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by Donni Coley Volume II, No. 11
I bet you thought the NFL season started in mid-July with training camp, no ma’am, and no sir, it started three weeks ago on March 5th. There are no players on the practice fields. There are no coaches meetings in the club house. Only the field of negotiation is open for business. Agents are working hard to get the best deal for their clients, some of their clients are high profile, and some are under the radar of the free agency market.
2010 is the “Final League Year” an uncapped season, which means owners, can spend as much moola as they want on available unrestricted free agents, but from what I have read in the past two weeks, some teams are taking advantage of the word uncapped and are going after those unrestricted free agent gems, like my Chicago Bears, shelling out $121 million, including $55 million guaranteed, for three top notch free agents, Julius Peppers, Chester Taylor and Brandon Manumaleuna. And other teams are tightening up their uncapped belts, with the assumption of an uncertain 2011 season. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers are doing a wait and see, let’s see what we can get in the draft mambo.
“United We Stand”
The NFL Annual Meeting took place on March 21st thru March 24th, from an article in the Boston Globe the Patriots’ owner, Robert Kraft was quoted saying “Probably the most important thing with this league meeting that’s different than other years is that we continue to have a very united ownership…We have a great sport, and we have to be smart enough to allow the league to grow for the players and the fans.” It seems to me he wants to make sure us little guys, the FANS, are part of the NFL equation. And that the owners are finally understanding that unity is the key.
In a press conference, Roger Goodell stated, “The quality of the game is outstanding and the interest of the game is outstanding.” He spoke about putting the game first and fans first. Hey Roger! I’m for shorten the preseason and extending the regular season. GIVE ME MORE FOOTBALL.
Modifying Sudden-Death
Like many NFL fans, I am a supporter of changing the overtime format. It took this year’s Super Bowl overtime win by the New Orleans Saints for the owners to take a look at changing the sudden-death overtime format. Finally on, Tuesday the NFL owners voted 28-4 to modify sudden-death for the playoffs. “Statistically, it needed to change. It wasn’t producing the ‘fairest results.’”, states Atlanta Falcons president Rich McKay, co-chairman of the competition committee. Now, I didn’t study statistics but I, and many others, could see that the game was tilting significantly in favor of the team winning the coin toss, way before Super Bowl XLIV.
A NFL fact, before 1994, 34.4 percent of the time teams winning the coin toss won the game. After 1994 and since kickoffs were moved back 5 yards to the 30, 59.8 percent of the time teams winning the coin toss won the game. Wow, what an increase!
I would like to see the modify sudden-death applied to the regular season games, too. Well, it’s a start in the right direction. We all had to crawl before we walked.
