This is an ongoing series in which I examine elements of the mechanics of professional sports that could use modernization or improvement
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The National Football League has set a pretty fine example over the years on how to be a flexible enough sport to adopt changes and morph into a more modern form as time goes on. It was the first sport to adopt video replay on a wide scale, and while the system is not totally perfected, it is far and away the best in sports, and has helped the league become what I believe to be the most well-officiated major sport.
While the only changes I would make to modernize the NFL are small ones – broadening the reach of instant replay, establishing a far greater number of cameras and angles at which the official can see replays, etc. – the league is in a constant state of change when it comes to rules and policies, and you can expect major changes coming soon to the NFL.
Current changes that the league is discussing include expanding the regular season schedule to 17 or 18 games per team while reducing the preseason to 2 or 3, and modifying the overtime system to make the coin-toss less significant a determining factor in the game’s outcome.
As for the schedule expansion, I’m fairly indifferent to this change. There are solid arguments on both sides of the fence. Opponents suggest that more regular season action would cause a greater number of injuries to star players, thus diluting the quality of the entire schedule. Proponents cannot stand the current slate of four (or, in some cases, five) preseason games per team, and if those were reduced and the season expanded, everybody who currently makes money from football would make even more, and fans surely wouldn’t complain about having more games to enjoy.
The most interesting schedule expansion proposal that I’ve read has been to go to a 17-game format, with each team having eight games at home, eight at an opponent’s home (“away” games), and one neutral site game. We’ve seen the NFL take it’s show on the road to London’s Wembley Stadium for a couple of regular season games now, as well as Mexico City. Exhibitions have taken place in Asia, Europe and Mexico as well. The NFL has done a spectacular job marketing its game internationally, and it seems that there are numerous hotbeds of potential NFL fanbases to cultivate all around the globe, and adding sixteen potential internationally-located match-ups per season would only enhance that growth. In my lifetime I expect to see NFL franchises located outside of North America, and I truly hope that is the case, because it would be incredibly fascinating to see how America’s game is received and consumed in various other cultures around the globe.
As for modifications to the league’s rules on overtime, I do not like the idea at all. Complaints have arisen because of the disproportionate number of games that end on the extra period’s first possession, thus making the coin toss an overly-important element. In my opinion, the root of this problem can be traced to a number of rules changes over the past two decades that have overwhelmingly favored the advancement of offensive-oriented football. Because a high-scoring contest is considered more marketable and palatable to a wider audience, the league has instituted a number of strict penalizations on aggressive defensive football.
The fact is, football is the only sport where you can score points while on defense. If the league tampers with one of the most exciting elements of its product – sudden death overtime – it will be a tragedy. If they really want to do something to make overtime more “fair”, they should loosen up pass interference and defensive holding penalties, and let it get a little more rough and tumble in the defensive backfield. Finesse offenses won’t march right down the field nearly as often if that were to happen. And who knows, maybe those coveted “casual fans” will learn to love defensive-minded football like some of us die-hards.
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