Open Rants by Young Harry

How to make the NFL better in 2023

I didn’t grow up with the NFL and am still learning the finer points; if anything below seems incorrect, let me know. Comments welcome. Thanks. Young Harry.

A: Add one extra word to the “down” score. Let’s say it’s 3rd down and 5.  The doesn’t tell us where the ball is.  Then  we get an entire sentence to tell us where the ball is located.  Ball on the DET 30.  Easy to misread if DET is playing DEN.  Then, we need to work out if we have 30 yards to go or 70.  Here’s how to make it easy: 3rd down and 5/30 (= 3rd down and 5, with 30 yards to go to the end zone). So, when you're watching your game on TV, the score at the bottom for another game would read like this: ARI 19 3rd & 5/30; ATL 16 4th 3:15

B: Put a tracker in the ball.  We put a man on the moon over 50 years ago; it’s about time we put a sensor in the ball to measure its movement.  The electronic decision could be overruled / checked only if the technology appears to give an errant reading.  They’ll have months to test it and get it right.

C: Removing annoying parts of the game part 1: The defending team calling a timeout AFTER the snap for a field goal attempt. Allow it, but impose a 10 yard penalty.  That would cut down on the incidence of the last-second timeout call.  It is one of the most infuriating parts of the game.

D: Removing annoying parts of the game part 2: This will be contentious for some, but get rid of being able to “kneel out” a game in a close game (team leading by 8 or less at the 2 minute warning). Way to avoid it: the team leading by 8 or less at the 2 minutes warning (but not last 2 minutes of Q2) has to move the ball forward to run down the clock. If they go backwards or sideways, the clock gets reset at the time before the play and they chew up a “down”. It would give the team that is losing a better chance, of course, and make for slightly longer games.  But it would also get rid of some boring kneel-downs to end a contest.  Officials, telecasters and the scoreboard at the ground could explain what is happening for the first season.  If a team hits the lead after the 2 minute warning or has its lead reduced to under nine after the 2 minute warning, this rule would not apply.

E: Removing annoying parts of the game part 3: if the kick-off goes into the end zone or beyond on the full (not if it lands in play and then bounces into the end zone), then the other team starts at the 40 yard line and not the 25 yard line. That would make the kickoff an art and avoid having players constantly just blasting it out of reach of the receiving team.

F: Removing annoying parts of the game part 4: Fourth quarter lockdowns (ie teams with a big lead showing zero interest in scoring or, even worse, gives away easy points to the already well-beaten opponent).  Way to solve: if two teams finish with equal wins at the end of the regular season, the team with the highest Q4 score differential gets the benefit (which will often be nothing, but it might decide who gets a Wild Card spot or home field advantage, for example).  The overall effect will be a more attractive game.  As a somewhat radical alternative, the team with the highest Q4 total score differential in their division at the end of the regular season gets credited with an bonus win, which could be registered as something like 10+1 = 10 wins plus a bonus win, so that we don’t mistakenly think that they won 11 games.

G: Scoring: when a team appears to score, we want to know it (especially if it occurs in a game we are not watching, but merely following via a website full of live scores).  But we also want to know if it is REALLY a score!  Or is it going to be negated by a penalty?  Two "errors": firstly, put the score up as soon as the score appears to be made (jumping the gun).  Other "error" is to wait until it is official (which gives no hint a score may be about to be registered).  Way to solve: let’s say the team is on 20 and someone runs into the end zone.  Put the score up as 20+6 or similar? If it gets overturned, then it reverts to 20NS (ie 20 and No Score).  When it becomes official, it can go to a highlighted 26.  Don’t care how they do it, but just let us know: is it official or not!

H: Keep away from taking a stand on politics, religion and ideologies as much as possible.  Avoid anything that could cause offence to any player or staff member.  Players and staff should not have to be put in a situation where they have to sit out a game because of their opinions or beliefs. And they shouldn’t need to hide who they are just to get employed or to keep their job.  In this regard, it’s important to be culturally sensitive to those who come from a non-western background.  If we learned anything from stories in the past few years, a great virtue is to treat well those who are different from you.  The great thing about our game is that we come from all different walks of life and ideologies, but we are in unity when our team plays. Let’s keep it that way. If someone in a club says something at odds with the owner / leadership, then that owner / leader can use these magic 4 words: “I disagree with him / her”.

I: Instead of the AFC and NFC being 4 groups of 4 each, make it 2 groups of 8 each (4 groups of 8 in total across the entire NFL).  Let’s say, for example, we combine AFC East with North and combine South with West; and do the same in the NFC. The top 2 teams in each of the 4 groups (8 teams) go through to the playoffs. Then the remaining 2 teams in each conference with the most wins get Wild Card spots (and also see idea re Q4 scoring in idea F).  If you take 2010 as an example, the Seahawks topped the NFC West with 7 wins.  Other NFC teams Giants and Buccaneers missed the playoffs with 10 wins apiece and had a tougher schedule as well. That year the NFC West combined for 25 regular season wins, while the NFC South combined for 36 regular season wins.

Under the new system, each team would play the other 7 teams in their group of 8 once per regular season. They could then have 4 games against other teams in their conference and 6 games against team in the other conference. Over a 2 year period, each team would play the teams in their group of 8 twice and the other teams in their conference once. They would play every team in the other conference at least once every 3 years.

J: Ins and outs – a big tick to the NFL for giving practice details (which many other sports do not do), but it would be nice to have the list of “ins” and “outs” once the final teams are confirmed (EG RB Smith in, DE Jones in, WR Brown out - knee, DT Johnson out - omitted). It gets quite difficult to follow who is in and out each week for the whole 32 teams.  Ideally, we need a big spreadsheet with weeks across the top and then each team & each player at the LHS of the spreadsheet with which weeks they played and were injured.  If this exists already, I’d like to know where to find it. I currently rely on Walter to keep an eye on this for me and to assess which injuries are the crucial ones.

I’m publishing this rant here because I don’t have a direct “IN” with the NFL top brass.  But, hopefully, the Walterfootball team could pass these ideas on in one of their regular “all expenses paid” trips to NFL headquarters.