Geographical realignment would improve NFL

[Gryphon]

from realfootball365.com

Geographical realignment would improve NFL
By Anthony Bialy

I'm over Vince Lombardi giving the AFC grief after Super Bowl I. We've had 40 Super Bowls since then, and that's plenty of time to drop the bitterness, just as those in NFC markets shouldn't be upset about that hippie punk Joe Namath and his victory over the old school. It's time to officially declare the anciently pointless conference rivalry over, most of all so we can rid ourselves of one relic of the rift that's approaching 50 years old: geographically illogical conferences.

The current conference divide is basically based on whether teams were in the established or rebel group, a holdover from the Eisenhower administration. It would be much more sensible to abolish a split based on who was in what now-superseded league and instead arrange teams based on the logical approach of looking at a map and seeing what cities should be grouped together.

Of course, how's this for honesty, any realignment will have the drawback of ending some traditional rivalries. But the benefit would be that we could establish newer and hopefully fiercer rivalries in its place. Once the adjustment is overcome, teams facing new, closer twice-a-year opponents will make the game more enjoyable for the fans and ferocious for the players involved.

Staying in the current divisional setup is like remaining in a relationship with someone you don't adore: It may be functional on a certain hollow level, and it may be what you're used to, but you'd be better served by looking for someone better, even if it means a temporary awkward transition.

For example, it means Buffalo and Miami won't be division enemies anymore, a pairing which evokes the natural contempt between dissimilar cities. However, the Bills will be playing teams from localities closer to home while the Dolphins can look forward to rivalries with the other two Florida teams. The New York City and Bay Area teams, respectively, will each battle twice a year instead of maybe once every four years, and other franchises that are within a full tank of gas from each other will play home and away games annually.

We can't continue to have the league's placement of teams jury-rigged around the Cowboys and Commanders getting to play each other two times a season. Besides, fans of those teams will soon have the Texans and Ravens, respectively, to hate.

So, here are two new alignments to consider. There are a lot of ways to go with resetting the teams, and any plan to regionalize divisions and thereby create enmity between neighbors will make the NFL better.

Alignment One:

Eastern Conference

Northeast Division
New England Patriots
New York Jets
New York Giants
Philadelphia Eagles

Southeast Division
Baltimore Ravens
Washington Commanders
Carolina Panthers
Atlanta Falcons

Gulf Division
Jacksonville Jaguars
Tampa Bay Buccaneers
Miami Dolphins
New Orleans Saints

Erie Division
Buffalo Bills
Pittsburgh Steelers
Cleveland Browns
Detroit Lions

Western Conference

Midwest Division
Cincinnati Bengals
Indianapolis Colts
Tennessee Titans
St. Louis Rams

Central Division
Minnesota Vikings
Green Bay Packers
Chicago Bears
Kansas City Chiefs

Southern Division
Houston Texans
Dallas Cowboys
Arizona Cardinals
San Diego Chargers

Northwest Division
Denver Broncos
San Francisco 49ers
Oakland Raiders
Seattle Seahawks

Alignment Two:

Eastern Conference

Northeast Division
New England Patriots
Buffalo Bills
New York Jets
New York Giants

Atlantic Division
Philadelphia Eagles
Pittsburgh Steelers
Baltimore Ravens
Washington Commanders

Southeast Division
Atlanta Falcons
Jacksonville Jaguars
Tampa Bay Buccaneers
Miami Dolphins

Central Division
Indianapolis Colts
Cincinnati Bengals
Tennessee Titans
Carolina Panthers

Western Conference

Northern Division
Green Bay Packers
Chicago Bears
Detroit Lions
Cleveland Browns

Southern Division
New Orleans Saints
Houston Texans
Dallas Cowboys
Arizona Cardinals

Midwest Division
Minnesota Vikings
St. Louis Rams
Kansas City Chiefs
Denver Broncos

Pacific Division
San Diego Chargers
San Francisco 49ers
Oakland Raiders
Seattle Seahawks
__________________
for more updates visit http://gryphononcowboys.blogspot.com/

 

[xpistofer]

from realfootball365.com

Geographical realignment would improve NFL
By Anthony Bialy

:thumbdo:

 

[mschmidt64]

Go back to Russia, pinko!

 

[superpunk]

This is an idiotic idea. We don't need NEW rivalries. Aside from Yankees-Sox, we have the best rivalries in sports, and they have nothing to do with geography.

Raiders-Broncos (well, pretty much Raiders-everyone in the west)
Cowboys-Skins (see above...)
Pats-Colts
Steelers-North

It's fantastic. Why change that?

 

[DragonCowboy]

Frankly, I really don't care about Arizona or Houston to even want to be in their division.

Something about Dallas-Washington, Dallas-Philadelphia makes me want to keep the NFC East division.

 

[THUMPER]

The guy must be a Cardinals fan. No one who roots for a team that was good enough at some point in the course of its history to actually have rivals would think this was a good idea.

 

[burmafrd]

Would be interesting. And you could have some traditional rivalries like Dallas/Washington, etc as the fill games- each team has two of those.
KC/Oakland; Pitt/Cinci, etc.

 

[mschmidt64]

The guy must be a Cardinals fan. No one who roots for a team that was good enough at some point in the course of its history to actually have rivals would think this was a good idea.

It takes someone who doesn't care about the quality of the current rivalries to write such garbage.

So yes, either this guy is a fan of some crap team like the Cardinals, or he's a crap journalist posing as an NFL fan when really all he did was watch the Super Bowl for the commercials last year before switching to the Late Night show.

 

[Kangaroo]

Sorry the guy is an idiot putting Dallas with the Texans and Cardinals

guess what you moron we had the cardinals in our division and the Rivalry never ever happen. The Texans hate Dallas but Dallas careless about the Texan. The Texans fans have pen envy from living in Dallas's shadow even when they had good teams.

No matter how many games we have with those guys you do not forget 40 years of Commanders Giants Cowboys and even the lowly Eagle match up.

How do you replace the hate of the Bounty Bowl or the booing of Irvin etc etc.

How do you replace how you hated to watch Riggins plow into the endzone on your team or guys like Bavro catching passes

Yea lets replace the Masters with the Houston Open as a major and while we are at it lets replace the Kentucky derby with some race in LA.

Not to mention you bust up the new rivalries from the newer teams like Jacksonville now has with Indy. In the past Indy sucked and had no real team they hated now they do. The history is now built which brings in fans and TV ratings

 

[needforspeed]

Well, so much for an open-minded review of this idea.

 

[Biggems]

change the name from South to Southwestern....

cause everyone who thinks of the south thinks of the Confederate States.....

 

[Rackat]

I don't care how the rest of the league is misaligned, leave the NFC East alone.

 

[dfense]

I personally would not want to see the Cowboys play the Texans and Arizona 4 times a year. Boring.

 

[CanadianCowboysFan]

We would that division just about every year with ease

 

[lspain1]

Well, so much for an open-minded review of this idea.

Well....let me give this whole idea an open minded review...................

:laugh2: :laugh1:


This idea provides clear evidence that Bialy has no idea how rivalries work or more importantly, how television revenue works. Dallas is in a division with Philadelphia, New York, and Washington because the whole country gets involved with the rivalries. It works because of history....Cowboys vs Commanders, America's Team, North vs South, Blue States vs Red States. The rivalries fuel the television ratings. For some teams, regional rivalries might work but regional rivalries will rarely draw national audiences. The NFL is not college football.

 

[Cowboys&Caps]

Erie Division
Buffalo Bills
Pittsburgh Steelers
Cleveland Browns
Detroit Lions

I like Rust Belt Division more........

 

[Bob Sacamano]

from realfootball365.com

stop reading

I know I did

 

[jobberone]

That went well.

 

[Wolfpack]

I want my 30 seconds back !

That was terrible...Erie fricking division. Yikes.

 

[Timbo2st]

I'm not sure if I remember this right, but when they re-did the divisions a few years ago, didn't they ask Dallas if they wanted to leave the NFC East because of the extensive travel. I'm not sure if I heard it right.