NFL silliness as of early 2014

( #todo - finish writing / editing )

The NFL is wrought with rampant hypocrisy.

The NFL does not need stunts and gimmicks to prop up its product.

Last decade, the NFL started its own network and began playing Thursday night games in November and December.

For the 2012 season, the NFL began playing its NFL Network Thursday night games in September.

For the 2014 season, CBS will begin carrying Thursday night games while the NFL Network will continue to broadcast its Thursday night schedule.

The NFL is adding more Thursday night games. If these games were played by teams who came off a bye week, the extended rest, that would be fine. But that's not the case. Nearly all the games are played by teams who played on Sunday. 3-day rest. The game is brutal enough, but to play after only 3 days rest is a health hazard.

The NFL hypocrisy comes in when the league de-emphasized the kick return beginning in the 2011 or 2012 season by moving the kickoff up five yards, which increased the number of touchbacks. The NFL is trying to eliminate one of the exciting plays in the league. The league made this change to decrease player injuries, especially concussions. The kickoff/kick return has been called a demolition derby. This rule change was made in the name of player safety. Okay, fine.

Nearly every offseason in recent years, the league has tinkered with the rules to diminish the hard hits on quarterbacks and receivers. These new rules and penalties are meant to improve player safety.

During this current offseason, the NFL has considered eliminating the extra point in the name of player safety. The PAT is considered a meaningless play because the kick for extra point play is rarely fouled up. So the league considers the PAT as one more opportunity for a player to get hurt. The league considered eliminating the PAT in the name of player safety.

The NFL likes to portray itself as being concerned about player safety, yet the league continues to add more Thursday night games with players performing on 3-days rest. How is this safe for the players? More games played on short rest means more chances for players to get hurt.

If the league was truly concerned about player safety, ALL Thursday games would be eliminated, including the Thanksgiving Day games, unless the teams playing came off a bye week. Instead of a 3-day rest, the Thursday teams had a 11-day rest.

According to observers, the 2013 Thursday games were poorly played. And some believe this was because of the short rest. The players were not physically and mentally ready to play on Thursday. The product suffered.

The NFL is now considering adding more teams to the playoffs. More absurdity. The league is fine now. Adding more teams could diminish the importance of December games for many teams. Sure, it would make other teams, weak teams, have more important December games.

Adding more playoff games means some teams will have to play more games to reach the Super Bowl. More games means more chances for players to get hurt. Seems like a massive hypocrisy move by the NFL. What about player safety?

A few years ago, the NFL considered extending the regular season by two or three games. This idea occurred during the time when the NFL was ramping up is phony concern about player safety.

The NFL plays one or two games each season in England. This takes away a regular season game for the home fans of those teams. Rip-off.

The players and coaches like getting into a routine. Playing on Thursday disrupts that routine in a physically harmful way. Playing in England disrupts the routine of preparedness because of the long travel. Why is the NFL doing this?

The NFL wants to expand into Europe or outside the U.S. for some stupid reason. I think the NFL actually wants a team in England.

If the NFL was a "soft" sport, then maybe this kind of expansion would be okay. But the players like the routine and familiarity of practicing at home, living at home, and getting injury treatment at home as much as possible. With home being their own facilities. It's important for mental and physical recovery. They prefer not to travel until right before an away game within the states. Playing divisional road games generally means a relatively short travel.

It's amazing that the league is unaware of its flaming hypocrisy.

Fake concern about player safety:

• new rules about hitting QBs and WRs.
• practically eliminated the kickoff/kick return
• propose eliminating the PAT

More money ideas:

• added more Thursday games
• propose extending the regular season
• propose extend the playoffs

It won't be greed that harms the NFL. It will be their current run of arrogance. The league's arrogant thinking believes that the NFL will always grow, and that none of its new ideas, no matter how hypocritical, will harm the league financially.

The NFL is huge. It has grown considerably in popularity over the past 20 years. But new technology increases the amount of information that vies for our entertainment time, and this makes it easier for consumers to be fickle.

The league cannot say, "What else are you going to watch?"

The NFL, however, may always rely on the gamblers and the fantasy football fans, which comprise a huge audience. But do gamblers and fantasy football players need to watch the games? They just need access to info and stats, which they get now over their phones.

NFL owners are meeting this week, March 24, 2014. That cannot be a good thing. Get together to create meaningless rules because they have nothing better to do.

NFL says dunking on goal posts will be a penalty in 2014

Why ban the goal post dunk after a TD? Excessive celebration? No way. This ban is for player safety, in my opinion. The NFL owners are probably concerned that players could clonk their noggins on the goal post trying to dunk, and that could lead to a concussion.

More Thursday night, 3-day-rest games, please.

The real reason the NFL decided to do this now? Because the goal post can be bent -- like Graham did -- and that causes awkward delays and could be completely disastrous if a goal post ever actually fell.

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