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Was this the NFL's worst season ever?

Ranger Tom

Ranger Tom

All Pro
This guy seems to think so:

But I can’t defend the current NFL season that is unfolding before us. This has been, in my eyes, the s*****est NFL season in the history of the universe. And I’m not just saying that because my team is lousy (actually, I’ve kind of enjoyed watching them this year; they’ve delivered that uplifting kind of failure that only a young team can provide). I’m talking league-wide.
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In case you've already seen it--yes, the article's a week old. I've been thinking about it, and I think there's a case to be made for this season being worse than any other I can remember for the league as a whole. What do y'all think?
 
Well, some of his points resonate with me:

*One of the two best teams in the NFC (Green Bay or Seattle) could conceivably still miss the playoffs in favor of an NFC South champ with a sub-.500 record.

*The most heartwarming story in all of football this season has been the unexpected good fortune of the Dallas ****ing Cowboys. There is nothing uplifting about Jerry Jones being visibly happy. I ****ing hate the Cowboys and I am only happy when they find themselves repeatedly humiliated on national television.

*The league’s most celebrated rookie (Johnny Manziel) is ****ing terrible.

*Tonight’s Titans/Jaguars game (both teams are 2-12) is emblematic of a Thursday night schedule that went out of its way to be optional viewing. The fact that Phil Simms (“And if you’re the Titans, you’re saying, Hey! My goodness!”) has been there for every last one of them makes the venture only more damnable.

*The best season ever by an individual defensive player has been wasted on a team that deliberately went into the season with Ryan Fitzpatrick as its QB, and then couldn’t even keep him healthy.

*The flags. The ****ing flags. My God, the flags.
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*One of the two best teams in the NFC (Green Bay or Seattle) could conceivably still miss the playoffs in favor of an NFC South champ with a sub-.500 record.
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This is one of those things that really annoys me. Another 7-9 playoff team that only "deserves" to be in the post-season because of the structure of division titles.

I'm starting to wonder if divisions have outlived their purpose. Why have them? Why not just have the AFC and NFC and seed the teams? Make everyone play everyone else in your conference at least once a season?

Think about it: tiebreakers then come down to head-to-head results. The top 6 teams in each conference make the playoffs, which makes for a better post-season product because it is conceivably the true 6 best teams.

The NFC South is an embarrassment to pro football right now. None of those teams have acted like playoff caliber teams all year, and now one gets rewarded by being in a craptastic division. Yeah, only second time it's happened (in FIVE seasons), but I've got a hunch that this will become fairly common with franchise parity beyond the handful of elite teams.
 
  • One of the two best teams in the NFC (Green Bay or Seattle) could conceivably still miss the playoffs in favor of an NFC South champ with a sub-.500 record. [Yep, needs to be fixed.]
  • The most heartwarming story in all of football this season has been the unexpected good fortune of the Dallas F***ing Cowboys. There is nothing uplifting about Jerry Jones being visibly happy. I f***ing hate the Cowboys and I am only happy when they find themselves repeatedly humiliated on national television.[Jerruh's smile smells bad over television.]
  • The league’s best running back missed virtually the entire season because he likes whipping his children in the scrotum with a tree branch.[The less off the field news, the better. Warrior news only!]
  • The entire first month of the season was upstaged by a video of a dude knocking his wife out in an elevator.[See above]
  • The best thing that happened this season was a touchdown catch by a dude on a 5-9 team in a game that his team went on to lose.[Ouch]
  • Tonight’s Titans/Jaguars game (both teams are 2-12) is emblematic of a Thursday night schedule that went out of its way to be optional viewing. The fact that Phil Simms has been there for every last one of them makes the venture only more damnable.[Hey, hey...ho, ho... Thursday Night Football has got to go!]
  • The flags. The ****ing flags. My God, the flags.[Agree, here... too much]
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Worst ever? Nawww. No 0-16 teams, no strike. We've seen a lot of good rookies come into the league this year that will be the foundation of future great football.
 
Double Barrel said:
This is one of those things that really annoys me. Another 7-9 playoff team that only "deserves" to be in the post-season because of the structure of division titles.

I'm starting to wonder if divisions have outlived their purpose. Why have them? Why not just have the AFC and NFC and seed the teams? Make everyone play everyone else in your conference at least once a season?

Think about it: tiebreakers then come down to head-to-head results. The top 6 teams in each conference make the playoffs, which makes for a better post-season product because it is conceivably the true 6 best teams.

The NFC South is an embarrassment to pro football right now. None of those teams have acted like playoff caliber teams all year, and now one gets rewarded by being in a craptastic division. Yeah, only second time it's happened (in FIVE seasons), but I've got a hunch that this will become fairly common with franchise parity beyond the handful of elite teams.
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This does not bother me at all.

It didn't bother me when the Seahawks got in with a 7-9 record and it's not going to bother me if the Falcons or the Panthers make it in.

I like the structure the way it is now, I like the divisions and how everything is evenly set up. I like how the NFC west was a weak division and then a few years later, it was one of the stronger ones. The same will probably happen with the NFC and AFC South.
 
It strikes me that if you are going to get rid of division winners getting in then you need to eliminate divisions entirely...all the way down to scheduling. Something like every team plays 12 conference games and 4 out of conference games - no repeats. It doesn't make sense to have the whole schedule dominated by division considerations and then just chuck them at the end.
 
Double Barrel said:
This is one of those things that really annoys me. Another 7-9 playoff team that only "deserves" to be in the post-season because of the structure of division titles.

I'm starting to wonder if divisions have outlived their purpose. Why have them? Why not just have the AFC and NFC and seed the teams? Make everyone play everyone else in your conference at least once a season?

Think about it: tiebreakers then come down to head-to-head results. The top 6 teams in each conference make the playoffs, which makes for a better post-season product because it is conceivably the true 6 best teams.

The NFC South is an embarrassment to pro football right now. None of those teams have acted like playoff caliber teams all year, and now one gets rewarded by being in a craptastic division. Yeah, only second time it's happened (in FIVE seasons), but I've got a hunch that this will become fairly common with franchise parity beyond the handful of elite teams.
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I'm sorry, but there is no justification for this ridiculous playoff rule. I wouldn't get rid of the divisions, but I'd put in a rule that states that you have to be at least 9-7 with a winning record to enter the playoffs. The post season is supposed to be for winning teams. And the worst part about it is that ****ing awful rule that a division winner gets home field advantage over a wild card just because they won their division even if their record is worse. Best record should always get the home field advantage.
 
There's always something to hate about every season in the NFL. It's been like that forever. No big deal to me if it hits this guy particularly bad. But I can't see, over all the years of the NFL, this season was the worst for the league as a whole. Or even for me as a fan.
 
We can look at prognostications 10, 20 years ago and according to them QBs, or for that matter nobody else, ever gets hurt because they have ruined the game since it has become flag football.

It's crap. Randy White made the Hall as a 247 lb DT. Some around here would call that an undersized LB.

Just a dumbass filing apace.
 
The Pencil Neck said:
I like the structure the way it is now, I like the divisions and how everything is evenly set up. .
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Well, until they start getting expansion happy again. There are going to be 5 team divisions at some point in the future. I personally do not think it is a matter of if, but when. Money money money, mo money for the owners.

And these teams will have half of their schedules devoted to playing division opponents. Kinda' boring, tbh. I'd rather see us play every single team in the AFC instead of playing Jax and Ten twice a year.

Texecutioner said:
I'm sorry, but there is no justification for this ridiculous playoff rule. I wouldn't get rid of the divisions, but I'd put in a rule that states that you have to be at least 9-7 with a winning record to enter the playoffs. The post season is supposed to be for winning teams. And the worst part about it is that ****ing awful rule that a division winner gets home field advantage over a wild card just because they won their division even if their record is worse. Best record should always get the home field advantage.
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The way it is currently set up is that a higher importance is placed on division titles than winning games. I personally find that to be backwards. Winning - the point of the games - should always be placed at the highest priority.

Just wait until the Texans go 11-5 one season but the 12-4 Colts get the title. And then some chump and below-mediocre 7-9 division winner gets in instead of the Texans. I think Texans fans would feel different about it at that point.

JMO, but winning games should be paramount at the pro level.
 
With just 16 games there's really no way you can make the schedule a whole lot different than it is now if you were going to do away with divisions and go top 6 in a conference. Somebody's still going to be playing teams that you aren't.

In DB's example of playing 12 conference and 4 non-conference, there's going to be 3 teams in your conf. that another team in your conference won't play, not to mention the 4 games in the other conf. that a team in your conf. wouldn't play. So other than playing 3 teams from your division twice, it's still pretty much the same unbalance there is now.

It's not like the NBA where every team plays every team multiple times and you seed everyone by best records.

I don't have a problem with the setup now even if a sub. 500 gets in. Outside of an occasional Seattle and NFC South this year, the way they do it now is about the best way you can do it.

And for the record, though it will be twice in the last 5 years that a sub .500 team has gotten in, it's really only twice in 13 years with the set up they have now. And unless there's an expansion of playoff teams, I don't see a sub. 500 playoff team being a common thing.
 
Double Barrel said:
Well, until they start getting expansion happy again. There are going to be 5 team divisions at some point in the future. I personally do not think it is a matter of if, but when. Money money money, mo money for the owners.
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You never know, they may decide to start a development league instead. There's already one outfit trying to make that happen.
 
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