What Is The NFL's Biggest Problem?

[BillsImpossible]

Refereeing?

Many NFL referees suck, and help dictate the outcomes of games that are often decided by inches.

Concussions and lawsuits?

'Don't wait, call 8.'

Parity?

All NFL teams are created equal.

Political correctness?

Bob Costas on his Sunday Night halftime high horse makes me want to turn the channel.

What is the NFL's numero uno problemo?

[bosshogg21]

The definition of a catch which is in the refereeing category.

[stuckincincy]

Serial posters.

[BuffaloRedleg]

Easy.

It is a QB league and if you don't have a QB you don't matter.

I don't know what the answer is, but it's sort of silly that one position matters so much.

No other sport is like that and maybe that is just the nature of the sport, but that doesn't meant I have to like it.

[alohabillsfan]

The nfl continues to suck more and more every year ( not just because the bills suck) it's the constant bs rule changes and the inability for referees to make consistent calls. There is to much rule interpretation. I used to be a passionate fan, I bought the ticket every year and even made travel plans around the bills schedule. Now I don't even watch the games unless they are on tv. Nfl kinda sucks now, imo

[Night Train]

Greed. They charge too much for tickets, parking etc. and forget their core audience is Joe Lunchbox and not Corey Corporation.

On the field, far too many injuries and health legacy issues. Negative publicity.

[MikeInRoch]

Parity in the NFL is a myth.

[The King]

Greed.

[IlluminatusUIUC]

The gameday experience loses to watching on your own couch. That's the biggest drawback to me, by far. Everything involved is outrageously expensive, it takes forever to get into or out of the stadium, TV timeouts drag everything to a halt, etc.

[pmoon6]

The gameday experience loses to watching on your own couch. That's the biggest drawback to me, by far. Everything involved is outrageously expensive, it takes forever to get into or out of the stadium, TV timeouts drag everything to a halt, etc.Yes and with DirectTV, you can go fishing in the morning , record the game, and not have to watch the unending stream of commercials.

[Buffalogic]

Yup. Stadium experience is by far the NFL's biggest hurdle at the moment. It's too expensive, even if you have tons of money, it's just more fun watching the games with close friends at your place with fantasy stats at your finger tips. They need to find a way to give fans something at the stadium that they can't get at home besides long lines and $12 dollar beers. I get 25 wings for 12 bucks at my house, beats one beer. Oh and I have those too at home.

[feldspar]

To me (and if we're just complaining), the two things I have the most problem with are the ridiculous amount of commercials and the refs, who take over and decide games a lot...terrible calls can ruin the whole game for me. And, of course, there is the cost of everything.

Also, I understand about player safety being an important thing, but you can't make an inherently violent sport a safe thing to play. They go too far trying to do that IMO.

I find other things annoying as well.

[Bill Cody]

I can remember when a two minute drive to win a game was the most exciting 2 minutes in sports. Now? You pretty much know that barring a penalty or a turnover the team that needs to score will. In an effort to protect the QB a good QB is a nearly unstoppable force. That's boring.

[Bill Cody]

Even field goals are near automatic. I would get rid of the no chuck after 5 yards rule and narrow the goal posts by a third. And cut the commercials so a game can be completed in 3 hours.

[Bill Cody]

pass interference should not be a spot foul. 15 yards like college.

[stuckincincy]

pass interference should not be a spot foul. 15 yards like college.

Dunno - wouldn't that it make it better to interfere when you are going to be beat for a long gain? 15 yards is less of a punishment than a sure touchdown.

[Generalissimus Gibby]

Good question, IMHO the big ten problems are:

1) The games cost too much, even if you get tix on stubhub for like 25.00 you still are going to pay that same price for parking, and if you decide to buy food and drink at the stadium by the time you get your beer and your food its another 20 or so.

2) Too many commercial breaks

3) Unfair enforcement of the rules. EJ Manuel gets his skull thumped 10 seconds after the play is over its no biggie. Someone sneezes on Tom Brady its a 15 yard penalty.

4) Unprofessional referees, make them full time employees of the league

5) Defense no longer allowed, most recent Superbowl aside

6) Too many pre-season games


7) Bias towards big market teams


8) No loyalty to the fans


9) Too many teams, too little talent


10) Too much greed on the part of everyone involved.

[Meathead]

Yes and with DirectTV, you can go fishing in the morning , record the game, and not have to watch the unending stream of commercials.

even when im home i purposely dont start watching a bills game until at least an hour after it starts just so i can ff through the commercials. same thing with sabres games. same thing with all tv actually

[Meathead]

I would get rid of the no chuck after 5 yards rule

it will never happen but i would love that

[jimmifli]

Easy.

It is a QB league and if you don't have a QB you don't matter.

I don't know what the answer is, but it's sort of silly that one position matters so much.

No other sport is like that and maybe that is just the nature of the sport, but that doesn't meant I have to like it.

Hockey goalies can be like that. The really really good ones let a team of scrubs be competitive, or turn a playoff team into a Stanley cup winner. But those guys are pretty rare.

As for good goalies there's less than there are teams, and if you don't have one you don't matter.

[jimmifli]

Head injuries are an inherent part of the game. Head injuries are really bad for you.

[Bill Cody]

Dunno - wouldn't that it make it better to interfere when you are going to be beat for a long gain? 15 yards is less of a punishment than a sure touchdown.

True but half the time there is interference the ball wouldn't have even been caught! And for that the team gets a 50 yard gain or a gimmee TD. It isn't working.

[Bill Cody]

it will never happen but i would love that

well it was the rule for the first 50 years of the league no?

[IlluminatusUIUC]

Dunno - wouldn't that it make it better to interfere when you are going to be beat for a long gain? 15 yards is less of a punishment than a sure touchdown.

I keep hearing this argument but 15 yard PI is the college rule and I don't see this epidemic of intentional PI that people predict.

[Bill Cody]

Head injuries are an inherent part of the game. Head injuries are really bad for you.

They are. If I was commissioner I would be finding and mandating a much, much safer helmet. The helmets they use are basically 1970's technology. This is the equivalent of the oil companies using "boom" as their solution to an oil spill. It's ridiculous. There are a lot of smart guys in this country and we can solve the problems that we really care about. I honestly think the helmet thing is about vanity. The players like how they look in those hard shell helmets and the league like the sound of the big hits. Maybe I'd have the guys looking like space aliens but they'd be a lot safer.

[Bill Cody]

I keep hearing this argument but 15 yard PI is the college rule and I don't see this epidemic of intentional PI that people predict.

True. I watch a fair amount of college ball and 15 yards simply is a better way to go. I used to think the opposite but today the pendulum has swung so far in favor of the offense handing teams gimmee TD's makes no sense.

[gr8slayer]

The decreasing physicality.

[stuckincincy]

The dearth of low-angle cheerleader camera shots.

[X-Era]

Refereeing?

Many NFL referees suck, and help dictate the outcomes of games that are often decided by inches.

Concussions and lawsuits?

'Don't wait, call 8.'

Parity?

All NFL teams are created equal.

Political correctness?

Bob Costas on his Sunday Night halftime high horse makes me want to turn the channel.

What is the NFL's numero uno problemo?Moving the kick-offs back.

[Generalissimus Gibby]

Head injuries are an inherent part of the game. Head injuries are really bad for you.

They are not, they make half the people on here the posters they are today. . . . Oh, wait.

[Turf]

40 sec clock.

[WagonCircler]

The decreasing physicality.


Which is actually just a symptom of the NFL's biggest problem, which is that every year it gets more and more political, and political correctness mandates the feminizing of everything.

Goodell is a metrosexual lawyer who runs the NFL like a metrosexual lawyer. The NFL is WAY over officiated, now we're going to have language penalties? And you just know Goodell is working behind the scenes trying to convince Daniel Snyder to cave to the whiners and change the name of the Redskins, despite the fact that they are named after a tribe who PAINTED THEIR FACES RED when doing battle. That's why they're called Redskins, but the whiners out there who look for things to be offended by couldn't care less about facts. Facts rob them of their feel-good self-righteous faux indignation.

The Goodell threatens to move the Super Bowl if the Governor of a state doesn't cave to political pressure.

They need to get back to being a football league instead of a political action committee.

[IlluminatusUIUC]

40 sec clock.

Explain. Is it too long, too short, what?

[Buddo]

They definitely need to something about the rulebook and by association the zebras. The rulebook is becoming the size of an old phone book, and there's way too much room for different interpretations. Simplify it, and just maybe, the zebras will do a better job.
Get rid of anything to do with the football being thrown, so it isn't a fumble. QBs get too much protection as it is, letting them off the hook for not getting rid of the football quick enough, flat out sucks. No sort of 'tuck' rule either. If they brought that in, I would allow them to just chuck it away from anywhere though. Simplify the bloody rules.

[CoolBreeze]

Which is actually just a symptom of the NFL's biggest problem, which is that every year it gets more and more political, and political correctness mandates the feminizing of everything.

Goodell is a metrosexual lawyer who runs the NFL like a metrosexual lawyer. The NFL is WAY over officiated, now we're going to have language penalties? And you just know Goodell is working behind the scenes trying to convince Daniel Snyder to cave to the whiners and change the name of the Redskins, despite the fact that they are named after a tribe who PAINTED THEIR FACES RED when doing battle. That's why they're called Redskins, but the whiners out there who look for things to be offended by couldn't care less about facts. Facts rob them of their feel-good self-righteous faux indignation.

The Goodell threatens to move the Super Bowl if the Governor of a state doesn't cave to political pressure.

They need to get back to being a football league instead of a political action committee.

That's the post of the day. Well written, Goodell is slowly destroying the NFL. I agree 100%, the NFL is all about the dollars and political correctness, when it should be about the game we alll love. Us as fans need to do something. This superbowl being the highest rated one yet didn't help at all. Too many changes that are not needed are made, and sadly I'm sure more are on the way.

[YardRat]

They never will be able to eliminate injuries in general, and concussions specifically, out of the game. At the professional level they should just let it ride as is. Wanna risk long term brain damage for millions of dollars? OK, that's your call, live with the ramifications and the decision. College, high school, pee wee, etc...that's a different animal altogether.

Officiating and the rules are the biggest problem with the game between the lines. Greed is, off the field.

[Novacane]

Roger Goodell!

[coastal]

Capitalism is the NFL's biggest problem.

[swiper]

Greed

[feldspar]

political correctness mandates the feminizing of everything.


I never thought about it that way.

Of course, the way you put it makes a whole lot of sense to me.

[Fletch]

What Is The NFL's Biggest Problem?

The NFL's biggest problem is precisely what it has tried to do, namely permeate American life.

The 24/7 news cycle that has to now fabricate "news" just to justify that cycle, the ever-expanding days on which games are shown, the ridiculous number of commercials and TV timeouts associated with watching games, particularly those that push the night games to 11:30 or even midnight, the soap-opera like atmosphere that now surrounds the reporting of NFL stuff, etc.

The NFL has gotten too big for its own good and is its own worst enemy.

There is such a thing as too much.

[Fletch]

Greed. They charge too much for tickets, parking etc. and forget their core audience is Joe Lunchbox and not Corey Corporation.

On the field, far too many injuries and health legacy issues. Negative publicity.

Yup!

Pretty much status quo around the whole country though, everything is geared towards corporate America.

[Fletch]

The gameday experience loses to watching on your own couch. That's the biggest drawback to me, by far. Everything involved is outrageously expensive, it takes forever to get into or out of the stadium, TV timeouts drag everything to a halt, etc.

Not to mention the crackdown on innocent partying in the lots, and in the case of Buffalo no longer being able to park where you want, etc.

[pmoon6]

Not to mention the crackdown on innocent partying in the lots, and in the case of Buffalo no longer being able to park where you want, etc.Pffft. "Innocent Partying". You have the power drinkers and the asswipes that can't handle their booze to thank for that one.

[Turf]

Explain. Is it too long, too short, what?

Its too long. They took too many plays out of the game, almost eliminating the running game in the second half. Also, a team shouldn't be able to eat up 10 mins with an 80 yard drive, just boring. Almost 1/4 of the game is over. And if you're significantly behind, you have to pass, you cannot come back with a running game. So defenses know this, sit back, and its boring dink and dunk for the offense because that's all they can find open.