Cory’s Corner: The NFL isn’t broke, don’t fix it

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The NFL has talked about moving back the point-after touchdown and adding two playoff teams.
The NFL has talked about moving back the point-after touchdown and adding two playoff teams.

First it was making extra points 43-yard kicks.

Now there’s talk about expanding the playoffs.

It should be obvious to the owners and NFL commish Roger Goodell that the National Football League is hands down the best professional sports product on the planet.

Sorry Premier League, but the NFL continues to get eyes glued to its games. For the fourth time in five years, last month’s Super Bowl has set viewership records in the U.S. And that was for a pretty much blah game with a final score of 43-8.

And so I ask you, why for all that is holy is the NFL even considering tinkering with its untouchable product? Leagues like the NHL, MLB and NBA would kill for the exposure, which allows the financial floodgates to be opened to the tune of over $39 billion just for broadcast rights.

Many might say you have to change or reinvent yourself in order to stay on top. That’s a valid argument but it doesn’t hold water when there hasn’t been any evidence of the NFL eroding. The game’s popularity has only exponentially grown thanks to things like fantasy football and the Madden video game, which continues to cultivate a younger audience.

Actually the NFL has changed. It has added things like replay challenges — even though a certain Lions coach really never understood how it worked — the two point conversion and less clutching and grabbing from defensive backfields.

The game is much more open now. The quarterback may still be protected a tad too much, but I’m willing to live with all the minor tweaks the shield has made over the years.

But seeing a kicker have to boot a 43-yard extra point in December just to secure a playoff berth seems a bit preposterous. And adding two more playoff teams into the mix sounds like a great idea right? It’s the simple math of more teams, the better.

However, all it would do is just dilute the postseason to NBA levels. How many people care or watch the 8th seed get trounced by the No. 1 seed in the NBA playoffs? Yes, I know Dikembe Mutumbo and the Nuggets bucked the trend by beating the Sonics. But that never happens — and worse yet, hardly anyone watches or cares.

Right now, 6 of 16 teams in each conference make the playoffs. Do you really want half of each conference in the playoffs? The biggest reason I don’t is because it would devalue the regular season. The NFL has had a big enough problem selling its terrible Thursday Night Football lineup on the NFL Network. How many times will fans see starters sit even earlier in the season because teams know they have one of the eight playoff teams already wrapped up?

Football is the best sport going right now. Pending more injury research, it’s bound to stay that way. But if the NFL keeps trying to fix something that isn’t broken, they’re going to end up creating a problem and possibly even alienate fanbases.

You cannot buy traditions and history. The NFL has a vintage reel of both. But you cannot keep them both if you’re too busy trying to change the present.

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Cory Jennerjohn is from Wisconsin and has been in sports media for over 10 years. To contact Cory e-mail him at jeobs -at- yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter: Cory Jennerjohn

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46 thoughts on “Cory’s Corner: The NFL isn’t broke, don’t fix it

  1. Excellent defeat! I will apprentice at the same time just like you change your blog, how may i actually signed up for your blog site web site? The actual bank account assisted us a ideal cope. I was little recognizable of this ones transmitted given sparkling clear thought

    1. See? This is what I’m talking about. A Videot shows up, spews some half-decipherable smack in the fractured speech of the most recent chat forum for the latest game he’s been playing.

      I am burning all of my kids video-game shit as soon as I post this.

      Frickin’ waste of oxygen.

  2. Personally I like the current system. This expanding of the number of playoff teams really took off after the Cardinals didn’t make the playoffs at 10-6 and the Packers did at 8-7-1. A few years before the Seahawks got in at 7-9. Who gives a damn and I’m with Cory, adding additional teams only dilute the game. Roger Goodell’s main goal is putting more $$$ in the owners pockets. More games equals more injuries Roger, period end of story. The extra point thing drives me crazy. Teams that play in domes or warm weather like the Saints, Falcons, Bucs, Cardinals, or Lions for example would have a huge advantage over teams like the Packers. Somethings just aren’t meant to be changed, especially if it could have a negative effect on teams that play football where it’s meant to be played. Like Lambeau Field!!

    1. Personally, I don’t think the NFL gives a rat’s butt about a team getting in with worse record than some other team (and even if they did, including more mediocre teams wouldn’t solve the problem).

      No, the NFL has one thought, and one thought only:

      “Mo’ games = mo’ money.”

    2. “The extra point thing drives me crazy. Teams that play in domes or warm weather like the Saints, Falcons, Bucs, Cardinals, or Lions for example would have a huge advantage over teams like the Packers.”

      Huh? When a dome team goes to Lambeau, it doesn’t matter that the dome is 70 degrees and perfect. They still gotta kick at Lambeau…and vice versa.

      I have no problem with the extended PAT. If anything, the PAT is an automatic play (the failure rate is negligibly low). If it’s automatic, then why do it? If you equate this to the hockey/futbol shootout, it’s better than that.

      1. Someday, an XP kicked in a dome will give that team a tiebreaker of some sort against a team that has to kick it in a snowstorm.

        1. If they change the PAT, then–yes, it will happen. If you lose the point differential tiebreaker, that just means you didn’t win games that you needed to win. Just win games.

        2. If they change the PAT, then–yes, it will happen. If you lose the point differential tiebreaker, that just means you didn’t win games that you needed to win. Just win games.

      2. It’s not rocket science. The fact is the Packers would end up playing more games in say the last 6 weeks of the season in cold weather than the Lions for example or teams from the South, you know, where it’s warm!

      3. Currently, coaches don’t call 2-pt over PAT because they’re worried that they will lose a tie-break at the end of the season. They try to win football games and allow the chips to fall.

        I really don’t see that changing.

  3. Personally I like the current system. This expanding of the number of playoff teams really took off after the Cardinals didn’t make the playoffs at 10-6 and the Packers did at 8-7-1. A few years before the Seahawks got in at 7-9. Who gives a damn and I’m with Cory, adding additional teams only dilute the game. Roger Goodell’s main goal is putting more $$$ in the owners pockets. More games equals more injuries Roger, period end of story. The extra point thing drives me crazy. Teams that play in domes or warm weather like the Saints, Falcons, Bucs, Cardinals, or Lions for example would have a huge advantage over teams like the Packers. Somethings just aren’t meant to be changed, especially if it could have a negative effect on teams that play football where it’s meant to be played. Like Lambeau Field!!

  4. Thats OK Nick you just had a Jim Schwartz moment. It happens to all of us sometime…Off Topic here but I just saw something on Yahoo sports. The Packers might be interested in Mark Sanchez? Please tell me it’s not true!

    1. If they can get him cheap, I would love to see the Buttfumble back up ARod. Seriously.

        1. Yes. I am absolutely serious.

          Sure, Sanchez flamed out royally in NY. But do you think Matt Flynn would have done better? How did Flynn do in Seattle or Oakland? Sanchez had no help at all in NY. Put Sanchez in GB with these wideouts and Lacy in the backfield and he won’t have to be “the man”. And the Jets did go to the AFC championship twice with Sanchez.

          Obviously, we’re talking about backups, not starters. And no, Sanchez will never be more than a backup. But can you confidently say that Flynn is clearly better?

          1. I prefer Flynn to Sanchez. Matt knows the Packer offense and system better than Butt Boy and he’s got more football smarts than Sanchez will ever have. I don’t see Sanchez ever mounting a comeback like Flynn did against the Cowboys. I’am very content with Flynn. Just my opine!

            1. Totally agree with Flynn over Sanchez. Someone like Sanchez (5th overall pick) doesn’t want to be the clipboard holder for someone else who will never allow him to play (Rodgers). Besides, he’s going to the Eagles or maybe the Rams! lol

  5. Money for the NFL is flowing at an all time high, why the hell change anything? Greedy Bastards…

  6. GODdell the egotistical evil one will do his best to screw things up with expanded playoffs, London games, Mark Cuban is right, they are getting too money hungry..

  7. Their GREED scares me.However, Sanchez would be an upgrade over Flyn,as long as it’s veteran min.salary.

  8. I am not sure what will happen with the extra points but the additional playoff teams will probably happen. Goodall and the NFL are about making money. It may dilute the product but if it makes them more money they will go for it. I had a non- football consulting contract with the NFL since 1981. When Goodell became commissioner he decided to eliminate as much expense as possible, so our contract was not renewed in 2008 when it was due. By 2009 the league realized they needed the services and hired another firm but at a much reduced rate. Unknown to Goodell the new firm was a spin off from my company and I have a partnership with them so I still got a piece of the action. However, under the new contract it was impossible to provide the service and make money. So the new firm terminated the contract with the league by 2011. My point is that Goodell is only interested in the $ not necessarily what is good for the league, the players or the fans. His true colors have come out during recent settlement with the retired players on the head trauma issues. He was not interested in helping the players who made the league what it is today, only in getting by with as little cost as possible. When he talks about safety he means money. Thanks, Since ’61

    1. You do realize that Goodell only does what the team owners tell him to do? Don’t you… If Goodell cut expenses it was certainly at the behest of the owners.

      1. Right on Stroh! Good Ole(spineless) Rodger is a yes man and he takes his marching orders from the owners.I wonder if The Packers had a traditional owner, would the final result of the Fail Mary game still have been the same? I couldn’t see Mr Kraft or Jerry Jones or John Mara sit by and watch how their team was violated on national tv by a bunch of pop warner reject ref’s!

      2. Stroh – I can assure youthat I am very familiar with the relationship between the commissioner and the owners. At least up until 2008 anyway. I am aware that the commissioners do the owners bidding. But having worked with commissioners Rozelle and Tagliabue, I can also tell you that their approach and dealings with people was very different and they worked to build consensus on league issues when all of the owners did not agree. With Goodell it’s all about him and he seems to be happy to satisfy the owners greed whether or not it’s good for the game, the players or the fans. Many of our fellow bloggers feel that TT is an ego-maniac. I can tell them, that having met both TT and Goodell, TTs ego is nowhere near the level of Goodell. I was fortunate to meet many owners, team management, GMs, and players while I was under contract with the league and all were good to me and my organization. But Goodell is in a class by himself when it comes to arrogance. I believe that greed will hurt the league badly in the future, but I hope not. Thanks, Since ’61

  9. I hope the NFL doesn’t change the current playoff format. We don’t need watered down playoffs. Let’s keep the integrity of the playoffs in tact. I’m also against expanding the NFL to Europe. Let’s keep our American game in America. It always takes me at 7-10 years to get used to an expansion team like Tampa Bay , Seattle, Jacksonville , Carolina or a teams name change when they move to another city. I’ll never accept a team from a European city. The London Fog? The London teabaggers? Any country that once had a King or Dictator once rule it isn’t allowed to be part of the NFL. The NFL is rich in history with teams like the Green Bay Packers , Chicago Bears, NY Giants, Pittsburgh Steelers. …not the Liverpool Brits….

  10. TT’s performance in 2011 draft:

    (1) OT Derrick Sherrod (pick 32)

    As the first round progressed toward the Pack’s pick, there were three logical picks available: Muhammed Wilkerson DE, Cameron Heyward (son of Ironhead) and Sherrod. The Jets smartly took Wilkerson at pick 30. Pittsburg took baby Ironhead who as had a so-so career thus far. The no-brainer pick for GB was Sherrod and TT took him. Unfortunately, a career threatening injury has ruined that pick. The only criticism for TT was it would have been well worth a small trade up to grab Wilkerson away from the Jets. TT lost Darrel Revis to the Jets a few years earlier when he stood pat and let the Jets trade around him. Who did TT take that year instead of the best CB in football? Justin Harrell.

    R2 – Randall Cobb – TT hit the bullseye. As usual, TT knows a great value at WR when he sees one.

    R3 – Justin Houston, the great pass rushing OLB from KC by way of Georgia was on the board in R3 till pick 70. TT did not trade up to get him. Instead, he settled for Alex Green, RB who was a bust. Prior to the draft, this was the pick that TT would not give up to Buffalo for Marshawn Lynch.

    R4 – There two great prospects at TE on the board – Jordan Cameron (USC) and Julius Thomas (Portland State). Cameron went high in R4 to Cleveland. Thomas however lasted till GB’s pick (129). I wish I could tell you TT took Thomas but as you know he didn’t. Instead he traded the pick to Denver for a couple of low picks, one of which it used to draft TE DJ Williams. Big mistake! TT acquired 7 or 8 later draft picks in the 2011 draft and missed on ALL of them.

    Thus, we see that TT could have drafted Justin Houston and Julius Thomas and traded for Marshawn Lynch and it would have cost us nothing because all those draft picks amounted to nothing in TT’s world of trading down from the middle rounds to the low rounds, a strategy I have never cared much for.

    So while I will give TT a pass on the Sherrod pick and great credit for the Cobb pick, after R2, he got nothing from the 2011 draft when he could have acquired three superstars instead. Take away Cobb and this was the second lost draft in a row following GB’s 2010 Super Bowl win. Are you starting to see why I am so critical of TT’s drafting/trading acumen? As you will see in future posts, the lost drafts of 2010 and 2011 are pretty much matched in 2012 and 2013. In other words, in the four years since TT raised his salary to $5MM/yr (and that of MM) he has produced diddly squat in the draft. Which is why I contend that a 5th bad draft in a row will spell the end of his reign in GB, at least it should.

    1. LOL. Don’t waste our time with “future posts” and your ultra-intelligent hindsight. Any idiot can go back three years after the fact and find the sleepers that not one team in the league valued highly enough to draft until later rounds. The only thing you prove is your ignorance of reality. Yeah, the Patriots are geniuses for drafting Brady… and they’re also complete morons for passing on him FIVE TIMES before they got around to making the call.

        1. Here’s what I know: Julius Thomas played only one – just one – year of college ball. He had 29 receptions for 453 yards and 2 TDs. After that one, uninspiring year in the powerhouse Big Sky Conference, he was drafted by the Broncos. During his first season in the NFL he had 1 catch for 5 yards. Total. During his second season he had 0 catches for 0 yards.

          And the astounding thing is that you and Archie SAW IT COMING ALL ALONG!!!

          Why didn’t you say something back in 2011???

          LOL.

          1. Freekin FANTASY FOOTBALL GMs! LMAO

            Nostradamus was right because there’s been like 450+ years of history to FIND something that matches!
            Every year I post my “draft wish list” for just the Packers. It negates the hindsight. 😉

  11. No, I mean The United States of America, the one that broke away from the King and established a democracy. Hey, I don’t dislike other Countries, I love my fellow man and I hope I didn’t come off wrong. I just love American football and the old NFL. I’m a traditionalist when it comes to our great game. I like this article. Let’s just keep the game the way it is.. The NFL doesn’t need anymore money. They don’t need to change the playoffs or expand to Europe to generate more revenue.

  12. Yeah i was just trolling you man, haha I’m with you, pretty much feel the same way

  13. The best business plan in history, revenue sharing, salary cap, rookie salary limits, and the largest TV contract in history. But then we have a commissioner who received approx. $30M in bonus money even though he doesn’t know the difference between an INTERCETION and a RECEPTION and he continues to propose absurd rule changes that will in effect make the NFL a combination of arena and fantasy league football. Bert Bell and Pete Rozelle are turning over in their graves and Vince is hollereing, “what the Hell is going on out there Roger”.

  14. Agreed, who cares about how TT BLEW it 3 years ago………let’s consider how he’s BLOWING it now. Kuhn shortly will be the next of his guys to eat up some more of what’s left of the $35 million. Bargain or no bargain, Raji, Starks, Kuhn, Flynn and God knows who’s next, is not going to fix what’s broken. Thank God the Bengals signed Newhouse! All the TT apologists can rant all they want. He’s a zero without Rodgers…that was perfectly obvious last year. We sucked last year when he went down. Now we have an experimental center an experimental safety to go along with Stevie Wonder Burnett, no Finley and no JJ. And Julius Peppers at this stage of the game’s not going to make it right. Draft and develop Teddy. How’s that work’n?

    1. There should’ve been a huge going away party in Green Bay when Newhouse left. TT really loved that guy. I am sure TT would’ve been willing to break the bank for him. A lot of the sheeple following TT love Newhouse too. Wonder if they will convert to Bengals fans?

      1. Still don’t see how Newhouse went to the Bengals! I mean, like, to the best of my knowledge he was never ARRESTED, was he? lol

  15. Back to XP talk…

    While it doesn’t happen often, an XP can win a ball game. Since ’61 and some others may remember the Clint Longley game in 1974.

    For those who don’t remember, the Cowboys played the Redskins on Thanksgiving Day in 1974. Roger Staubach was knocked out of the game and his backup was Clint Longley. He comes and throws two TD passes and the score is tied 23-23 with no time left. The Cowboys kicker, Effren Hererra (sp?) kicks the XP and wins the game for the Cowboys.

    The extra point is part of the game that doesn’t need be removed. I have no problem moving it back to the 10- or 15-yard line while a two-point conversion is closer to the goal line. Don’t eliminate it.

    1. Slim – I do remember the Longley game. And I agree with you and many of the others, leave the XP and playoffs alone. Thanks, Since ’61

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