Topic: Official 2010 NFL Football Season Discussion Thread

[MaryJane]

Americans are too self-centered to really enjoy soccer. We didn' invent it, and we can't destroy the rest of the world at it like we can with baseball and basketball. That's also the reason hockey isn't bigger than it is.

In theory fans want more games because it means more football, but once you explain the reality of more injuries any reasonable person (who isn't making billions off the game) would back away from 18 games. If I were the NFLPA I would just make a new league. The owners don't always own the stadiums the teams play in, and without the NFL, the stadiums would be open to rent on Sundays. The league could be set up so that all revenue is divided amongst the players by position, stats, and starters vs. bench players. Anyway, I hope this thing resolves itself one way or the other.

[TJ Spyke]

The players couldn't start their own league as almost all of the players are under contract. Not to mention they would not be able to afford it. They would need to buy uniforms and equipment, try to get deals for stadiums to play in (even when the team doesn't own the stadium, they often have contracts that give them some say over it), try and get TV deals (which they probably would not be able to get ESPN, NBC, FOX, or CBS), have money for themselves and other players, try and recruit other players, etc. Suffice it to say, the NFLPA couldn't set up their own league even if they wanted to.

I think their should be a salary cap per player as well, something like QB's can make no more than $10 million a year. Regardless of what happens, I agree with MJ and hope it gets resolved one way or another.

Soccer is boring most of the time, that is why I think many Americans don't like it. Hockey is fun to watch in person, not so much on TV.

[Ian Sane]

If I were the NFLPA I would just make a new league. The owners don't always own the stadiums the teams play in, and without the NFL, the stadiums would be open to rent on Sundays. The league could be set up so that all revenue is divided amongst the players by position, stats, and starters vs. bench players.

That is pipe dream.  Even though they're a union the NFLPA doesn't want to divide revenue by position and stats and stuff.  Professional athletes like being able to negotiate their own salary.  It allows some huge underachievers to get rich by taking advantage of a dumb GM.
 
I think there is also a certain balancing act between what the fans like.  The fans aren't really fans of specific players but fans of the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Dallas Cowboys.  Players come and go while fans will stick with their team.  You create a new team in Chicago, it doesn't really matter because it's not DA BEARS.  There is a history behind all of the teams (well most of them anyway).  There also is some prestige in being the champions of the NFL, the top football league in the world since 1920.  But the other part of the balance is that the NFL needs to attract the absolute best players.  A Superbowl winning team of replacement players wouldn't mean squat either.  I think we want both the prestige of the league and its franchises and the top players in the world.
 
Regarding soccer, I find the biggest obstacle is that it feels very European.  This isn't a xenophobic thing, it's just a cultural thing.  You visit Europe and everything seems off.  It's not necessarily wrong it just does not feel right.  Canada and America are both similar enough that the differences between the cultures are like fun quirks.  As a result all sorts of little things about soccer feel wrong.  The tolerance of flopping is of course a big issue but there are also little things like how the clock counts up instead of down.  The clock never stops, even when someone is injured and then the ref calls for some amount of extra time to make up for it.  That whole loosey goosey set up just does not roll in the US and Canada.  Our culture demands a bit more structure.  The clock rolls in football but there are very specific rules about when it goes and when it stops.  The immediate question is "what if the ref just made up whatever BS he wanted?"  No such question in the big four American sports leagues.  In soccer someone scores with their hands and if the ref misses it, too bad.  Compare that to in hockey where any questionable goal is reviewed and the NFL has had replay for years.  They also decide championships based on shootouts.  This does not fly in America.  The NHL is the only league with a shootout and it is only in the regular season.
 
The whole league culture is just generally different too.  In soccer there all sorts of tournaments and domestic leagues and such.  In North America you are either the champions or you are losers.  That is just how it goes.  Also in soccer they use leagues that use promotion and relegation.  That is too different from here where the league's teams are fixed and drafts are used to distribute the new players.  I think for soccer to be popular in the US and Canada it would need to change many small details and it certainly could not adhere to FIFA's rules (all our leagues use their own rules).  It also would need to attract the BEST talent in the world, like our other leagues do, and MLS is not even close to that yet.

[NWR_insanolord]

I became a pretty big soccer fan because of last year's World Cup (and, as an aside, am hugely excited for the start of the MLS season tomorrow night. GO SOUNDERS!), but thinking America would start paying attention to soccer because of the loss of football is crazy. Even if we lost the whole season, as well as the whole NBA season (there's a chance of a lockout there as well next year), America would go for hockey a lot quicker than soccer simply because the NHL is the highest level of competition. Also, it's somewhat hard to follow the EPL in America. I tried to this year, but I can't find a reliable way to watch most games besides the handful on ESPN3 and FSC. You'd also have to ignore college football and basketball, which could never face something like this.

[MaryJane]

A player controlled league could happen, and it would start by the players retiring. Just like a team can cut a player at any time, a player can leave at any time by retiring. It would also take the millionaire superstar players to invest in the league, and risk alienating fans with 32 new teams.

With the state of things, how hard pressed would fans be to make the jump to the new league? The NFL and the PFL (PlayersFL) would fight over college players, and if the PFL won over incoming rookies where would that leave the NFL? Sure for the first seasons the PFL would have to rent college stadiums, and arenas but it would boil down to do you want to see good football, or do you want to see the D league Pittsburg Steelers? There are a lot of football players out there in the European NFL, arena football and the CFL, but the reason there in those leagues is because they can't make the NFL, and for me it's the level of competition that makes it exciting. College football is a little more exciting live (imho) than the NFL, but the excitement comes from the students who have no disillusions about being part of the team, and that doesn't translate to T.V. I garuntee you that ESPN would show PFL games, they show arena, and the other two leagues when they do something spectacular, and a PFL would have tons of highlights.

Of course, this is just a pipe dream, but it could work. It would maybe need some outside investors to get started and who would become the 'league' setting rules, validating contracts, dividing revenue, and taking some for themselves as well, but maybe there are enough crazy billionaires like Mark Cuban to do something like that. If I was Mark Cuban I would be calling every other billionaire that's ever tried to own an NFL team, and offer the NFL players a new league with revenue sharing on a slightly higher scale than what the NFL has, in that it would include the players.

And I disagree with a salary cap. Players should get the money they earn the team because the team wouldn't earn it without them.

[RagnaBlade]

I don't know how I would live if there wasn't any football! I really hope that this all gets resolved.