Peter King's Thoughts to Improve the NFL

[Hiero]

seriously directtv is such a piece of ****. They locked it up for like 10 years, and people who have digital cable which is a lot better than directtv wont change.

 

[MapleLeaf]

Four points for long field goals is the worst idea in the history of football.

Offenses should be rewarded for getting CLOSER to the end zone, not getting stopped farther away. Who wants to watch guys run out of bounds on purpose so they don't gain TOO MANY yards? Who wants to watch a team run backward on purpose, or get penalized on purpose, so they can try a 50-yard field goal instead of a 45-yarder?

If you want teams trailing by four points to be within a field goal, make chip shots worth four points -- not 50-yarders. That would reward the offense for driving inside the 10 instead of stalling at the 38.

...four point field goal available from 55 yards and out only in the last 5 seconds of any game and not available in overtime.

It creates tension for the last few seconds and gives a team an actual skilled option to win or tie the game other than the wing and prayer of the hail mary.

At 55 yards I wouldn't think it is something to scoff at, and I don't see any team at the 25 yard line throwing backwards to get the four points when there is a greater possibility of success throwing the ball in from a closer field position.

Having a distance and time component as control parameters may add some excitement to the last 5 seconds of a game as opposed the the resigned feeling one gets when your team has got one possession left and they need to go 40 yards through the air for a TD.

Chances are they won't maek the FG, but at least you will be on the edge of your seat until the game ending whistle blows if it is a close game.

 

[ghst187]

Commissioner for a Day
Peter King, SI.com

8. Prohibit the moving of the Saints for five years: Make this a "for the good of the game" issue. It's ludicrous to think of kicking a city when it's so down. Now's the time to be a good neighbor and a loyal corporate partner, not greedy.

A better idea is to disband the Saints and Texans. They are garbage franchises whose only by product is league talent dilution which results in the garbage parity of a super bowl we had last season. Bar futher expansion of the league.

Another good idea I have is to change instant replay. Put some guys in the booth that review every close play as the game goes. Whenever someone challenges the play, the guys in the booth should already have, or be close to, a decision. The current process is slow and momentum ruining. It interrupts the flow of a game significantly. It takes the decision from the head ref but something has to be done to speed up the process. Even college football has a better system.

i like the 4 point FG idea and goaline chip idea.
The best idea though would be for the refs to NOT SUCK in an important game like the SB.

 

[CrazyCowboy]

Expand the regular season to 18 games:

I really like this idea the most.....

 

[lspain1]

I really like this idea the most.....

Crazy, I don't. I think preseason should be shortened and the season start one week earlier. The Super Bowl should be played in January and not February. I do like the idea of expanding the rosters on game day.

 

[ZeroClub]

1. Expand the regular season to 18 games

Nah. Too much attrition.

2. Pass a bylaw prohibiting playoff expansion

That's fine.

3. Make long field goals more valuable

No way.

If you want to make field goals more interesting, make a rule that only position players can serve as kickers.

4. Take NFL Sunday Ticket off the dish and put it on digital cable

I'd be in favor of wider distribution. People can order HBO on any number of programming providers - it'd be nice if Sunday Ticket were as widely available. But it probably isn't economically feasible - wider distribution would devalue the regular network packages.

5. Stop the love affair with Los Angeles

Yeah.

6. Put more mikes on players and officials

Sounds good.

7. Let players wear the numbers of their choice

Why not?

8. Prohibit the moving of the Saints for five years

I agree that New Orleans shouldn't lose their franchise while their down, but didn't Al Davis establish that franchises could be moved ....

9. Put two computer chips in the football

Replay works just fine, IMO.

10. Can't believe that he didn't comment on the defensive pass interference rules. They are too complicated to be enforced consistently and reliably. They also change games.

 

[burmafrd]

Directv is so great compared to the cable so called service I used to get.
Cable is not so bad if you live in the city- but anyone outside of a city can tell you what that is like. Besides as it was pointed out, trying to get deals down with 300+ companies is a nightmare the NFL is not eager to try to deal with.

 

[BrAinPaiNt]

Because there's one digital cable provider for the entire US that the NFL can set this deal up with....... And cable is also more widely available than satellite......

What a well thought out idea.

Edit: Would be a great idea to have it available on both satellite and cable, but how many cable companies would the NFL have to deal with to cover the continental US?

I agree cable AND satellite.

You can, as is, charge more to one to keep the other off it's back, however if you sold the rights to both you would make the same amount or more.

I would say more because more people would have access and want to by the NFL Package.

 

[DLCassidy]

1. Expand the regular season to 18 games: Cut the preseason to two games, and expand the regular season by two. Now, I understand how football's a war of attrition, and so you'd have to adjust how teams play the game. So expand the rosters to have every one of the 53 players on the active roster active for each game, instead of only 45. This would give the best players, theoretically, the opportunity to play fewer plays and give each player a better chance to last 18 games. Of course, you'd have to pay the players more because they'd be performing for two more games, but that's for another day. I'm only the commissioner for a day, not a mathematician.

No to 18 games, the season is long enough now. Yes to 2 less preseason games, although the owners make a killing on preseason so don't hold your breath. Yes to all 53 being active, makes sense.

2. Pass a bylaw prohibiting playoff expansion: Twelve teams is enough. It's almost perfect, by the way. Any more, and you risk an 8-8 team in the hockey-like postseason every year. And because some teams that win 10 will occasionally miss the playoffs, the sentiment will be there every year to expand the postseason. So the NFL should act right now and make it next to impossible to ever have a playoff field bigger than 12 teams.

If you can pass a bylaw you can unpass one. If the NFL wants more teams in the playoffs they'll get them, although I favor the current system also.

3. Make long field goals more valuable: Simple: Any field goal 50 yards or further is worth four points. No traditionalist would want it. But no traditionalist wanted the three-point shot in basketball, and look how much fun it is to see Dwyane Wade or Vince Carter go wild from 28 feet. Electric stuff. Imagine the Lincoln Financial Field crowd at a 14-10 game, Philadelphia trailing Dallas, late fourth quarter, Eagles' ball, fourth-and-six at the Cowboy 35. "A-kers! A-kers! A-kers!" the crowd shouts, serenading David Akers as he runs on the field. And now the game's in his hands. Or on his foot. It'd add value to the long field goal, and make more games competitive late.

Really really dumb.

4. Take NFL Sunday Ticket off the dish and put it on digital cable: There are too many people -- like me -- who will never get a dish because digital cable is so good. Makes no sense. How many of those people have no intention of going through the gyrations to get a dish just so they can have every NFL game in their house on 17 Sundays? I don't care what the NFL is making off the dish. The league would make more on digital cable -- and what's more, more people would watch more football. My theory, anyway.

The NFL should be on both cable and the dish, it shouldn't be either/or. The negotiations are complex but it can be done.

5. Stop the love affair with Los Angeles: Just stop it. I was in L.A. in April and conducted my own unscientific poll at an Irish pub (the L.A. Red Sox bar) in Santa Monica: Do you want an NFL team here? Now, most of the people in there were twentysomethings on their fourth Harp or Red Hook, but I didn't hear one enthusiastic response. And that's half of the demographic the NFL wants. The other half -- the big-moneyed -- will support a franchise. But I don't think the populace will. And the NFL hasn't been hurt by it since the Raiders and Rams left.

LA is a done deal.

6. Put more mikes on players and officials, and put the game on a seven-second delay: There's still an antiseptic feel to games, and you know what fans want. They want to be closer to the action. The way to do that, simply, is to make the field closer to the living room. By putting the seven-second delay on, you'd have a red button in every control truck to knock out the curse words. The game would be more alive, more organic.

They do some of this now and show it on the NFL Game of the Week- that's enough. The NFL doesn't need gimmicks- it's not the XFL.

7. Let players wear the numbers of their choice -- with an asterisk: Allow players to purchase the number they wish for $250,000. One-time fee. That $250,000, which players could write off, would go into a pool to benefit 10 charities to be agreed upon by the players' association and the league. And once a year, the league would cut an equal check to each charity. So imagine a player changes teams, or a draft choice comes on a new team, and he wants to wear an odd number. Reggie Bush with number 5, for instance. Imagine you've got 20 of those guys per year. And new commissioner Roger Goodell appears in the Lower Ninth Ward of New Orleans to hand a check for $500,000 to Habitat for Humanity, which guarantees to build 100 homes in 30 days with the money. Gee, the more I write about this, the more I like it.

You can raise money for charity without having guys wearing random numbers. No.

8. Prohibit the moving of the Saints for five years: Make this a "for the good of the game" issue. It's ludicrous to think of kicking a city when it's so down. Now's the time to be a good neighbor and a loyal corporate partner, not greedy.

I don't think this is possible. If you can keep a team from moving for 5 years, why not forever? Al Davis proved the NFL doesn't have this authority.

9. Put two computer chips in the football, and make the goal line, in essence, capable of sending a signal when the football touches the plane of the goal line: Let's just call this "The Ben Roethlisberger Rule."

Way to rip off Bill Bellichick and pretend it's your idea. This has been proposed for several years. But it is a good idea.

 

[Gibby!]

Commissioner for a Day
Peter King, SI.com

9. Put two computer chips in the football, and make the goal line, in essence, capable of sending a signal when the football touches the plane of the goal line: Let's just call this "The Ben Roethlisberger Rule."

I don't think this would work.

I have spent a long time thinking about this, there has been more than one blown call at the goal line. What I think you would need to do is put some type of reflective material between the rubber bladder and the leather exterior of the ball. You need something that encompasses the entire length and width of the football. Then you would need some time of receiver/transmitter in the goal line.

This doesn't do away with instant replay as you would still need to be able see where the player was touched down. But if the light (or whatever) goes off, all you would need to establish is if the player was down by contact or not and has established possesion.

An odd number of games would make the playoff picture a little clearer to me. 10 and 7 or 9 and 8 and your in the playoffs (wag based on division...). There would be no need to worry about an 8-8 team making it in. Take away one preseason game, make the season start a week earlier. Everyone knows the first game of the season is basically the 5th preseason game.

Oh and I don't like the 4 point rule, keep it at 3 it creates enough drama...

 

[SkinsandTerps]

Cable cant compete pricewise, with the package I get on DTV even without the Sunday Ticket.

I cant imagine how outrageous cable rates would become.

OnDemand is a cool feature. However if you have a DVR...doesnt matter at all.

4 point FGs ? Booooooo. Worst idea ever. I want some of whatever he is drinking.

LA doesnt care so why should anyone else ? Try and try again and it makes little difference. LA doesnt miss football and doesnt care about it.

More mikes ? That might be ok. But it would just make certain players become even bigger primadonnas. No thanks.

Saints ? I could care less either way. NO is one of the filthiest cities I have ever been to (along with Baltimore and Detroit). Seems like a great place to hold your most prestigious game every few years...

I would like 18 games but realize that if there were 18 games there would still be 3-4 pre-season games. Raising the chance of injury to players and making me sweat to death in July. No thanks.

Players wearing their own little special numbers ? Screw that. Earn your keep on an NFL field before trying that crap. NFL does plenty for charity probably more than all of the other major sports combined.

Playoff expansion is part of what makes the NBA seem so terrible. A team gets in the playoffs that has no chance of winning and looks terrible facing the best team in the conference. Completely overmatched 90% of the time.

Computer Chips ? Why not work on getting Mikes in the MLBs helmets first so the defenses are on the same plane as the offense.

 

[bobtheflob]

8. Prohibit the moving of the Saints for five years: Make this a "for the good of the game" issue. It's ludicrous to think of kicking a city when it's so down. Now's the time to be a good neighbor and a loyal corporate partner, not greedy.

Do you guys remember that Seinfeld episode where Elaine is dating that older man and just as she's about to break up with him he has a stroke? Then she's tormented because she doesn't want to look like a bad person who abandoned him in a time of need so she's forced to stay with him for a while afterwards. That's what always comes to my mind when I think of the Saints' current situation. They may have been about to relocate anyway and not too many people would have disagreed with that decision, but now they're in a bind.

 

[BrassCowboy]

The one item I truly agree with and that is make NFL available to more than Directv. It is not a matter of selling it to highest bidder. It is about making it available to all mediums of transmission like NBA and Hockey is. People will pay for it wherever it is available, and to keep it all to directv is about the dumbest thing the NFL has done.

Of course if you made it available to cable, Directv would go out of business. oh well that is business.

 

[superpunk]

I agree cable AND satellite.

You can, as is, charge more to one to keep the other off it's back, however if you sold the rights to both you would make the same amount or more.

I would say more because more people would have access and want to by the NFL Package.

But if it's available on all systems, why would any provider pay an exorbitant amount to host the package? DirecTV pays all that money because it's theirs exclusively,and they can market that.

Why pay for something you can't market as your own?

 

[kartr]

No Peter you're wrong.
You are that stupid.
Making the field goals worth 4pts is exactly what we do not need.
The less I have to see of a guy kicking the ball thru the uprights the better.
The NFL is so popular because it is not soccer.
It doesn't suprise me Peter King is on the side of cable TV.
I guess when you are pulling in the kind of jack King is you could care less of the plight of the working man.

The NFL would be better without Peter King being a part of it. He probably was the water boy for his high school team and 3rd string at that.

 

[Colo]

...four point field goal available from 55 yards and out only in the last 5 seconds of any game and not available in overtime.

Who cares how many points a field goal is worth in OT? All you need is one..

 

[MONT17]

so what defense do u run when u are up by 4 at the end of the game??? if u line up for a 55 yard FG the defense will "can" the Center before he snaps!!!

I like the 2 preseason games... any of u season ticket holders know what Im talking about!!! as for 18 regular season It wouldnt matter but it will help to determine the deepest team and maybe not the best team!!!


I would like to see them get rid of the each Conference and just have 8 divisions with the teams with the best records in the playoffs... No more 8-8 teams from a weak conference going to the playoffs while a 10 win team sits home!!! No more Conference chapions ships being called the "Real" Super Bowl!!!

 

[BrAinPaiNt]

But if it's available on all systems, why would any provider pay an exorbitant amount to host the package? DirecTV pays all that money because it's theirs exclusively,and they can market that.

Why pay for something you can't market as your own?

I am not worried about the cable or dish providers themselves.

I am saying to do it from the NFL level.

I want sunday ticket. However I like my cable and cable ISP service.

If I could just get the direct tv Dish and box and ONLY pay for the NFL Ticket service I would.

But those nippleheads want me to, at the very least, sign up for a minimum of a year with at least the basic package.

I don't want the basic package, I get pretty much everything already on the cable service and where I live it is more reliable than the dish due to weather conditions.

From and NFL perspective you get more people to buy your product by putting it in more hands.

Now I can see a provider (dish network) not wanting the NFL to do something like that but I would think the NFL would make more money by issueing a flat rate to all providers and also all customers.

I would also like to see the NFL Ticket set up options where you could just buy the ticket to watch an individual team.

Stinks paying for all of the NFL teams if there is only one to two teams you wish to watch.

 

[Pittman4Two]

I really wish helmet cams were brought back.

 

[superpunk]

Now I can see a provider (dish network) not wanting the NFL to do something like that but I would think the NFL would make more money by issueing a flat rate to all providers and also all customers.

Maybe. But I can also see how it devalues the product on the whole, making it available to more providers. DirecTV has a pretty long deal with the NFL, right? I would like to use cable internet, but the DSL is plenty fast at home. I can barely notice a difference between that and the cable at work, except on downloads. Regardless, whatever provider has the Ticket - will be my provider, lol. I can't get Cowboys games any other way.