Nobody likes to admit when they made a mistake, but when something goes wrong that could be considered an anomaly, a scenario plays out that is deemed to be near impossible; the fault, even if uncalled for, lands with the overseer. Whoever is in control, whoever facilitated the actions that caused the grand faux pas is the one picking up the pieces, and while the NFL never dreamed of a bad closing weekend to their 2010-11 regular season considering all these divisional, "rivalry" games, that dream spiked into a nightmare yesterday and the NFL is now holding the feces-stained bag.
First off, the level of drama and excitement that was supposed to be ratcheted up by the scheduling changes flat-lined big time, with AFC powers like the Steelers, Patriots, and Jets all obliterating their intra-divisional competition by at least four scores. Then, the playoff spots up for grabs fell almost as predicted, minus the misstep by Kansas City dropping to the 4th seed. Some games ended up close but overall, the games were terrible. Finally, due to some quirky, dark twist of fate, only one game was left that in itself decided a division title and a playoff berth, the not-often and hopefully never duplicated NFC West. The NFL was obligated to flex the SEA/STL game into a primetime spot, the last one available for the regular season, Sunday Night Football; the gameplay was marred with sloppy, inconsistent play, turnovers, incompetence, and over-conservative tendencies. Fans were treated to only one touchdown early in the game, and the rest of it was punctuated with field goals. This game was truly the icing on the cake of an interesting yet somewhat underwhelming regular season as the Seahawks became the first team to make the playoffs with a losing record at 7-9. Now, after benefiting from a supremely weak division, a football team who managed to lose every one of those nine games by 15+ points is hosting a playoff game on Saturday; the NFL really backed their way into the playoffs this time.
Where do we stand? Well, I'd bet the world on a few things: MTV will continue to produce lackluster programming that isn't music-related, Lindsay Lohan is going to skip out of rehab, and the NFL was hoping, may I say even praying that the Rams won that game to avoid the constant questioning and the scrutiny they now will indubitably have to endure. Is this a slap in the face to the other playoff teams and teams who didn't even make it with better records? Will you consider changing the playoff structure? Will re-seeding occur? On and on the tilt-a-whirl will go, and we don't know when it will stop, but it will probably make the NFL and its officials throw up when it's all said and done.
As we go into the playoffs, three Wild Card matchups feature teams with better records having to go on the road to play "inferior" teams who happened to win their divisions. This scenario validates the above questions. Also, should realignment be considered? Oakland manages to go 6-0 in the division and not make the playoffs, becoming the first team to ever do that. In that case, their advantage was a disadvantage because they don't get a high draft pick but don't make the playoffs, even though they technically were the best team in their division. Is that fair? Perhaps everyone should be quiet and worry about taking care of their own business, but it would appear that there are unfair benefits/losses to those who prey on the weak in their respective divisions. The NFL office could look into old-school baseball style, maybe just split the conferences up, construct the schedules, let everyone play everyone else, and take the top four teams from each conference. It's simple, but it would rub those teams supposedly on the cusp the wrong way who can't get beyond the chronic powerhouses, but if there's one theme that rings loud in the media, it's that fans care about juggernauts and dynasties and stars. It could work, and I'm hesitating, but these are just considerations. The NFL is going to have to spend a lot of time after this postseason wiping off the muck they stepped in and going to work to make sure that this particular can of worms doesn't open itself up again.
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