A Few Words at the End of the 2008 NFL Regular Season

As with the end of any NFL season, there is always much to be discussed and analyzed. I am not into the analysis part of the equation, as I’ll leave that to the various “experts” on TV. However there are a few things that need to discussed, mainly the current playoff system, the Detroit Lions, and the TV coverage of the league. Like any fan, we all have areas of the game that we are unhappy with (besides our own teams that we root for), but these three matters in general seem to stick out to me the most. Of course, I could rant on about the rather disappointing and pathetic season that the Chicago Bears had, but I’ll go ahead and leave that for another day.

First, let’s have a word about the current playoff system that the league uses. My gripe in this respect is that the New England Patriots finished up at 11-5 and still did not make the playoffs. A few years back the league reorganized the respective conferences into four divisions from three. Before the reorganization, a few divisions were lacking in comparison to the others. However, the Seahawks were moved to the NFC and now all eight divisions have four teams each. This in itself was not a bad idea (something that MLB should look into) and should be kept in mind if the league were to change its playoff system. Ideally, teams should continue to play teams within their respective divisions twice, but instead of 6 teams making it into the playoffs, 8 should. With 8 teams, the two top seed would lose their bye in the first week, which would irritate some at first, but they would get over it. In essence, 2 more wild card trams would be added.

Next, the 7 year demise of the Detroit Lions came to fruition today, as the Lions became the first team not to win a single game since the inception of the 16 game schedule in 1978. In 2001, the Lions hired Matt Millen as their president and over that time his reign was met with hostility and disappointment in Detroit. Granted, Millen was fired in September, but this season was the fruit of his incompetent labors. Unlike other professional sports, football is the one sport where every team seemingly has a chance at the beginning of each season. In the case of the Lions over the past 7 years though, the Lions never had a chance. Frankly, an 0-16 season is inexcusable in this day and age in the NFL. In a town that is having enough problems as it is, the Lions 2008 season was the figurative cherry on top.

Finally, let’s explore the general TV coverage surrounding the NFL. The first gripe that I have with the NFL is its move to make it into a pay-per-view sport, such as boxing, with its NFL Network. The beauty of most professional sports that anyone seems to care about is the mainstream coverage by the major networks that are accessible by almost anyone with a TV antenna. However, the NFL has betrayed many of its fans by forcing them to purchase a package of channels just to get their network, much less for one measly game that they want to see. It would be a lot easier if we could turn on CBS, NBC, or FOX to view a Thursday or Saturday night game instead of having to pony up even more money to your carrier. Hopefully, the NFL Network goes belly up in the coming years so fans do not have to deal with this frustration.