How should the NFL handle the missed games?

In My Humble Opinion
21

The National Automobile Dealers Association, booked in New Orleans for the week after the Super Bowl, has declined the NFL’s request to trade dates. Simply moving the Super Bowl back one week and keeping it in New Orleans does not seem to be an option now.

I was about to summarize the other available choices that they’re considering, but on preview it seems that ShibbOleth has covered that quite nicely. An article explaining some of the reasoning is available here.

22

When I originally proposed the common-sense thing, i.e., move the schedule back one week, I had no idea that the Super Bowl date was carved in stone. Sorry if I sounded insensitive or anything.

Sheesh, if missing a week could cause this much trouble, they should’ve never skipped a week to begin with. Sigh…well, they did, so let’s take a look at what we got.

  1. Again, the Super Bowl date cannot be moved no matter what.
  2. Cancelling wild card games isn’t an option because of the lost revenue.
  3. Cancelling a week of the regular season isn’t an option for the same reason.
  4. Unless the league is willing to add four more playoff teams, the playoffs are still going to be four rounds.
  5. There’s no bye week before the Super Bowl this season.

Okay…here’s my solution:

Hold the wild card playoffs on the Wednesday or Thursday night prior to the divisional playoffs.

Yes, it’ll force a few teams to play three games in the span of eight days. Your point? In case you haven’t noticed, we don’t have any easy solutions right now; at least mine meets all of the league’s requirements. Besides, this will actually increase the importance of winning the division and getting that all-important first round bye, which should make for an exciting regular season.

23

Pssst…DKW…that’s pretty much what lno had proposed and what the NFL itself is looking into as option [3] which I outlined above. I also stated my belief that they will lean this way. But thanks for the support.

24

Just got this e-mail from Dan Pompeii of The Sporting News:

Note: emphasis is mine.

For the full text, check here.

25

I heard on the radio that they were going to condense the Championship games into one double-header in New Orleans to make up for lost revinue, and then host the Super Bowl somewhere else. I dunno though, I haven’t heard anything else.

26

Shirley’s Easy Solution:

  1. Give Detroit the Win for the game missed. ( They aren’t going to be contenders anyways. )

  2. To make up for the game that was missed - this is key here people - just have the specialty team play for one quarter punting the ball between the goal posts. No QB, no running plays. Just snap, kick, It’s Good! Run down to the other end of the feild: snap, kick, It’s Good! Whomever has the most feild goals at the end of the quarter wins.

All the games come down to punting anyways, so make these little accounting majors who kick like Rockettes actually have a reason to wash their jersy after a game.

Naturally, since this makes the most sense, it will be disregarded.

27

Okay, IF, and it’s a big if, they decide to move the Super Bowl out of New Orleans to accomodate playing the follwing week, here is the short list of cities that could do it:
[li]Los Angeles[/li][li]Miami[/li]Tampa

28

Des Moines.

C’mon, you know you want to see the Super Bowl there.

29

You know, they looked at Des Moines, but it turns out that both the Holiday Inn and the Motel 6 are booked up that weekend. Sorry, lno.

30

But there’s all that parking available! Early February, no crops to worry about, lot of flat ground … at ten bucks a car, those farmers will make out like bandits.

See, the NFL just doesn’t think these things through nearly enough.

31

Hmmm… early February… Des Moines… I think the chi-chi Super Bowl crowd would freeze to death. It would make for a great Packers v Colts Super Bowl, with Taylor blocking for Hornung with Unitas on the other side. And think of the cheesehead tailgating opportunities. Then you could just have motorhomes and ice fishing huts, no hotels required. Genius as always, my dear lno, pure genius!

32

Which game would that be? :confused:

Here’s how it will work out, in order of probability:

  1. Wildcards get reduced from 6 to 2. The Superbowl is held the same weekend as originally planned.

  2. They “pay off” NADA and have the Superbowl the week after it’s scheduled (Feb. 3). One potential problem here that no one has brought up, is what happens if they flip with NADA and the Saints have a home playoff game on Jan. 27?

The potential loss to the NFL is around 50-60 million. Rumors say they offered NADA $10 million already.

  1. [This is the worst option, by far, IMO] Play the Superbowl in Miami on Feb. 3. To make it up to New Orleans, they get both conference championships on the prior weekend. This is such a bad idea on numerous fronts. For one, the home field advantage is gone. Second, they’ll be scrambling to get things in order in Miami on time, especially with the need for enhanced security.

Personally, I have no problem with option #1. The #5 and #6 seeds rarely make an impact in the playoffs anyway (never made the superbowl, BTW). Yes, it means that one of Baltimore, Tennessee, Denver, Oakland won’t make the playoffs. Win the damn games then!

33

You may have something there lno, I believe that in Iowa, if you build it, they will come.

Wait a minute, thats baseball.

Nevermind.

34

People will come, Ino. People will most definitely come.

35

Looks like they are getting close to a final decision here:

So it seems almost a done deal that the Super Bowl will be moved back a week in New Orleans. Most of the pundits were wrong, and it looks as if TexasSpur was on the money.

36

Oh, and sorry Des Moines! Always a bridesmaid, never a bride… :frowning: