NFL: It's Time For The League To Mash The Panic Button

Is anyone else watching this year’s NFL games and thinking, man this is some awful football? We don’t mean the usual Browns fans, the entire audience has to be seeing it this year. The NFL is actively participating in one of the worst years of entertainment regarding their sport. A large chunk of the league has a losing record. Injuries are piling up left and right. The officiating has just been downright awful. Can we get off this ride?

While Eagles and Giants fans can celebrate their fast starts, not too much else is there to celebrate. Maybe if you’re a Bills fan who witnessed the payback for last year’s playoff loss, you can drop the confetti. However, the entire product stinks of hot garbage. Even the great Tom Brady looks average at best. Aaron Rodgers is a stat machine and the Packers can’t get it going. The highlight of this year is the Chiefs still look like they haven’t lost a step without Tyreek Hill, but that’s not too promising.

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But this is the new era of the NFL. The league has been created as a pass-happy league designed to put up stats and points. The league has created this style of play where any team can win at any time. It’s slowly becoming more like the NBA where teams aren’t playing defense the way they used to. The passing games have advanced and the league’s push for safety is a thinly veiled attempt to make it easier for teams to score points. They’ve fabricated this lie that any team has a chance at the Super Bowl which keeps die-hard fans of that team interested while the real powerhouses run away with their divisions. In today’s NFL 2 out of 3 teams end the season below .500. So how did they fix that problem? Add another game for revenue and that slight hope that fan-favorite teams are on the up-and-coming list.

However, that’s not the biggest upset in the NFL this year as it has been happening the past few seasons. No, the one thing that is making these games unwatchable is the overemphasis on penalties. “Player safety”? What a joke. These blown calls, overly sensitive calls, and missed calls haven’t come in moments of safety. They’re influencing the outcomes of games. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers and the great Tom Brady almost lost to a bad Falcons team so what do the refs do? Flag, roughing the passer. How much do you think Vegas pays the NFL to make sure they don’t miss out on money?

The NFL is in danger of becoming unwatchable. There are too many games influenced by bad refs and big-market team favoritism. It’s becoming more obvious that the NFL does whatever it can to make sure teams that will make them the most money, stay successful. If you’re sitting there saying that’s the opinion of a disappointed fan, ask yourself this:

How often do these controversial calls happen in games between two bad teams? You don’t get phantom roughing the passer calls if the Lions and Browns face each other. There’s no “is it a catch or not a catch” when a 1-2 win team faces another 1-2 win team. The only time we get controversial calls is in games where big market teams aren’t in a position to win. That’s not to say they have a stake in the outcome of every game each week. However, when it comes to ratings and marketability it’s obvious the NFL plays favorites.