Technically, every sports league should be able to accomplish this with how we watch/consume sports now vs say 25 years ago. Baseball I guess would be a bit of the outlier since they aren't all playing with the same resources (no cap). What exactly are you referring to specificly about the NFL?
Baseball probably has the most parity now amazingly enough. The playoffs are pretty wide open. The NFL is really destroying their ability to have parity because of the way they’ve over protected the quarterback and bent the rules in the direction of the offense.
If the NFL is really going to 8 playoff teams (seems inevitable) they need to seriously think about divisional realignment. Instead of 4 divisions in each conference, just go with 2 and the top 4 teams from each division make the playoffs. This would make for a more competitive playoff. They could also use the realignment to establish rivalries they should already have: Some examples, Cleveland & Cincinnati should be in a division with Detroit. No brainer. Thats the Ohio State & Michigan of the NFL. Dallas should be with Houston. Giants & Patriots, Jets & Eagles (thats Yankees-Sox, Mets-Phillies right there)
They should further expand to 8 teams. It'll make the Jets' continued absence from the postseason even more impressive.
The NFL should stop guaranteeing home games for division winners too. I'm sick of seeing teams get punished for playing in a good division. You should be rewarded for it, not punished. The NFL thinks it probably improves opportunity for bad teams that win division but it hurts opportunity for good teams that don't. Heck if the division winner has a losing record then they should automatically lose their playoff spot for that division and then it should go to another wild card team.
The funny thing is, Patsies fans also carry a lot of grief for that game. They still remember it, and it's one of their bad memories. Never mind they won 3 SBs after that and basically spent the rest of the decade playing in the AFCCG - the fact that we crushed them that night is still a bad memory for them. For us... it's just depressing.
That's actually why I have no patience for fans who want to get rid of people like Tomlin. Basically in the 2010s, the AFC sent Brady, Manning and Mahomes to the SB. That's it. Couple of games here and there, maybe. So you want to blame a coach like Tomlin for not having one of those guys?
The NFL salary cap makes every team spend the same amount of money, which ensures you won't have a big market team like the Dodgers buying all the good players. But there are other ways to build a winning team, like having a franchise QB and a good coach and GM, and the salary cap does nothing about that. So the NFL has parity in the sense that winning teams got there by merit (and some franchise QB luck), not market size. But it doesn't have parity in the sense that the same teams won't contend for Super Bowls each year.
It's a byproduct of your own success. My guess, and of course I can only imagine, once you've won multiple Super Bowls as a franchise, just getting to the playoffs is not enough. Steelers, Patriots and (probably)one day Chief fans are definitely spoiled. Jet fans, on the other hand for the last decade plus, can only dream to "just getting to the playoffs"
Let me try again. You said you keep hearing about this "so called parity in the NFL" even though Brady and Mahomes have hogged all the AFC championship games. The parity you're hearing about is people referring to the salary cap keeping big market teams from dominating small market teams. This definition of parity, i.e. every team having a fair shake regardless of market size, is different from the definition of parity that you're thinking of, which is the same teams not winning every year. So you're right that the same teams keep winning every year, but those people are also right that the NFL has parity as they're defining it.
All this talk is irrelevant. Based on current rules, the best QB wins. Period. Whichever GM finds that QB is heralded as a genius and the rest are Joe Douglas. End of story. Same goes for the head coach. Although, a top drawer head coach can change the culture and add winning along the way. Either way, it boils down to the QB. First, middle & last. Case in point. Anyone think Ben Johnson didn't pick Chicago because of the QB situation.
No they shouldn't, otherwise you would have teams like the Vikings who had a great record with an easy schedule getting a home playoff spot. If you are going to remove home playoff for division winners you may as well remove divisions altogether and just have conference standings. What if all 4 teams from one division have better records than another division winner, should that division winner miss the playoffs altogether? If the schedule was equal then I could see the merit but with teams having different opponents compared to other divisions you can't reward teams just because they have better records.
Keep hiring inexperienced Defensive Coordinators to draft and lead rookie QB’s and it’ll be another 14 years. Amazing how stupid Woody is.
I’ve been saying the EXACT same thing for years!! First…we don’t need 7 playoff teams in each conference…6 was plenty, but since we’re here, fine leave it but do NOT increase…like in NBA, I think it’s crazy that half the league makes the playoffs…it just makes the regular season pretty pointless Second…I’m ok with winning a division means you are in the playoffs…BUT if you do it with a losing record, then you forfeit that spot and it goes to the next best wildcard team assuming that team has a better record…if the next best wildcard team does not have a better record, then the division winner can go to the playoffs Third…Once you use the above to determine WHO in the playoffs, the seedlings should be based purely on record…so Minnesota should have been seeded higher than the Rams…just because they played in a much tougher division shouldn’t have punished them with a road playoff game…I agree with the sentiment above…their great record is even MORE impressive given the division they played in I think those two changes (division winner requires a winning record to qualify and seedlings based only on records) would be fair and would make for a better overall system
