Breer: League looking into expanding to a 14/16 team playoff

[Ray Ray19]

I like 14, if it means that they end the ridiculous idea to extend to 18 reg season games, that is just one more team per conference.

[SAR I]

Every year I pay $1,060 for 2 meaningless preseason games.

Since the league isn't going to stop that practice, hell yeah, make 'em count. 18 game season is awesome.

SAR I

[patman]

I am one of those don't fix what isn't broken, even though the pats once won 11 games and did not make the playoffs, but that only happened twice in league history so to fix something that happens once every 20 years is not worth it.

If the owners wish to get more money ask Khan to move the Jags to LA. To Me the Fl market is saturated and move the Bills upon Wilson's death to Toronto. This will allow the Bills and the fins to compete more with two of the richest teams in the league. KC moves to the AFC South.

Change the preseason to 3 games and increase the regular season to 17 games and add another bye week and get rid of the week off before the SB.

Every other year the STH still get screwed buying two games, but every other year the only have to pay for 1 fake game. The year you have two fake games one will be the third game which is at least competitive and entertaining. Bring the rosters to 56 players so that the rookies get a shot that losing the extra preseason game loses them.

Fans get a longer season, players still only play 20 games and they get three extra jobs per team plus more revenue to split with the owners both in increased TV penetration in the LA market and a huge jump in the Canadian market. Jag fans are screwed, but they are less of them than any other team. Bill fans will need to be accommodated in the new stadium. The league can arrange trains and most Bill fans I think already have a passport. STH get more value.

[Bronxville Jets Fan]

Such a terrible idea. Would take away a lot of the prestige of making the playoffs -- 8-8 would suddenly be good enough. No thanks.

[GuidoYaztremski]

Goodell won't stop until we see the 6-10 Buenos Aires Madres face off against the 7-9 Dublin Rasherheads in the third Wild Card round of the 2018 playoffs.

[jetster]

Originally Posted by GuidoYaztremski

Goodell won't stop until we see the 6-10 Buenos Aires Madres face off against the 7-9 Dublin Rasherheads in the third Wild Card round of the 2018 playoffs.

Funny & maybe true
Goodell will make us all hate this game at some point

[JETSALLDAY24]

To quote on of my favorite players of all time "Leave the game alone"

[JB1089]

How does expanding to 14 let 6-10 teams in?

The 8-8 and 7-9 teams that have made it in the last few years were there because they won their divisions. We haven't had an 8-8 Wild Card team since the 2006 Giants.

Since then, the Patriots missed with an 11-5 season, the Browns missed with a 10-6 season, the Giants missed with a 10-6 season, and the Bucs missed with 10-6 season.



The only difference will be that the 9-7 team that's been on the losing end of the tiebreaker for the last few years is going to get in.

Last year it would have been the Titans (9-7) and Bears (8-8).
The year before would have been the Chargers (9-7) and Giants (10-6).
The year before, the Texans (9-7) and Falcons (9-7).
The year before, the Patriots (11-5) and Bucs (9-7).


OH MY GOD, LOOK AT ALL OF THE 8-8 TEAMS THAT WOULD HAVE--wait a minute, there only would have been one.

And even with 14 teams, there would be way more 9-7 teams that get left out than 8-8 teams that get in. There's not a single year since the NFL expanded to 32 teams in which a 7-9 team would have made the playoffs as the 3rd wild card.

Someone wants to change something? How dare they!



People complaining about scenarios that have no chance of actually occurring? What, did I accidentally stumble into the political forum?

[McGinley]

Originally Posted by JB1089

How does expanding to 14 let 6-10 teams in?

The 8-8 and 7-9 teams that have made it in the last few years were there because they won their divisions. We haven't had an 8-8 Wild Card team since the 2006 Giants.

Since then, the Patriots missed with an 11-5 season, the Browns missed with a 10-6 season, the Giants missed with a 10-6 season, and the Bucs missed with 10-6 season.



The only difference will be that the 9-7 team that's been on the losing end of the tiebreaker for the last few years is going to get in.

Last year it would have been the Titans (9-7) and Bears (8-8).
The year before would have been the Chargers (9-7) and Giants (10-6).
The year before, the Texans (9-7) and Falcons (9-7).
The year before, the Patriots (11-5) and Bucs (9-7).


OH MY GOD, LOOK AT ALL OF THE 8-8 TEAMS THAT WOULD HAVE--wait a minute, there only would have been one.

And even with 14 teams, there would be way more 9-7 teams that get left out than 8-8 teams that get in. There's not a single year since the NFL expanded to 32 teams in which a 7-9 team would have made the playoffs as the 3rd wild card.

Someone wants to change something? How dare they!



People complaining about scenarios that have no chance of actually occurring? What, did I accidentally stumble into the political forum?

This rant doesn't take into account that those years didn't have the extra wildcards, so naturally the numbers are wrong. Add in more wildcards and you add in more opportunity for 8-8 or less teams to get in.

Come on, this isn't hard to understand.

[SAR I]

Originally Posted by Bronxville Jets Fan

Such a terrible idea. Would take away a lot of the prestige of making the playoffs -- 8-8 would suddenly be good enough. No thanks.

Disagree completely on two grounds:

1. More than ever, the parity in the NFL allows a team like the 9-7 Giants to win the Super Bowl.

2. Once a team is realistically eliminated from playoff contention the tickets don't sell and the fans stop paying attention.

Using this season from a Jets perspective, our season ended on Thanksgiving, I am not really passionate or paying attention right now, going to dump my tickets the rest of the way, going to spend time watching my daughter play soccer.

With an extra wildcard, I'd be still hopeful that we could do something, turn things around, get in at 8-8 and get hot like the Giants have done. Without that extra wildcard, all hope is lost, I'm not passionate about the NFL since November. Imagine what it's like in Oakland, Jacksonville, Buffalo and all those other cities.

As Jets fans we should be drooling over an extra wildcard team.

SAR I

[JB1089]

Originally Posted by patman

To Me the Fl market is saturated

I just wanted to expand on this a little.



I think it would be a mistake for any of the professional leagues to move any of their teams out of Florida, or any other location that hasn't had a professional franchise for very long.


Professional sports are ingrained in Northeastern and Midwestern culture because the teams have been around for so long. My grandfather went to his first Yankee game when he was 3 years old. That was in 1921. The population of Jacksonville in 1920 was 91,558. Miami had a population of just 29,549. Forget about professional sports, there were hardly any people in Florida.


If you're living in Florida, you're probably from somewhere else (like me). And even if you were born here, chances are that your parents weren't. I literally don't know one person whose parents were born down here. The result is that people have more pride in where they're from than where they live. The people from New York talk about New York, the people from Michigan talk about Michigan, the people from Ohio about Ohio, and the people from New England about New England.

So the people who move here aren't giving up their loyalty to where they're from. The fan bases for the Florida teams have to be built from the ground up. The only people who grew up going to Jaguars games are, at the oldest, in their early 20s. They're the first generation of diehards, and they don't have the income to be buying season ticket packages yet. Given time, they'll beat Jaguar fandom into their children, as has been done for a hundred years in the Northeast and Midwest.

This was the revelation I had shortly after moving down here. There are no pro sports memories down here, and it's strange. I grew up surrounded by stories of old Yankee teams and players. When I was a little older I heard the Namath stories. When I got into hockey, my coach used to tell us about the Islanders-Oilers Cup finals.There's none of that down here. Those memories are being created. I have a friend that was at the last game of the 2011 regular season, when the Rays beat the Yankees in extra innings to knock the Red Sox out of playoffs. He'll be talking about that game for the rest of his life. But there are very few moments like those in the history of pro sports in Florida.

The young people that like sports and were born down here are Rays fans. Serious Rays fans. Way more serious than the older "fans" than have a more mild interest in the team. They hate the Yankees and wish that more people went to the games. They want a new stadium, even though they know it has little chance of happening anytime soon. The Rays are "their" team. I have little doubt that there's a similar group of people in the Jacksonville area. You can't just take these teams away from these guys, you've got to give them some time. And by time, I mean a few decades, because that's how long it's going to take.

[JB1089]

Originally Posted by McGinley

This rant doesn't take into account that those years didn't have the extra wildcards, so naturally the numbers are wrong. Add in more wildcards and you add in more opportunity for 8-8 or less teams to get in.

Come on, this isn't hard to understand.

What are you talking about?

Last year it would have been the Titans (9-7) and Bears (8-8).
The year before would have been the Chargers (9-7) and Giants (10-6).
The year before, the Texans (9-7) and Falcons (9-7).
The year before, the Patriots (11-5) and Bucs (9-7).

Those are the teams that didn't make the playoffs that would have made the playoffs by adding an additional wild card to each conference.


After retroactively including those teams in the playoffs for the past 4 seasons, if you look at the next group of teams that would have been "last out" there are still more 9-7 teams than 8-8 teams and there are zero teams that are 7-9 are worse.


Given that 16 teams made the playoffs every year since the Houston Texans became the 32nd franchise, not a single 7-9 team would have made the playoffs except for the Seahawks in 2010. And they made it because they won their division.


To suggest that expanding the playoffs to 16 teams would cause teams with 7-9 and 6-10 records to make the playoffs in anything but the most rare circumstances is wrong.

[GreenReaper]

Originally Posted by chirorob

+1

He sucks.

Sucks Donkey Balls.

The best thing about the NFL is it isn't easy to make the playoffs. What we don't need is 8-8 teams making the playoffs every year.

Even worse...

If the playoffs expand to 16 teams...you'll see 7-9 teams going for the SUPE. And that would be the legacy of the Commish Goodell Era. A 7-9 team hoisting the Lombardi Trophy over their heads.

And a staining embarassment to the name of Vince Lombardi that would be for sure.

[JetsCrazey]

expanding the playoffs is a horrible idea. the idea that the Jets would actually be a playoff team this year is ridiculous

[SAR I]

Originally Posted by GreenReaper

Even worse...

If the playoffs expand to 16 teams...you'll see 7-9 teams going for the SUPE. And that would be the legacy of the Commish Goodell Era. A 7-9 team hoisting the Lombardi Trophy over their heads.

And a staining embarassment to the name of Vince Lombardi that would be for sure.

Consider a team like the 1999 Jets.

Devastating injury to Vinny Testaverde, we open the season 1-6.

We get the quarterback situation under control, start beating really good teams including eventual division winners and wildcards, and finish the season on a run of 7-2.

We end as the hottest team in the NFL but the Dolphins take the final wildcard. Had there been an extra wildcard team that year, the Jets might very well have gone all the way to the Super Bowl. I don't think Vince Lombardi would've been disappointed by that. That team showed tremendous resiliency, didn't quit after a brutal start.

SAR I

[revischrist]

I like 14. As a Jets fan, the more chances at playoff football the better. 16 would be pushing it.

[patman]

Quit making the regular season meaningless, most teams lose, I can understand the wildcard as teams can go 13-3 and lose the division while another team can win the division with a 9-7 record or even worse 8-8 and not even have a winning season. To me that is an injustice, so it is welcome that the two teams with the most wins out of the remaining 12 get a shot.
They did not win the divison, so they play an extra game, whilethe two best
teams are rewarded for thier effort with a bye


But to dilute the importance of the regular season by having a team that did not with their division and may still not have a winning record get in turns the game into basketball. Where regular season games don't matter and teams get themselves ready for the playoffs.

[rainman]

Originally Posted by JB1089

I don't like 16 teams because then the top seeds have to play in the 1st round, and they would be upset too often for my liking, just due to the nature of football.

you could eliminate conferences and have the top four get double-byes and the middle four get single-byes, a la the Big East basketball tournament.

[GreenReaper]

Originally Posted by SAR I

Consider a team like the 1999 Jets.

Devastating injury to Vinny Testaverde, we open the season 1-6.

We get the quarterback situation under control, start beating really good teams including eventual division winners and wildcards, and finish the season on a run of 7-2.

We end as the hottest team in the NFL but the Dolphins take the final wildcard. Had there been an extra wildcard team that year, the Jets might very well have gone all the way to the Super Bowl. I don't think Vince Lombardi would've been disappointed by that. That team showed tremendous resiliency, didn't quit after a brutal start.

SAR I

Yes...that can happen on occasion. A deserving 8-8 team not getting in. And sometimes a deserving 11-5 team...like the Pats, playing without Tom Brady, miss out too. And sometimes...7-7 Coslet led Jets teams make it to the playoffs too.

Playing football can break your heart...as well as your body and spirit. Some of this should be shared and felt by the fans too.

It is what it is...Football has never been a sport about fairness. It's a violent sport...a simulation of war. Good soldiers die...heroic platoons vanish in defeat. Nothing fair about that either. It's survival of the fittest. The victorious get to write history. And no justice for losers.

No fairness in football cause...

[Savage69]

Originally Posted by GreenReaper

Yes...that can happen on occasion. A deserving 8-8 team not getting in. And sometimes a deserving 11-5 team...like the Pats, playing without Tom Brady, miss out too. And sometimes...7-7 Coslet led Jets teams make it to the playoffs too.
Playing football can break your heart...as well as your body and spirit. Some of this should be shared and felt by the fans too.

It is what it is...Football has never been a sport about fairness. It's a violent sport...a simulation of war. Good soldiers die...heroic platoons vanish in defeat. Nothing fair about that either. It's survival of the fittest. The victorious get to write history. And no justice for losers.

No fairness in football cause...

That was a 16 game season what's with 7-7??