Suggestions for improving Football

[gomezcat]

It occurs to me that the NFL is missing a trick and could learn lessons from other North American sports. These lessons would increase profits further. Sorry, I mean enhance the greatness of the NFL.

1) More games. 17 is a massive waste of empty stadia. Let's go with what baseball does and have a game each day. I reckon 183 games should do it, with a season running from April to October.

Fans will love watching games in Summer, rather than those brutal winters. What's not to like?

2) Remove padding. Baseball and basketball both do fine without padding. Remove it all.

3) Learn from Ice Hockey and introduce sticks. However, sticks should only be for those protecting the Quarterback, whose status needs to become even more sanctified.

4) Have weekly road games across the world. Why not play in, say, Fairbanks one week, Frankfurt the next, Bogotá and then Ulan Bator?

Feel free to add any other suggestions!

 

[John Locke]

It occurs to me that the NFL is missing a trick and could learn lessons from other North American sports. These lessons would increase profits further. Sorry, I mean enhance the greatness of the NFL.

1) More games. 17 is a massive waste of empty stadia. Let's go with what baseball does and have a game each day. I reckon 183 games should do it, with a season running from April to October.

Fans will love watching games in Summer, rather than those brutal winters. What's not to like?

2) Remove padding. Baseball and basketball both do fine without padding. Remove it all.

3) Learn from Ice Hockey and introduce sticks. However, sticks should only be for those protecting the Quarterback, whose status needs to become even more sanctified.

4) Have weekly road games across the world. Why not play in, say, Fairbanks one week, Frankfurt the next, Bogotá and then Ulan Bator?

Feel free to add any other suggestions!

You are one weird cat-loving Brit. But I still like you, my friend. And you have a unique way of looking at and expressing stuff. I love that.

Now go receive your punishment and undertake a Coldplay marathon listening session without any distraction.

 

[Big/Sky/Fly]

Can I hit you with a stick?...fuck it, I'm just going to. WTF? dumbass...get your cats out of the way.

 

[RoadGrader]

It occurs to me that the NFL is missing a trick and could learn lessons from other North American sports. These lessons would increase profits further. Sorry, I mean enhance the greatness of the NFL.

1) More games. 17 is a massive waste of empty stadia. Let's go with what baseball does and have a game each day. I reckon 183 games should do it, with a season running from April to October.

Fans will love watching games in Summer, rather than those brutal winters. What's not to like?

2) Remove padding. Baseball and basketball both do fine without padding. Remove it all.

3) Learn from Ice Hockey and introduce sticks. However, sticks should only be for those protecting the Quarterback, whose status needs to become even more sanctified.

4) Have weekly road games across the world. Why not play in, say, Fairbanks one week, Frankfurt the next, Bogotá and then Ulan Bator?

Feel free to add any other suggestions!

I suggest you fahkin' Limeys stick to changing things that matter on your side of The Pond

get that unkept lunitic PM of yours a proper hairy-cut

 

[Undertaker #59*]

2) Remove padding. Baseball and basketball both do fine without padding. Remove it all.

I actually think this is a great idea. We have talked of it before. Watch Rugby or Australian football. Plenty of tackling, very little padding or even helmets. When you are not surrounded in plastic armor, you have to hit differently, reducing the speed of collisions, and reducing injuries.

 

[ParanoidPatriot]

All of these ideas could need some refinement after Cat reaches a level with his medication where they will release him from his padded room.

 

[Hawg73]

I think the NFL should completely do away with the coin flip and any number of challenges could be substituted to
determine ball possession.

Let the fans vote to decide what the alternate would be, via the official NFL app, sponsored by Geico.

A tug-o-war, best TD dance contest, escape room or trivia quiz. are a couple of quick ideas. Let reality TV help guide
the league in the direction it wants to go.

Make it a cooking contest with Gordon Ramsey yelling at the participants.

Imagine the fun of a huge football player in a tiny house? Can you say CROSSOVER APPEAL?

What could be better?

 

[Flagg the Wanderer]

To be a party-pooper and take the subject seriously, there are a few changes to the game I love that make sense to me:

1) Get rid of the "break-the-plane" rule. Something (a knee, the ball, etc. - anything that would establish the spot of the ball on any non-scoring play) should have to "touch down" in the end zone to earn a touchdown.

2) Should not be a penalty for not having enough men on the field.

3) Eliminate kickoffs in favor of starting with the ball with 4th and 20 on the 30 yard line. You can still go for it, or punt, but the injury insanity of kickoffs should be a part of history. I am a fan of kickoffs as a fan, but they're too dangerous AND you end up with a critical, game-turning play that has so little to do with the rest of the game. You'd probably also see punters and kickers start to merge into a single specialist/roster spot.

4) Agree about removing/reducing padding/helmets. You won't use your head as a weapon when you don't feel invulnerable. I'd miss the pop of the hits that is only found in NFL football, though.

5) Revisit eligible receiver rules - certainly having to declare someone eligible shouldn't be necessary if this is dictated by the formation.

6) Revisit forward pass rule vs passing behind the LOS. Does it really matter if a screen pass is half-yard backwards or not? The point is that a pass that is caught behind the LOS is a fundamentally different creature than one caught in "enemy territory." If a forward pass doesn't cross the LOS in the air, it's the same as a lateral - you can have another forward pass, and if it's incomplete it is a live ball. This also eliminates one more source of replay confusion and unnecessary judgement calls by players.

7) A catch is both feet inbounds, ball stops moving for at least a quarter second while touching nothing except a player (or players') body. None of this "football move" stuff, and the ground can't cause an incompletion if possession of the ball has already been established because it was controlled on the way to the ground. Because if the ball is controlled on the way to the ground, the player is down as soon as the ball (or a knee, etc.) touches the ground. For the current rule to make sense, you actually have to believe that the ground it retroactively making the pass incomplete, which is ridiculous. The absolute most generous interpretation of it is that the ground is simply acting as evidence that the ball wasn't fully controlled in the first place, but if that's the case, then when a running back that dives forward and stretches the ball out, and the ball hits the ground and jars loose, that's a fumble. Which is nonsense.

8) Overtime: revert to sudden death, with the change the Ravens proposed to the "spot-and-choose" system, which is kind of like the classic "one person divides the loot, the other picks which half to take" solution to dividing something into two parts. Winner of the coin flip chooses either:
"Spot": choice of which end to defend, and where the ball is spotted to start overtime (e.g. "ball is spotted at the offenses own 10 yard line.") - Or - " Choose": whether you start on offense or defense.

 

[AnOldTroll]

I would recommend reverting back to how it used to be.

 

[gomezcat]

You are one weird cat-loving Brit. But I still like you, my friend. And you have a unique way of looking at and expressing stuff. I love that.

Now go receive your punishment and undertake a Coldplay marathon listening session without any distraction.

Thanks! The international one is actually a real bugbear of mine. I hadn't realised just how bad jetlag was, until I experienced it (flying back from Vegas, via Minneapolis). For anyone who hasn't travelled through seven timezones, it's absolutely brutal.

It made me realise just how unfeasible it is to have international leagues in different times zones, without some serious thought.

The other stuff was just me be me, of course. I'm not wild about the expansion to 17 games from a player safety perspective, but we'll see how it goes.

 

[gomezcat]

I actually think this is a great idea. We have talked of it before. Watch Rugby or Australian football. Plenty of tackling, very little padding or even helmets. When you are not surrounded in plastic armor, you have to hit differently, reducing the speed of collisions, and reducing injuries.

People on the team for whom I do stats, who have played both Football and Rugby, make exactly this point.

Football allows you to be really reckless, as opposed to just normally reckless. Rugby has its issues with CTE at the highest level, but I can't imagine those are quite as bad as the helmet to helmet hits.

 

[gomezcat]

I actually think this is a great idea. We have talked of it before. Watch Rugby or Australian football. Plenty of tackling, very little padding or even helmets. When you are not surrounded in plastic armor, you have to hit differently, reducing the speed of collisions, and reducing injuries.

People on the team for whom I do stats, who have played both Football and Rugby, make exactly this point.

Football allows you to be really reckless, as opposed to just normally reckless. Rugby has its issues with CTE at the highest level, but I can't imagine those are quite as bad as the helmet to helmet hits.

I suggest you fahkin' Limeys stick to changing things that matter on your side of The Pond

get that unkept lunitic PM of yours a proper hairy-cut


View attachment 5695




View attachment 5696

Wait, what? Guy Fieri is our PM?

 

[Flagg the Wanderer]

I would recommend reverting back to how it used to be.

I wish, in many ways. But I can't rank my entertainment ahead of avoidable and unnecessary damage to people's brains.

I do miss more of the run-focus, creativity in the run game, and defensive struggles. But I don't see any of that coming back; it's almost a different game entirely now. A really good one, to be clear, but I miss the old one as well.

Also, you're officially an old crank, and I'll get off your lawn.

 

[ParanoidPatriot]

Cheerleaders must wear beach volleyball outfits, regardless of the weather.

 

[gomezcat]

I wish, in many ways. But I can't rank my entertainment ahead of avoidable and unnecessary damage to people's brains.

I do miss more of the run-focus, creativity in the run game, and defensive struggles. But I don't see any of that coming back; it's almost a different game entirely now. A really good one, to be clear, but I miss the old one as well.

Also, you're officially an old crank, and I'll get off your lawn.

I'm with you about the run game. I first started watching highlights in the mid 80s, when pitches were a thing and teams had some gnarly blocking schemes.

Watching the Redskins destroy the Broncos with Counter-Gap/Trey, and other stuff, was a thing of beauty - two tight ends, with two guys pulling and trapping.


View: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=nXNGCOvxlbc

 

[AnOldTroll]

Also, you're officially an old crank, and I'll get off your lawn.

You kinda pegged me.

But am curious, what is the count of your family unit these days?
(hoping my memory isn't escaping me).

 

[Darth Despot]

We could revise the offside rule....

Oh, wrong football.

Making someone listen to Coldplay for 1/2 and hour is unconstitutional, an hour is against the Geneva convention.

Satan couldn't find any demons to monitor those condemned to Coldplay for eternity, so the punishment was upgraded to Right Said Fred.

 

[gomezcat]

We could revise the offside rule....

Oh, wrong football.

Making someone listen to Coldplay for 1/2 and hour is unconstitutional, an hour is against the Geneva convention.

Satan couldn't find any demons to monitor those condemned to Coldplay for eternity, so the punishment was upgraded to Right Said Fred.

Thanks. Good to know someone has my back on Coldplay. They are a true abomination.

As for offside in soccer, well..

I'd go to you actually having to be offside by something more than a random foot or knee, but I'd remove interfering/not interfering.

 

[Darth Despot]

The rule is fine, the way they call it now is annoying as hell, waiting for the play to develop.

If the player is in an offside position and is making himself part of play, blow the GD whistle.

 

[Flagg the Wanderer]

You kinda pegged me.

But am curious, what is the count of your family unit these days?
(hoping my memory isn't escaping me).

More than average?

Naw, we had #13 near the end of last year. Someone I talked to recently thought we had 14 kids. 14! Now that would be crazy...