Has the NFL ruined football ?

[fezziwig]

I'm currious about the NFL and their ways with the league. Seems like a lot of water down teams these days. I believe with having 32 NFL teams it spreads thin the quality of players. There doesn't seem to be enough quality QB's, Tackles, etc. This is just how I am makng a guess on why the same teams always make a run in the playoffs or win the Super Bowls and then there are teams like the Browns and other teams that never seem to craw out of the hole.
I know the NFL placed all the teams on the same level with the draft, the dollars allowed to be spent and so on.
The depth is not there anymore it seems when it comes to backups.
I'm sure front office people and coaches have something to do with the outcome of a teams identity too.

Has the NFL been talking about adding more teams ? I hope not.

[lloydroid]

Umm, I think they are ruining the league, but not for the reasons you think. I look at it this way: Could adding 4 teams (from the 28 # we had for a long time) really outweigh the amount of new players entering in college football, etc? With today training techniques and "supplements" I feel there must be a higher # of better players than ever before. That being said, these players are going AGAINST better players, making them look worse. In other words, an OT today, who looks bad, might have actually been dominant 20 years ago, but because he faces bigger and faster DEs than in years past, he looks bad by comparison.

When I read the title to this thread, I assumed you were going to assert that they are ruining the league by throwing too many flags, delaying the game too much, too many commercials, and basically not allowing the game to be played as it was intended. The flags have gotten way out of hand. And, it's a violent sport and there is no way to change that without changing what the sport actually is. I guess they could use padded helmets and things like that. I don't know. Some of these games have been virtually unwatchable - the Philly game comes to mind, big time.

[NorthCoast]

Not the NFL.... it's the litigious swarms that see a huge pot o gold. And the stupid media is only feeding the frenzy and will ultimately set their own demise by focusing on 'hard facts' about football life.

Here is the future of the NFL... and it looks like we are in for a sissified version of the sport we grew up with:

http://aol.sportingnews.com/sport/st...-play-football

I would also ask the question, how does boxing or UFC get a pass from these lawyers?...

[RuthlessBurgher]

[DukieBoy]

Tired of the seemingly endless replays and reviews of calls and the picking apart of about every 5th play. Guessing it makes for more commercial time and more $$$ for the rich NFL.

[fezziwig]

Thanks for the post Northern. I'm all in favor of a safer NFL and if they could have fixed that earlier, we would stilll have Ben playing. I also think we will be seeing more rib injuries, shoulder injuries because now, that is where the guys are focusing on with their tackles. Ben out with ribs, Leftwich out with rib injury and I believe another top QB has a rib injury. I'm not saying go back to giving head shots but, something has to give since the NFL is changing how things are done. Maybe there will be a player that has their rib/ribs smashed into an organ and the player dies due to all the focus on head to head hits. I hope we never see anything like that.

lloydroid, I believe if you had taken the players from the earlier days and raised them today to be football players, they would be just as big , fast and strong. Todays guys workout year round and back in the day, the other players had summer jobs. Have you seen Chris Hoke this season on TV ? He has lost a lot of mass/size because he's not working out or eating the same to bulk up. Jeff Hartings one year removed from the NFL and he looked like a pencil neck geek.

I still believe their are steroids these players or some of these players are taking that just aren't on the list to be checked for by the NFL.

[fezziwig]

Oh yeah, the TV commercials are killing the NFL for sure. Commercials before kick off........ Commercials after kick off......... Review is made there's a commercial. ....... Set the clocks, theres a commercial. Change of the quarters, timeouts, injuries, halftime, kickoff again and after kickoff. Have I missed any commercials ?

[lloydroid]

Thanks for the post Northern. I'm all in favor of a safer NFL and if they could have fixed that earlier, we would stilll have Ben playing. I also think we will be seeing more rib injuries, shoulder injuries because now, that is where the guys are focusing on with their tackles. Ben out with ribs, Leftwich out with rib injury and I believe another top QB has a rib injury. I'm not saying go back to giving head shots but, something has to give since the NFL is changing how things are done. Maybe there will be a player that has their rib/ribs smashed into an organ and the player dies due to all the focus on head to head hits. I hope we never see anything like that.

lloydroid, I believe if you had taken the players from the earlier days and raised them today to be football players, they would be just as big , fast and strong. Todays guys workout year round and back in the day, the other players had summer jobs. Have you seen Chris Hoke this season on TV ? He has lost a lot of mass/size because he's not working out or eating the same to bulk up. Jeff Hartings one year removed from the NFL and he looked like a pencil neck geek.

I still believe their are steroids these players or some of these players are taking that just aren't on the list to be checked for by the NFL.

Did you see how Tony Boselli shrunk after he was out of the game? Maybe the most extreme shrinking I have seen. He literally doesn't appear to be a big guy, after being one of the best OTs in the NFL. I would say it's safe to say a great many of players are on PEDs. People I know who would know say you have to almost try to get caught in order to get caught. After you are caught, it is much harder, but getting caught in the first place is very easy to avoid - they don't do blood testing, just urine, and that's easily avoided detection. You know when you are going to get piss tested and you just do the things needed to mask it. Also, they have no test for HGH, especially if they don't draw blood.

[lloydroid]

Oh yeah, the TV commercials are killing the NFL for sure. Commercials before kick off........ Commercials after kick off......... Review is made there's a commercial. ....... Set the clocks, theres a commercial. Change of the quarters, timeouts, injuries, halftime, kickoff again and after kickoff. Have I missed any commercials ?

That is why I love the NFL Ticket and NFL Redzone. I absolutely refuse to sit and watch commercials, as I had to when watching games at the bar. Today, I keep switching to other games until I find a live game. And if by some how every single game is on commercial I switch to a movie. I just refuse to watch their endless crap.

[fezziwig]

I program the TV to copy all the Steeler games. Many times I allow a half hour of the game to go by before I start watching the taped version. At this point I can start fast forwarding through the commercials.