By Wes French
The Jets are in the playoffs this season after finishing 5-1 following a 4-6 start. They beat AFC Playoff opponents Cincinnati and Indianapolis the last two weeks of the season to leap five other teams and earn the six seed. The problem? The Colts and Bengals did their best no-show acts and it just so happened to benefit the Jets to the point of a playoff berth, leaving many upset and calling for changes.
AFC playoff hopefuls like Houston and Denver had to play both Indy and Cincy at their best, but the Jets got them when they were satisfied with just coming out of a game uninjured. Fair? No, but you can only play the schedule the way it’s laid out, for better or worse. And can you really blame teams for wanting to keep their starters healthy for a Super Bowl run? How do you think Tom Brady feels about not having his top target Wes Welker after he tore his ACL and MCL in the 1st quarter of week 17?
Herein lies the problem. How do you keep competition the same for all teams while respecting teams’ decisions with their own players? The Commissioner’s Office has an idea. I have a better one.
NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell is putting his new Competition Committee to task as they’ll look into how to fix similar situations in the future. Early whispers have some sort of compensation going to top teams that play starters even when they have nothing more to play for, possibly in the form of draft choices. Draft choices have become quite valuable over the years, but let’s put this into logical terms. The earliest this choice could be given is as a supplemental pick between the first and second rounds of the NFL draft. The more likely scenario would have it between the third and fourth rounds, currently the compensation for losing certain players via free agency, or even later.
So, say Team X has home field advantage and the number one seed locked up after week 13. Team X has two potential playoff teams from their conference on their remaining schedule. Is it worth one or possibly two players in an upcoming draft for Team X to subject their star players, let alone anyone of their 22 starters, to injury? How long would said ‘star’ or ‘starting’ players have to play? Three quarters? The entire game? Who determines who has enough ‘star’ qualities that they must play?
This situation just does not seem worth it, unless a team is already going for an undefeated campaign, in which an extra draft choice or two is just icing on the cake.
I have a better idea. It’s simple, logical and it doesn’t involve bribing NFL franchises.
Make the final three weeks of the NFL schedule all divisional games. The first 14 weeks can play out in any way, so long as half of the division schedule is played. The NFL can keep the same schedule format because teams have to play the divisional games no matter what.
Say we have the same scenario as before with Team X. They could possibly still have divisional foes with playoff aspirations, but odds are Team X won’t have anything locked up and will need one more win for their division: After 14 weeks this season only two teams had a division clinched, the Saints in the NFC South and Colts in the AFC South(each team was 13-0). It’s not often teams start the season 13-0, let alone two, as evidenced by there being just seven teams in history(including these two) to reach 13-0.
If weeks 15-17 were reserved for divisional games it would add more drama to a usually meaningless end of the season. Philadelphia and Dallas have each destroyed the other the last two seasons in week 17 with playoff implications on the line. Think of the possibility for this type of importance in every division, every year. It almost guarantees the #2 and #3 teams within a division will have a late season battle with a playoff spot on the line. If a team does find themselves in a situation to rest players it will come against their own division bottom feeder, not one of a number of teams battling for a playoff berth.
And what of said division bottom feeders? What better way to finish an unsatisfying season than by knocking your division rival out of playoff contention or by keeping them from a home field bye? I know many fans took pride in the Bears keeping Favre and the Vikings from that NFC #1 spot. It doesn’t fix what’s wrong, but it definitely eases the pain.
The best part of this is just that, how well it appeases the fan. Remember how dejected Colts fans were when the team decided to rest it’s stars? Is Indy going to do the same thing if they have the Titans and Texans left on the schedule, with the possibility to keep one or both rivals from the post season, in front of a home crowd?
The way to fix this situation is much simpler than Goodell’s committee is thinking. Let’s see if they’re smart enough to realize it.
January 5th, 2010 at 9:39 pm
I like it. However, after seeing how the Colts have handled going undefeated, I still think they’d rest their starters and could care less how their fans feel in this instance.