Opinion: Should NFL widen its field

playmakers

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Back in the 50's, 60's 70' and even 80's players were much smaller and slower. There's always an exception but for the most part as a whole they were. Today you have guys like DeMarcus who is 6' 4, 260 pounds and can still run a 4.7. In most of the eras I just mention, Ware would of probably been a defensive tackle or offensive lineman. Ware is just one of many that size in the NFL now. This leads me to my question and that is should the NFL widen the fields by a yard of two? I'll make my case for it.

It wont be long before every player on the field is the same speed. Back in the 60s, if you would of said multiple players of today were 6'4 235 and runs a 4.5 or a 6 3 330 pound man can run a 4.8 on the dline, they would of probably laughed. Wide recievers and defensive backs can not get any faster imo. However, lineman most certainly can. In addition, the 6 foot four inch lineman (roughly average height of the starters) are now going to be the 6 foot 7 inch lineman. Will there be any room out there to move?

Another thing to consider with this is the advantage players of yesterday had in comparison of today. Take Jim Brown for example. Im going to guess and say his oline averaged say 6 feet 250 pounds and at the same time going to guess the average defensive lineman he played against were about the same. In todays game the avearge is probably 6 4 320 for an olineman and 6 2 290 for a dline(the dends really kill the averages). Lets do some comparing. A 6 feet 250 pound lineman gets you sent to D2. How would Jim Brown do against the pounding of a bigger player week in and week out. Anyways, Im not here to compare that but I will say you do the math. Another example is speed. Jim Brown was probably a 4.7 guy back then. 4.7 is a linebacker today and not only that, 65 percent of the playing field has a 4.7 or faster player on it. Back in the 60's-70's I say most players were 5.0 or more. Again, do the math.

If you have a field full of players bigger,faster, stronger but still play on the same size field as players who were considerably slower and smaller whose at a disadvantage? Today's players are. Adrian Peterson would put up 2700 yards a season back in the 60's-70's simply because theres more room out there for him to maneveur with. Pretty soon with the size of players every play is just going to be one big pile up in the middle. I say widen the field by one yard on each side (due to the expansion of size and speed) and give the players some wiggle room out there to do their thing. Anyone in favor? Eventually, this should come in question at an owners meeting. opinions
 

5mics

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NOT feelin' that idea. I do like the idea of changing 1 or 2 pre-season games into real games.
 

THUMPER

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5mics;2787131 said:
NOT feelin' that idea. I do like the idea of changing 1 or 2 pre-season games into real games.

I would rather drop a preseason game or two but not make them regular season games. 16 is enough IMO.

The change I would really like to see is to raise the roster limit to 60 so that teams can carry more depth. If they lengthened the season then it would have to be raised even more, maybe to 64, due to more injuries.
 

dbair1967

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5mics;2787131 said:
NOT feelin' that idea. I do like the idea of changing 1 or 2 pre-season games into real games.

I actually think this is a horrible idea too. Teams already have enough problems keeping key guys healthy for the playoffs...adding 1 or 2 more "real" games only exposes teams to more injury. I'm not a big fan of 4 or 5 preseason games, but the first one and last one the starters/key guys hardly play for most teams, lessening the chance at injury.
 

BrAinPaiNt

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No...because Jerry would have to spend more money on upgrading the big screen to be as wide as it is long.:p:
 

LittleBoyBlue

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THUMPER;2787136 said:
I would rather drop a preseason game or two but not make them regular season games. 16 is enough IMO.

The change I would really like to see is to raise the roster limit to 60 so that teams can carry more depth. If they lengthened the season then it would have to be raised even more, maybe to 64, due to more injuries.


Great points.

We have enough trouble getting enough quality players on enough teams. But I do like the idea of adding games by reducing preseason. Thats where they are going anyway.

- 2 preseason games
- 18 regular season games (one international game with bye week right after
- Tweak the playoff format. The team that finishes 10-6 or 11-5 should not miss playoffs when (other)division winner is 8-8 or 9-7. Last year was just wrong re: Pats 11-5


Absolutely agree - need more players on roster for depth. I think that is an automatic.
 

dbair1967

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YoMick;2787141 said:
- Tweak the playoff format. The team that finishes 10-6 or 11-5 should not miss playoffs when (other)division winner is 8-8 or 9-7. Last year was just wrong re: Pats 11-5

There's no reason to change something when it happens so infrequently. If they are going to have 4 divisions, you cant penalize teams that win their divisions.

The playoffs are fine the way they are. It's the best format of any of the pro sports playoffs.
 

THUMPER

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dbair1967;2787143 said:
There's no reason to change something when it happens so infrequently. If they are going to have 4 divisions, you cant penalize teams that win their divisions.

The playoffs are fine the way they are. It's the best format of any of the pro sports playoffs.

I agree, the playoffs and overtime are fine the way they are. If you want to make the playoffs then win more games. If you don't want to go into sudden death then win it in regulation.

I threw in the overtime thing because someone always brings up the point of making it like college, which I can't stand. Sudden Death makes it more interesting IMO.
 

THUMPER

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YoMick;2787141 said:
Great points.

We have enough trouble getting enough quality players on enough teams. But I do like the idea of adding games by reducing preseason. Thats where they are going anyway.

- 2 preseason games
- 18 regular season games (one international game with bye week right after
- Tweak the playoff format. The team that finishes 10-6 or 11-5 should not miss playoffs when (other)division winner is 8-8 or 9-7. Last year was just wrong re: Pats 11-5


Absolutely agree - need more players on roster for depth. I think that is an automatic.

On adding more regular season games, I seriously doubt the veteran players would be interested in doing that. It would mean more chances for injury without any additional pay. Veterans typically don't play full games in pre-season nor do they go all out in them usually. Playing 2 additional regular season games would mean more playing time but unless the teams re-do everyone's contracts, they wouldn't get any additional pay. The union would never agree to it IMO.

I HATE with a passion the idea of playing regular season games overseas! I cannot state that strongly enough!
 

JoeyBones31

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Sometimes change is good, but in this case, why??? Is the question I would ask, for all this time, the field has been the same dimensions, and I really don't believe the physical grind on these players would be able to take two more games on the schedule.

It is understood that yes we play those games anyway in preseason, BUT the starting team does play maybe a quarter, two at best, I just think the wear and tear on a players body should be considered.

I would have to say No to both idea's.
 

Yeagermeister

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THUMPER;2787151 said:
I agree, the playoffs and overtime are fine the way they are. If you want to make the playoffs then win more games. If you don't want to go into sudden death then win it in regulation.

I threw in the overtime thing because someone always brings up the point of making it like college, which I can't stand. Sudden Death makes it more interesting IMO.

I hope the NFL never changes the overtime rules. College OT is crap.
 

Doomsday101

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Yeagermeister;2787127 said:
No thanks, if they want to play on a wider field go play in the CFL.

I agree. Watch the CFL if you want bigger fields, the players in the NFL are not having an issue with it as they continue to set records
 

THUMPER

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playmakers;2787117 said:
Back in the 50's, 60's 70' and even 80's players were much smaller and slower. There's always an exception but for the most part as a whole they were. Today you have guys like DeMarcus who is 6' 4, 260 pounds and can still run a 4.7. In most of the eras I just mention, Ware would of probably been a defensive tackle or offensive lineman. Ware is just one of many that size in the NFL now. This leads me to my question and that is should the NFL widen the fields by a yard of two? I'll make my case for it.

It wont be long before every player on the field is the same speed. Back in the 60s, if you would of said multiple players of today were 6'4 235 and runs a 4.5 or a 6 3 330 pound man can run a 4.8 on the dline, they would of probably laughed. Wide recievers and defensive backs can not get any faster imo. However, lineman most certainly can. In addition, the 6 foot four inch lineman (roughly average height of the starters) are now going to be the 6 foot 7 inch lineman. Will there be any room out there to move?

Another thing to consider with this is the advantage players of yesterday had in comparison of today. Take Jim Brown for example. Im going to guess and say his oline averaged say 6 feet 250 pounds and at the same time going to guess the average defensive lineman he played against were about the same. In todays game the avearge is probably 6 4 320 for an olineman and 6 2 290 for a dline(the dends really kill the averages). Lets do some comparing. A 6 feet 250 pound lineman gets you sent to D2. How would Jim Brown do against the pounding of a bigger player week in and week out. Anyways, Im not here to compare that but I will say you do the math. Another example is speed. Jim Brown was probably a 4.7 guy back then. 4.7 is a linebacker today and not only that, 65 percent of the playing field has a 4.7 or faster player on it. Back in the 60's-70's I say most players were 5.0 or more. Again, do the math.

If you have a field full of players bigger,faster, stronger but still play on the same size field as players who were considerably slower and smaller whose at a disadvantage? Today's players are. Adrian Peterson would put up 2700 yards a season back in the 60's-70's simply because theres more room out there for him to maneveur with. Pretty soon with the size of players every play is just going to be one big pile up in the middle. I say widen the field by one yard on each side (due to the expansion of size and speed) and give the players some wiggle room out there to do their thing. Anyone in favor? Eventually, this should come in question at an owners meeting. opinions

The flaw in your stats is that players today typically are gaining MORE yards than they did in the 60s. That is due mostly to the rules changes favoring the offense. Players don't take up more room on the field simply by being bigger and the increase in speed goes both ways as players on both sides of the ball are faster.

Peterson would not put up any more yards than anyone else back then because the rules would have been different as well as the training. He wouldn't be as big or as fast, nor would the guys blocking for him.

You make it sound as if a guy of 300 lbs takes up a lot more space on the field than a guy who is 250. The actual space taken up on the playing surface is negligible. If all 50 additional pounds were in the guy's feet then maybe. :lmao2:

In real truth a 300 lb player has about a 42 inch waist and a 250 lb guy is about a 38 inches. Four inches isn't much when you are talking about taking up space on a football field. Even spreading that out to the whole line plus the TE you are only talking about maybe one foot difference from side to side.
 

CF74

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Nope but I wish they would increase the roster size to 58-60 total...
 

Doomsday101

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CowboyFan74;2787204 said:
Nope but I wish they would increase the roster size to 58-60 total...

I would not mind if they stayed with the 53 man roster and be able to dress every player for games instead of only having 45
 

LittleBoyBlue

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dbair1967;2787143 said:
There's no reason to change something when it happens so infrequently. If they are going to have 4 divisions, you cant penalize teams that win their divisions.

The playoffs are fine the way they are. It's the best format of any of the pro sports playoffs.

Your opinion = great.
Thank you.



THUMPER;2787153 said:
On adding more regular season games, I seriously doubt the veteran players would be interested in doing that. It would mean more chances for injury without any additional pay. Veterans typically don't play full games in pre-season nor do they go all out in them usually. Playing 2 additional regular season games would mean more playing time but unless the teams re-do everyone's contracts, they wouldn't get any additional pay. The union would never agree to it IMO.

I HATE with a passion the idea of playing regular season games overseas! I cannot state that strongly enough!

I thought the 17th game internationally was a foregone conclusion with bye week following.

I actually LIKE the expansion Globally. Change - Its a good thing IMO.
 
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