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For starters address the officiating. It’s abysmal, inconsistent, and destroys games. Too much laundry on the field every damn game, and the calls that come are just all over the place, it’s like an umpires strike zone in baseball, one guy calls this that way, another guy calls it the other way, some guy calls this penalty, other guys don’t…….it’s destroying their product.
The 1st step is you make officials full-timers. Enough of this part-time shit. This is the only sports league that doesn’t have full time officials and that is ridiculous, especially when you consider the amount of money the NFL makes. It’s just stupid.
Further, I’m in agreement with you Ice on defining a catch, but I’ll take it even further and suggest that there are many rules that seem to vary wildly. P.I. calls, defensive holding calls, hands to the face calls, personal fouls(a huuuuuuuge one), taunting (another one) etc. I don’t know if it’s the definition of the rule(s), or if it’s the complete lack of consistency in calling them that makes the officiating so awful. Probably both, but it’s gotta get cleaned up, and fast. The inconsistency is crippling. So is when it’s a “judgement” call or “intent” or anything else that can be deemed at the referees discretion. As football fans we all watch other games than just the Browns, and it’s just astounding the things that happen across the league week in and week out. And it really, really affects the quality of play and controls the outcome of games.
What was a penalty in Green Bay last week on this play, isn’t 2 weeks later in Cinci, even though it was identical. It’s bullshit and it has got to stop. Define the rules, and then be consistent of enforcing them. I’ve seen so many BS pass interference calls that it makes my head hurt. Then you’ll see a defender maul a receiver in the middle of the field directly in front of a ref and……….nothing. It’s just mind boggling. Same thing with QB’s being protected. I hate Cam Newton, can’t stand him, but the guy has a point with all of his bitching. If only because of the inconsistencies.
Another thing that needs to end is these personal foul calls when a guy gets shoved, and then the guy shoves back. We all know the guy that retaliates gets the flag but that’s a bunch of horseshit too. Ya start slapping and shoving well after the play is over, that’s a fucking penalty. You call it on the 1st guy, not the one defending himself from bullshit cheap-shotting.
Fix the officiating, it’s just beyond awful. No one knows how to play because no one ever knows what is or isn’t gonna be called, when, or why. You can’t have quality games with that level of suck going on with the Zebras. It’s a total disruption to the game, and people are really starting to see that.
Secondly…….the players need to really stick it to Goodell in the next CBA, paychecks and games played be damned. Cancel an entire season if you have to striking. This guy is an absolute menace. He needs to be stripped of so much of this ridiculous authority he has. And that’s really where the problems start too, because this dickbag isn’t consistent about anything he does so I can easily see how it trickles down into the officiating. Goodell is a lackey to the owners and nothing more, is a petulant child, and doles out discipline like a carnival act where you’re throwing darts at balloons on the wall. The personal conduct policy is nothing more than a document that says “I, Roger Goodell, can do whatever the hell I want to anyone at any time, and tough titties” If as a player you somehow get on his bad side he will absolutely fuck you over as much as possible while laughing in your face and smoking a cigar. Fuck this guy.
Finally, and I know this one is going to sound absolutely crazy and waaaaaaaaaaay out of left field……but get rid of helmets.
Yup, I said that.
With all this endless talk about player safety, concussions, concussion protocol, 800 neuro doctors on sidelines, spotters in booths watching for helmet to helmet hits, testing, and all the other shit they do for head injuries, they still trot all these players out here every week with gigantic cocoons attached to their heads that they all use as weapons an nearly every play. You want to end that kind of play, and eliminate almost all of the concussions form the game? Take the helmets off, and ban all hits to the head. Instead of the steel face-masked battering rams strapped on everyones dome, you put them in a hockey helmet. With no facemask, just a plastic visor to protect the eyes. Do you have any idea how much that would change the game? And honestly, it would all be for good. No one is going to ever be leading with their helmets again. No one will be tackling with their faces and crowns of helmets anymore. No spearing. Head to head blows will would almost disappear. Players would start tackling properly again. Heads wouldn’t be weapons of mass destruction anymore and there would be a complete shift to the body. If you lead with your shoulder into the head on a tackle, 15 yard penalty. Learn to tackle properly if you don’t want to get flagged. Rugby players don’t even wear freakin pads for christ sakes. Every snap instead of OL and DL slamming their heads into each other, they’d have to body up and block. The right way.
Get rid of ’em.
I agree with your identification of the problems, but not necessarily the solutions you proposed.
Full time officials, check. Consistency from game to game is non-existent.
Players strike, hell no. If the main problem we’re trying to solve is NFL viewership then a strike is the last thing they need. I’m coming around to hating Goodell but there has to be a better way to get rid of him or at least minimize his power.
Get rid of helmets, no. This namby-pamby crying about every hit to the head isn’t so much the fault of the NFL as it is of some lawyers seeing a deep pocket to steal from. IMO the players should all be forced to sign chronic injury waivers. Playing in the NFL can make your brain into mush by the time you’re 50. Just know that. But man will your life be great until then. If that’s worth it to you then go ahead and play the sport. If not, well good thing you got a college degree.
Get rid of all Thursday games except for the 2 on Thanksgiving. Get rid of Sunday Night Football. Keep 1 MNF game per week. Oversaturatiin is the games biggest detriment.
See Shooters rant on the officials. I second that.
Get rid of the rules that hurt defenses and bring back hitting. IT’S a man’s game who’s core audience is men. NOTHING this weekend was more pathetic then watching Emmanuel Sanders diving catch that was only caught because the safety stopped and let him to avoid a fine and penalty.
GET rid of London games. They hurt fans and cities in America.
Fire Roger Goodell.
Freedom!!!
I’m coming around to hating Goodell but there has to be a better way to get rid of him or at least minimize his power.
I don’t see any other way than through the CBA. He’s not going to cede an ounce of his power. Hell no. No way no how. The players have to flat-out take it from him, and the only way to do that is to stand their ground. A strike carries immense leverage. As you pointed out, the NFL is already losing vieweship. A strike would be crippling to them, and the league and owners know that. Threaten it and stand tall. The league either caves to the players demands and takes Goodell down about 20 pegs, or run the risk of killing their golden goose.
You use the strike, which would be suicide right now, as your greatest bargaining chip.
At some point, the owners would tell Goodell to shut up and sit down.
That’s the only way to do it. At least as far as I can see. I’m open to suggestions otherwise though.
Soup, I’m totally with you on the Thursday Night games and the London games. Dumb. Such a hassle for teams flying across the pond and at such a great expense. The Thursday Night contests are horrible. Making teams play on 3 days rest in football is horrid, and the games usually suck because of it.
I like the Sunday night game though. It’s still played on Sunday. I kinda like that one. It ends the day well lol.
I get you in SNF, however knowing there’s 3 games on you can miss the 1p, 4p or 8p and not care. If there was no SNF then you watch 1p and 4p and are prone to want more and watch MNF. SNF plays into the oversaturation. Always leave people wanting more.
The NFL greatest assets is their short length of schedule. Their biggest issue is making the season drag by playing for 48 days which is equivalent to 12 days per month. That’s football every 3 days. THIS ain’t hockey. It doesn’t feel special with that many games.
Also, I think their scheduling is idiotic. The first 4 and final 4 games of the season should all be divisional match ups. this way someone takes the reigns at the beginning, then has ability to hold on or lose hold of the division at the end. I think it would make those games more meaningful.
Freedom!!!
I’m also with you on Thursday and London games. I don’t like getting home from church on Sunday thinking I have plenty of time to set my lineup only to find that two teams are already in the 3rd quarter of their game in London. Thank goodness the Browns haven’t played across the pond yet, but I’d be seriously pissed if I had to wake up early to watch the Browns play. Thursday is too much of a good thing, but I love Sunday night and Monday night football.
The owners can fire Goodell if the league keeps going down the way it has this season.
It’s not just in TV land, but everything NFL-related has a hefty price tag on it.
For example, when I was in Ohio last summer, I took a trip to 2 places to pick up some fan gear and other memorabilia…Dick’s and the HOF (which I hadn’t been to since I was a kid). From Dick’s, I walked away empty-handed…because when a pair of shorts with a Browns logo costs $60, you’re a damn fool if you buy it (I ended up going to Target and getting 3 outfits at that price). At the HOF however, I wasn’t walking away without something to show for it, no matter the (within abnormal reason) cost. I bought a foam Dawg Pound hat, a keychain, and a beer glass with the Browns logo and the HOF logo stained into the bottom…and it came to almost $70 for those 3 things. As well as $20 to get in (though it was real close to HOF Weekend). Good thing my plane ticket was round-trip…
Goodell is all about the money and marketing, and because of all this over-saturation, all the bad publicity about their concussion studies, all the high costs of things like Sunday Ticket, high ticket prices, tax payers paying for stadiums, inconsistent punishments, stances on racism, domestic violence…the list goes on. People are fed up…and I can’t blame them. Just like anything else, the only way to hurt those fucks at the top is with numbers. And from the looks of things, it’s going to start in the TV ratings…because of all those reasons described above. Next it’ll be in the pocket…and that’s when they REALLY start to take notice.
Now…to add to what Shooter said about using hockey helmets, why stop there? Whenever there’s a fight, let it happen…and just like hockey, whoever starts the shit goes into time out, and the offending team left with 10 players. Oh, and make penalties reviewable. I mean come on, Earl Thomas getting flagged for giving a ref a hug? That’s asinine. Phony interference/holding calls, unnecessary unnecessary roughness calls…make a three man never-changing panel of folks based in New York sit in a glass room surrounded by a rep of each team in the league (or those teams that are playing, at least) to ensure that said panel isn’t looking at some Vegas spreadsheet whenever a bullshit call gets challenged. Make sure that those three have microphones, so all can hear their reasoning (or at least the team reps). Or…something along those lines. Just off the top of my head (and I need more coffee).
By the way, I agree with mostly everything in this thread about how this shit needs fixed. Except with Soup’s solution (fire Goodell)…it doesn’t matter who they put in that position. It’s kind of like the presidency…he/she is the face that all of the fingers start pointing at, even though all the branches of government are just as fucking bad. It doesn’t matter who’s on top.
By the way, I agree with mostly everything in this thread about how this shit needs fixed. Except with Soup’s solution (fire Goodell)…it doesn’t matter who they put in that position. It’s kind of like the presidency…he/she is the face that all of the fingers start pointing at, even though all the branches of government are just as fucking bad. It doesn’t matter who’s on top.
The solution here would be the same as the solution in politics; strict term limits. Nothing solves corruption better.
It doesn’t matter who’s on top.
I don’t know, Pete Rozelle and Paul Tagliabue did a pretty good job.
This guy is far from those two.
DPD is missing the point. Fans loathe Goodell. Firing Goodell is a good faith gesture to the fans which in turn can bring some people back. Personally I don’t watch near as intently as I used to and it’s because of him.
Freedom!!!
Richard Sherman summed it up well.
“Because the league isn’t fun anymore,” Sherman said. “Every other league, you see the players have a good time. It’s a game. This isn’t politics. This isn’t justice. This is entertainment. And they’re no longer allowing the players to entertain. They’re no longer allowing the players to show any kind of personality, any kind of uniqueness, any individuality. Because they want to control the product. They want to control the messaging, etc., etc.
“They say we’re trying to influence kids, and that’s their biggest thing. That’s their biggest ploy is you don’t want to be a bad influence to kids. You don’t want to be a bad role model. And I can agree with that. But in the same breath, you can’t say Budweiser is the official sponsor of the NFL, and we’re trying to influence kids. So there’s a ton of hypocrisy, but it doesn’t matter because we don’t control it.”
The NFL forgot the golden rule – it’s entertainment. Watching yellow flags fly is the antitheses of entertainment.
Freedom!!!
love that clip soup….i believe there have been a couple of guys who have done this and been flagged for it….one of them was like perfect on the third one.
Hue Jackson is a loser.
I saw more of it this Sunday. The NO FUN LEAGUE was in full effect. A player makes an amazing grab in the end zone stands up and realizes that he has to let all that positive emotion seep out of him like air out of a tire. Because if he stands up and shows his excitement he’ll hurt his team by drawing a penalty. Watch out exactly where you point or drop the ball because heaven forbid another player is in the way or within 3 yards of you that’s taunting. You saw it when Pryor scored the TD yesterday. You could see he wanted to scream and spike that ball and jump 30 feet in the air, then he had a moment of reflection and restrained all that excitement and got the ball to the ref.
I freaking HATE the stupid planned celebrations that T.O. and Steve Smith did. They were childish and annoying. But they should be allowed to do it as long as it doesn’t affect the flow of the game. As long as the play clock is still running for the extra point I don’t care what he does in the end zone but if his dumb ass is still on the field when the ball is snapped THEN it should be a penalty. Because I realize that some people really enjoyed watching the players celebrate. I don’t, but some people do. Why take it away?
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