Can the NFL fix all of its issues?

So this has been something on my mind lately is all of the problems the NFL has and wether or not it can fix them and regain some of its glory. Everything from on field play seemingly getting worse, officiating taking the same route, more and more being discovered about CTE, can the NFL be fixed and how, or do they even really care that much?

The Seahawks lackluster play certainly isn't helping the feeling but I almost feel like its time to give up on the NFL altogether I'm curious to hear opinions

The overly officiated games nowadays are just horrible from a viewing perspective. From absolutely everything constituting defensive holding or PI to every single punt return having a supposed block in the back call, it just ruins all flow to watching a game. You seemingly can't go more than 3 plays without a flag. Just awful.

People are becoming bored with Thursday night games and even Monday night often. With college football already overly broadcast, there's just too much saturation. "Games of the week" no longer carry meaning. Nationally televised games with the same 6 large market fanbase teams grows wearisome as well along with needless and increasing tv timeouts. Also way too much fantasy football emphasis in general is affecting rules and the way people view games.

CTE is growing more and more prevalent but hopefully those new helmets can help a little. People will always play and watch violent sports dating back to the Romans and Greeks but there is concern each new CBA bargaining will bring more serious changes to the sport. The lack of virtually any contact in practice has been theorized to actually cause more injuries as bodies aren't prepared or conditioned for full contact when the season begins. Many, many issues for the league to sort out.

The inconsistency and lack of judgment on penalties has been killing any enjoyment of watching any games. I used to be a huge fan of the NFL as a whole and watch any game that was on, then I started only watching the Hawks but now that's just gotten fusturating. And I never even thought of the over exposure aspect and how that takes a toll and both the players and fans alike. Another point is the quality of players being down. I read an article about how college use to mimic the NFL and its trends of play style and how that is changed and how that has effected positions such as QBs and offensive lineman being ready to handle the NFL.

I worry that we will have to wait a while til we get a new commissioner to really effect change, I dont,think Goodell will, he's made many of the negatove changes we've seen. So I wonder if another sport over takes the NFL (I find that unlikely) or more likely just becomes closer in popularity to other sports

Their officiating/steering problem is only getting worse. Way too many Ticky tack calls that usually favor one team over the next and it's usually the legacy teams catching a big majority of the breaks.

Have less rules, and only call the obvious stuff. That would help pace of play and speed up play.

The game is becoming unwatchable with the over officiating flag fest every week.

And they hired Refs full time to steer/control who wins games. That is gonna drive teams to want to win...he he he

On a different note, The Vikings will not be in the superb owl this year....they host it so more money will be getting fans from other teams...er suits that will not support any team in the brand new shiny stadium.

To begin with the league needs to do away with the 40 million dollar per year commissioner.

Sports Hernia":4l0yc894 said:

The game is becoming unwatchable with the over officiating flag fest every week.

Click to expand...

Yet at the same time, every single week people are having a fit and screaming about the travesty of penalties that weren't called. Everyone thinks there are way too many flags every game, yet everyone also expects the refs to catch every single last penalty committed against their own team. The refs can't win no matter what they do.

Also, I would bet the refs would stop calling so many penalties if the players would stop committing so many penalties. Over the course of a football game, the players commit a shit ton of penalties. So what are the refs supposed to do? It is their job to call a penalty when one is committed.

IMO, it's not necessarily a referee problem, it's a rules problem. The way the rules are written, it's basically impossible for human beings to play this game without constantly committing penalties. IMO, the only way to change the amount of flags we see every game is to change the rules. If they did that though, how much would it change the game? Would it make it better or worse?

I just don't think it's as simple as "The refs should just call less penalties".

There's just way too many rules and intricacies in calling them. Go look up the full rulebook online and you'll be amazed at how any ref is supposed to remember all of that crap, let alone players or fans. Now factor in judgment and whether the refs even saw the foul or not.

Sports Hernia":1rf6j0nx said:

Their officiating/steering problem is only getting worse. Way too many Ticky tack calls that usually favor one team over the next and it's usually the legacy teams catching a big majority of the breaks.

Have less rules, and only call the obvious stuff. That would help pace of play and speed up play.

The game is becoming unwatchable with the over officiating flag fest every week.

Click to expand...

Pretty much this. The referees are bullshit. I don't care much about missed, calls, IF, they wouldn't call so many bullshit calls. They call holding all over the place against one team, but ignore obvious holds by the other team.

But the bad calls are the worst. The Green Bay calls favored the Packers (Legacy Team), were complete bullshit, and cost us the game. Superbullshit XL* calls were horrific, and called out by everyone that wasn't a Steelers (Legacy Team) fan.

The referees steer games.

Then there's the whiny fans who complain about missed calls. Like I said before, I don't mind missed calls, unless they are blatant, and called unevenly.

But the whining by Atlanta about a hold by Richard Sherman was pathetic. And ESPN went along, demonstrating their lack of integrity, by cutting in a different play, off of the line of scrimmage, in order to leave out the Offensive PI by Julio.

Lack of Integrity, by the Referees, by the NFL, and by the Broadcasters. That's why the NFL is starting to lose viewers.

Their pretense of "Parity" is a sham, because of the steerage going on. And why is steerage happening? Because they falsely believe it will make them more money if they please the larger (East Coast) fan base. What they don't realize (but NFL Sunday Ticket does), is that fan bases are spread out now, and many West Coast Teams have become extremely popular.

Myself, I've turned to watching College Football over the NFL. It's a lot more fun, and there is parity there.

Also, until they redo the CBA and put back the practices that they took out, there will be increased number of injuries, and shitty Offensive Line play.

I prefer to maintain a positive outlook. But, even I can recognize storm clouds gathering outside of human control. And, what I think I see is ..... the perfect storm brewing.

No business model is bullet proof or immune to ebbs and flows in popularity and profitability.

The NFL is no different. If the rule changes over the past 5-10 years have forecast anything, it's that the game is moving away from being all about violence, collisions and big hits........and more towards a finesse style showcasing athleticism and speed.

Does that mean less fans and therefore ratings? Sure seems to be trending that way. But if the league wants to remain a relevant and thriving sport, then this is what it has to do.

So fix all of it's issues? That's not going to happen, because fix means to go back to ignoring vital health issues like CTE.

Great post.
The product is diminishing.
Bad officiating, o lines/offenses, over saturation including London games, etc.
Not to mention CTE and all the drama going on.
Ratings are dropping. If it weren't for fantasy there would be a lot less interest.
I'm still a die hard football fan but there sure are a lot of distractions and factors that are rapidly changing the NFL for the worse......

I also wanted to add another reason for the decline in ratings and popularity that I don't see talked about very much.

The millennial generation. Not sure about you guys, but I have two kids, ages 23 and 19.......and even though they grew up in a house with me glued to Hawk, Husky and the sport of football religiously, they literally DO NOT care about football. It is definitely not watch TV for them, or even care about.

I think this is a common refrain, the NFL just doesn't have the attention of the 18-30 demographic like they did when we were that age. Social media, Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime and 1,000 other distractions. It's a common theme for all the sports, but it's VERY prevalent for a sport like the NFL that had nowhere to go but down with popularity.

Can that be fixed? Idk, I don't think so, lord knows I've tried in my house.

Sgt. Largent":3mtnpg7l said:

I also wanted to add another reason for the decline in ratings and popularity that I don't see talked about very much.

The millennial generation. Not sure about you guys, but I have two kids, ages 23 and 19.......and even though they grew up in a house with me glued to Hawk, Husky and the sport of football religiously, they literally DO NOT care about football. It is definitely not watch TV for them, or even care about.

I think this is a common refrain, the NFL just doesn't have the attention of the 18-30 demographic like they did when we were that age. Social media, Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime and 1,000 other distractions. It's a common theme for all the sports, but it's VERY prevalent for a sport like the NFL that had nowhere to go but down with popularity.

Can that be fixed? Idk, I don't think so, lord knows I've tried in my house.

Click to expand...

Over all, I agree you're probably right anout that. For the younger generation that does still care about sports, I think basketball is becoming the more popular option

Sgt. Largent":kx4pd542 said:

No business model is bullet proof or immune to ebbs and flows in popularity and profitability.

The NFL is no different. If the rule changes over the past 5-10 years have forecast anything, it's that the game is moving away from being all about violence, collisions and big hits........and more towards a finesse style showcasing athleticism and speed.

Does that mean less fans and therefore ratings? Sure seems to be trending that way. But if the league wants to remain a relevant and thriving sport, then this is what it has to do.

So fix all of it's issues? That's not going to happen, because fix means to go back to ignoring vital health issues like CTE.

Click to expand...

Agree with this also, I think they have a difficult task of finding a happy medium when it comes to over protecting players when it comes to rules and calling penalties. The CTE issue cant be ignored anymore but it'll be hard to figure out exactly how they can keep players safe without completely destroying the game

Sgt. Largent":1a62nh5q said:

I also wanted to add another reason for the decline in ratings and popularity that I don't see talked about very much.

The millennial generation. Not sure about you guys, but I have two kids, ages 23 and 19.......and even though they grew up in a house with me glued to Hawk, Husky and the sport of football religiously, they literally DO NOT care about football. It is definitely not watch TV for them, or even care about.

I think this is a common refrain, the NFL just doesn't have the attention of the 18-30 demographic like they did when we were that age. Social media, Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime and 1,000 other distractions. It's a common theme for all the sports, but it's VERY prevalent for a sport like the NFL that had nowhere to go but down with popularity.

Can that be fixed? Idk, I don't think so, lord knows I've tried in my house.

Click to expand...

This is a great point and one I was thinking about recently. The fact is, there are so many entertainment options out there for everyone, not just millennials. When you add all the things up that are pushing fans away it becomes a significant issue for the NFL. There are other industries that are impacted as well, the movie industry just had a terrible summer for example. A long time friend of mine commented a year ago that the the NFL would be done within 10 years. I scoffed, but he very well could wind up being right unfortunately.

As a Canadian, it's hilarious hearing Americans talk about giving up on the NFL or boycotting the NFL.

This thing is a part of your DNA........you'll "boycott" it for like two weeks, and then come right back.

What are you going to replace it with? Dancing With the Stars?

I was reading an article online yesterday about how the product is diminishing and player off-field issues may be the undoing of the NFL and how it's all going to come crashing down. The references were a little outdated and odd but I kept reading.

Turned out it was an article from 2010.

The NFL isn't going anywhere and neither are you.

SixSeahawk":3lfyhina said:

As a Canadian, it's hilarious hearing Americans talk about giving up on the NFL or boycotting the NFL.

This thing is a part of your DNA........you'll "boycott" it for like two weeks, and then come right back.

What are you going to replace it with? Dancing With the Stars?

Click to expand...

I just wonder if they will start showing CFL here. That will throw a real wrench into the system. I saw them on ESPN in a motel because I was in the motel and wanted to watch something.

There are a lot of things to do besides watch a bunch of gladiators on tv. I could go back to my roots and go fishing and start making things that make me happy using my wood lathes that are sitting there in the rain. Gardening and ignoring idiots around me that want me to do stuff for them. I have a world to visit if I want to put forth the effort.

Danzig verten Stars.....naw, idiots. Now if they do more masterchef and hells kitchen with different countries...ok. LOL

Seahawkfan80":3tdpmyai said:

SixSeahawk":3tdpmyai said:

As a Canadian, it's hilarious hearing Americans talk about giving up on the NFL or boycotting the NFL.

This thing is a part of your DNA........you'll "boycott" it for like two weeks, and then come right back.

What are you going to replace it with? Dancing With the Stars?

Click to expand...

I just wonder if they will start showing CFL here. That will throw a real wrench into the system. I saw them on ESPN in a motel because I was in the motel and wanted to watch something.

There are a lot of things to do besides watch a bunch of gladiators on tv. I could go back to my roots and go fishing and start making things that make me happy using my wood lathes that are sitting there in the rain. Gardening and ignoring idiots around me that want me to do stuff for them. I have a world to visit if I want to put forth the effort.

Danzig verten Stars.....naw, idiots. Now if they do more masterchef and hells kitchen with different countries...ok. LOL

Click to expand...

Canadians don't even watch the CFL, at least not in Toronto. We watch the NFL.

Johnny Manziel will probably be here next season apparently.