I would try and keep a lot of the things in the game the way they are. I'm a believer in 'if it's not broke, don't fix it' and the amount of money the teams and players are making, it's certainly not broke.
But there are things that could use some touch up work and maintainance.
1. I would stay away from the 18 game season (and really the 4 game preseason for that matter). Why? I think it increases the chances of injury before the playoffs, it disturbs statistical records, we have an economy that is struggling now, the last thing we need to do is gouge more money from the fans, and from an ethical standpoint the players should get paid more because they are working more. Plus, I don't like the idea of having to expand the weekly lineup to Thursday and Saturday games for several reasons, especially since MNF isn't exactly killing in the ratings.
2. Improve the refereeing. I believe they need better training, they need better recruitment of refs, they need more refs on the field and they need harsher 'penalties' for poor refereeing along with bigger 'rewards' for good refereeing. What's completely sad about the referees is that so many of them do not know the rule book. That's refereeing 101.
3. Get rid of the commercial pattern when a team scores a TD and kicks the PAT, go to commercial, then they do the kickoff, then they go back to commercial. Uncecessary and it makes the league look like a bunch of desperate people who take advantage of the fans.
4. Get rid of the PSL's. I know teams have them, including Dallas, but I really think it makes the league look poorly. The conduct policy is set in place to protect the league's image...things like PSL's certainly do not help with the league's image. I wish Goodell would understand that.
5. Rookie cap on how much they can make. It's getting out of hand. A team that has to pay a high draft pick a boatload of money gets stymied if the rookie doesn't fully live up to expectations.
6. Re-do the revenue sharing agreement. I think there should be revenue sharing to a degree, but I think too many of the top value teams wind up giving too much money to teams who simply do not market their team as well or as aggressively. Forget Dallas, the Packers shouldn't completely subsidize the Bills or the Bengals, both of which are in far bigger cities than Green Bay.
7. For the love of all that his holy, change the replay system to the college system. Not hard to do and the college replay system is far, far, far more effective and sensible.
8. Get rid of Goodell. He's a lousy commissioner and in a short time frame we've seen his continue to take away team's 'home games' by moving games to Europe, where the NFL still isn't all that popular. We saw the entire Belichick Spygate scandal unfold and the office HELPED with the coverup. He's lied to Congress and then he wanted Congress to take the State's Supreme Court's right to rule on NFL matters...basically claiming that Supreme Court judges would have a 'bias' when it comes to their rulings and their favorite NFL team. Ridiculous.
The fact is he'll be around for 20 years and as bad as he is, we really haven't seen his decisions come into full effect because he's only been the commish since 2007. I shudder to think what it will be like in 5 years.
YAKUZA
