Posted on 01/03/2010 8:30:20 PM PST by FromLori
The NFL flaps its gums to appease Colts fans forced to watch their team tank last week's game against the Jets, blowing their perfect season.
MIAMI (AP) -- Commissioner Roger Goodell says the NFL competition committee will review league policy regarding late-season games where teams might be tempted to rest their starters for the playoffs.
Goodell said the league was sensitive to criticism in the wake of the Indianapolis Colts' decision to use backups a week ago in a game they lost, ending their bid for a perfect season.
''It is something we'll look at,'' Goodell said Sunday. ''We heard the fans loud and clear. It's something our competition committee has looked at in the past, but we're going to ask our competition committee to look at it again in the future. We want every game to be competitive.''
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I remeber about 10 years ago, when Dick Vermeil in St. Louis decided to have his starting quarterback Trent Green play in a pre-season game. Trent got tackled and went down in a heap of shattered ligaments, out for the entire season.
I don't really take issue with resting the starters, but what was queer was how it happened. Why do you bench Manning when you have the ball and a three point lead late in the game? If Manning goes down the field and scores a touchdown on the next drive, the game is all but over.
If you were concerned about injuries, why were the starters in the game so long in the first place? Also, if there were concerns about injuries to starters, this week was interesting in that the starters played long enough to get Reggie Wayne and Dallas Clark 100 catches on the season--making it appear that personal milestones are more important than wins (or more important than risking injury).
What was particularly sour, I think, was that the Jets game was a home game. It's pretty poor when the 14-0 home team gets roundly booed. Given how things were handled, the Colts did not do right by the paying fans.
There is no reason for an investigation, it was clear that the powers behind the team opted to lose.
This decision betrayed the players who play to WIN. They betrayed the fans who pay dearly to come to the games to watch them WIN.
They erased a perfect season and the record of a winning quarterback.
In my opinion, yesterdays incredible overwhelming loss by the Colt’s was the teams message to the management...’you want to lose, well, TAKE THIS’.
Good idea. The bye weeks extend the season just as well as games providing not everyone gets the bye at the same time.
Too broad. Should be an NFL 'tanking' czar. lol
*Announce the final two weeks schedule at the end of Week 14.*
This would never work for a multitude of reasons and would end up being far worse on the poor widdle fans than not seeing Payton Manning play 2 quarters of football.
It would also mean that just about 3/4 of the teams would still be playing meaningless games which would theoretically sell ZERO tickets.
The NFL is making a big stink of out an issue which isn’t important at all. Hell—football is not important at all. Sometimes you get clunker games and sometimes it’s important to pull your starters. The only people who suffer are the gamblers.
*There is no reason for an investigation, it was clear that the powers behind the team opted to lose.*
If the Colts second stringers had done their job, would we even be sitting here talking about this?
I don't know Roger's party affiliation but his daddy was a RINO.
Nothing about shaving 2 week from the season would make the teams more competitive. Still going to be the same number of teams with he same players.
Heh, heh. I remember Giant teams that did show up....but had similar results.
[If the Colts second stringers had done their job, would we even be sitting here talking about this?]
...and management saw that that they were clearly going to lose that game and their perfect season because the second string was failing. They ignored the fan’s outrage, Mannings disdain along with the rest of the first teams disgust and the viewing public.
They also insulted the linemen by indirectly saying that they didn’t have the ability to protect their quarterback.
They knew they screwed up because they had to send Manning out when a public relations video to quell the fan’s outrage.
If I had been at that game I would have asked for refund of my ticket price because they didn’t play to win, in boxing terms, they took a dive.
That game (first half, at least ... after that I switched to ski-jumping on Universal Sports) was just bizarre. Did the Bungles just "throw" the game, or are the Jets really that good?
The Jets are in the play-offs because they had the good fortune to play their last two regular season games against opponents who had nothing to be gained by winning ... and it showed. At least the Colts made some effort ... the Bengals made no pretense whatsoever, shut out by the Jets 37-zip. The Bengals should have just forfeited the game and stayed home.
Your solution is excellent for the fans but not for the owners. Who do you think will win that battle?
Long ago the NFL became controlled by television, as have all sports. Why? Money! Schedules have been changed, starting times have been changed, etc., all at the request of television in order to get the largest audience possible.
What is the main purpose of the BCS Bowl Series? More bowls, more money. For that matter, what encouraged the expansion of the NFL into more teams? What allowed the formation of the AFL back in 1960?
As to the playing and not playing starters in key games I think it is bad strategy to rest players. A player can get hurt in practice or on the first play of the playoff game so what risk is avoided? Changing the lineup and the emotion of a team going into an important game is not a good strategy. Do you rest all starters or just the key skill players? How does that make the starters who have to play feel? Bad for morale.
*In my opinion, yesterdays incredible overwhelming loss by the Colt’s was the teams message to the management...’you want to lose, well, TAKE THIS’.*
Yeah, the Colts really did a great job of summoning that lousy snowstorm.
You nailed it with that one. Fans of teams that need help making the playoffs are pissed.
Maybe the NFL should eliminate the Wild Card format altogether and go with some type of lottery at the end for non-division winners.
I’m not sure what the solution is, if there is a solution. I’ve identified the Colts and the Patriots as 2 teams that didn’t give their all. I didn’t see the Bengals game. There might be other teams as well.
The Colts and Patriots should be understanding now that there are consequences for not giving their all. I’m not saying the rules should be changed. But I’m less of a fan of the Colts and the Patriots than I was before their games.
So many teams in the AFC didn’t play to win that I don’t know who to root for in some of these games. Maybe I don’t care anymore and I don’t watch the games. Bengals vs Jets? The Jets should’ve lost to the Colts or the Bengals. Do I root for the team that doesn’t deserve to be there or the team that tanked? Patriots v Ravens? Ordinarily, I would’ve rooted for the Pats, now I’ll root for the Ravens. Ravens and Chargers. NFC is fine.
Contract issues? If there were performance clauses in the player contracts, and they were benched just shy of the goals, what would the player reaction be?
I’m not very up on NFL contracts. In baseball, if a player got benched for the last week of the season when he had 99 hits and would get a bonus for 100, the Players’ Association would raise holy hell. So would the player’s agent and his lawyer, rightfully so.
Is that part of it?
Hoo boy! Maybe they’ll investigate the Giants next...and they played with FIRST stringers....
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