Friday, January 28, 2011

Three Way the NFL can Improve It's Product

If only the NFL knew what they were missing by not employing me as a consultant.
1.
Make the coin toss to the Super Bowl a minimum of twenty four hours before the actual kickoff to the game
Sounds weird? Let me explain. The point of this rule, would be that the coin toss would generate the same sort of publicity as a public weigh in before a boxing match. Team captains can sneer at each other and great photo opportunities will be produced. Broadcast it on t.v., and suddenly NFL Network can add some much needed substance to it's weeklong coverage of Super Bowl that's lacking big time in it. Jamie Dukes and Marshall Faulk can predict who will win the coin toss, before the coverage kicks over to FOX for the official 'AT&T Coin Toss Show'. The teams and fans now know whose getting the ball to start the first and second halves before the teams even get on the field. Tell me that isn't a new, fresh way to view a football game, and tell me it won't get bigger numbers than Deion Sanders and Steve Mariucci half-assing their analyst duties.
So teams don't know who the inactives. The part of the coin toss procedure where teams choose sides supposedly based on breeze can still be done on the field before the game. This rule change shouldn't be a big deal. It's not like other competitive aspects of the game aren't compromised during the Super Bowl. Forty-five minute halftime, gimme a break.
Anyway, if Roger Goodell had any brains, he'd put this to an owner's vote today.
2. Let the Two Point Conversion count for Two Points, Offense or Defense
Sounds complicated? It's not. Everyone has watched a football game before when on a two point try, a pass is picked off, a fumble is recovered, and the play is whistled dead. The defense can run all they want, they're not gettin' those two points if they get the ball to the other team's end zone. This is silly. Why take away excitement from a football game? Adding in another factor into a team's decision-making process in going for two makes the game more interesting to me, personally.
So Roger Goodell, if you have any brains, you'll adapt the one rule college does better than the pro's.
3. Once the NFL goes to an Eighteen Game Schedule, go back to a Sixteen Game Schedule
This one's obvious.