dfwgator wrote:
<<
That’s why they need to make it that the four worst teams are then randomly drawn to determine the order, so there’s no guarantee of the worst team getting the first pick.
Why reward failure, that’s what Communism does. At least in soccer, a bad team gets relegated.
>>
**************************************************************
The National Hockey League already has a similar type of lottery system where the bottom teams all have a chance to get the first overall draft pick, regardless of what the overall season standings dictate. I agree, the NFL should strongly consider doing the same.
The NHL did not always have that lottery, and my favorite team was the perpetrator (thankfully!) of one of the most blatant tank jobs in the history of sports. It wasn’t one game, but most of a whole season, namely the 1983-84 Pittsburgh Penguins. The Pens built their roster by sending any younger promising players to the minors for the whole year. They filled the roster with journeymen and washed up older players. The few decent offensive players they had sat the bench during power plays. The coach on one occasion tried to put together a good power play in a close game agains the NJ Devils (the 2nd worst team that year) and the GM came out of the press box to berate him (I believe “What the heck are you doing” was the quote, but he didn’t say heck; I’m keeping it PG rated).
The Pens ended up “winning” that race to the bottom. The Devils drafted Kirk Muller second overall, and that turned out to be a pretty good pick as Muller had a successful NHL career. The Pens got some guy named Lemieux, who of course transformed the team from perennial laughingstock to one of the elite franchises in the NHL.
The moral of the story is don’t blame teams for tanking; it often works. Blame the system for allowing tanking to be an attractive option.