they're concerened about garbage-time football fix the real problem - the preseason.
If the Seahawks had the 2nd best record in the league, and the 1st best record in the league belonged to the Cardinals, that would drop the Seahawks down to the 5th seed, a wildcard spot. If that happened, I think there would be quite a bit of difference in opinion here.
ReplyDeleteAnd that has happened before by the way, to the Saints when they were in the same division with the 49ers, and Jim Mora Sr. was the head coach for the Saints.
ReplyDeleteThis does smell a lot like Gregoire winning over Rossi after Rossi already won...TWICE.
ReplyDelete