# Next year's NFL season looks chaotic **URL:** \ **Category:** The Game Room\ **Created:** [January 25, 2010, 10:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/next-years-nfl-season-looks-chaotic/526427 "2010-01-25T22:11:08Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![FoieGrasIsEvil](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foiegrasisevil/32/16638_2.png) [@FoieGrasIsEvil](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FoieGrasIsEvil)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2010, 5:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/next-years-nfl-season-looks-chaotic/526427/41 "2010-01-27T05:25:01Z")
I think parity in the NFL is more of a reality than in most other sports. ---
**Author:** ![Hawkeyeop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/958977/32.png) [@Hawkeyeop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hawkeyeop)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2010, 5:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/next-years-nfl-season-looks-chaotic/526427/42 "2010-01-27T05:54:03Z")
> [@FoieGrasIsEvil](#): > > I think parity in the NFL is more of a reality than in most other sports. Well, it helps when you only play 16 games. Want to look at baseball standings after 16 games? Even so there isn’t really any more parity in football than your average major sport. ---
**Author:** ![VarlosZ](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/d78d45/32.png) [@VarlosZ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VarlosZ)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2010, 7:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/next-years-nfl-season-looks-chaotic/526427/43 "2010-01-27T07:00:00Z")
Depends how you mean. In a given season, there’s a ton of parity because, as \*\*Hawkeye \*\*said, they only play 16 games, so the breaks don’t have that much of a chance to even out. For instance, in '07 the Dolphins weren’t really as bad as their 1-15 record would suggest, and in '08 they weren’t as good as their 11-5 record. The short schedule made their improvement seem bigger than it really was (though it was nonetheless quite large, to be sure). However, as far as individual games go, the NFL exhibits a notable lack of parity, as the better team is much more likely to win the game than in other sports. If the best NFL team is at home, facing the worst team, it might be as much as a 10-1 favorite, which would be unheard of in baseball or hockey. The NBA is actually pretty comparable to the NFL in this respect. ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2010, 2:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/next-years-nfl-season-looks-chaotic/526427/44 "2010-01-27T14:42:24Z")
> [@Omniscient](#): > > Free agent classes are almost entirely defined by players who have completed either their first 4 years of service (UFAs) or 3 years of service (RFAs). With the expiration of the CBA those deadlines jump to 6 years and 5 years respectively. I didn’t know that. Thanks. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/next-years-nfl-season-looks-chaotic/526427.md?page=2)