10 hours ago
Imagine the Vikings win the North at 10-7 and some team in another division goes 11-6 and gets a second place wild card to a 13-4 team. Now the Vikings end up traveling to the 11-6 wild card for a game. But in this case maybe the Vikings played a much tougher schedule. Just like last year, the Vikings won 14 games but played a relatively weak schedule.
The idea that all that matters is a w/l count seems silly to me in a sport where you only play 17 games and a lot of teams don't even face each other during the season. In sports where you play 80 or 160 games a year this makes more sense because the volume evens things out. It's not going to be better, it's just going to open up even more complaining about "fairness" than we already have, since this situation of a team with more wins traveling to a team with fewer only happens about once every 10 years.
Also, the wildcard game where the weak Seahawks beat the Saints with the better record, the Beast-Mode game, remains one of my favorite all time NFL moments. I don't beleive that overemphasizing a strict w/l count equals "fairness" when it's easy to poke holes in the idea. The NFL doesn't need more fairness, it needs more balance between offense and defense. Giving teams the ball at the 35 after kickoffs for example. Why not just play flag football for god's sake. Let's make everything easy, fair, outlaw hitting and defending and handout participation trophies for all!
Maybe have a 32 team playoff too. It's more fair!
The idea that all that matters is a w/l count seems silly to me in a sport where you only play 17 games and a lot of teams don't even face each other during the season. In sports where you play 80 or 160 games a year this makes more sense because the volume evens things out. It's not going to be better, it's just going to open up even more complaining about "fairness" than we already have, since this situation of a team with more wins traveling to a team with fewer only happens about once every 10 years.
Also, the wildcard game where the weak Seahawks beat the Saints with the better record, the Beast-Mode game, remains one of my favorite all time NFL moments. I don't beleive that overemphasizing a strict w/l count equals "fairness" when it's easy to poke holes in the idea. The NFL doesn't need more fairness, it needs more balance between offense and defense. Giving teams the ball at the 35 after kickoffs for example. Why not just play flag football for god's sake. Let's make everything easy, fair, outlaw hitting and defending and handout participation trophies for all!
Maybe have a 32 team playoff too. It's more fair!
