Godell pushing for division games last 2 weeks to teams from resting

[Dpantherman]

Posted by Michael David Smith on March 24, 2010 11:27 AM ET

NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell has consistently stated that he's troubled by late-season games in which teams that have already clinched a playoff seed decide to rest their top players rather than play to win.

As a result, Goodell said today at the annual league meetings, he's hoping to arrange the schedule so that the last two weeks of the season are heavy on games featuring divisional opponents playing each other.

"It is still an issue and I spoke to the Competition Committee about it on Sunday," Goodell said. "One of the key things we're doing in the short term is in our scheduling. We're trying to schedule, potentially, Week Seventeen will be all division opponents. And maybe even a large part of Week Sixteen.

"So we think that will address this to some extent. It will not necessarily eliminate the issue but the Competition Committee -- and I've stressed to them -- we need to continue to look at this because it's important to the quality of what we do, the integrity of our game."

Goodell is right that this proposal wouldn't eliminate the problem of Week Seventeen becoming irrelevant to most teams. Re-arranging the Colts' schedule, for instance, wouldn't have done anything to change the fact that they benched Peyton Manning during Week 16 and sacrificed the chance at a perfect season.

But it's a step in the right direction. A final Sunday in which all 32 teams are playing divisional opponents sounds like a more exciting day of football than the NFL has given its fans in Week Seventeen the last few years.

http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2010/03/24/weeks-16-17-could-feature-division-games-only/

[bigdog10]

love the idea

[Urrymonster]

Solid idea. About the only thing you can do.

[jakesthemistake]

They need to make football season longer, why not they will make more money. You would think anyways..

[CanadianCat]

yup i like it

[cookinbrak]

The Saints rested their starters for about half a game against us last year. If a team has a chance to rest players, let them.

Edit- last season, in the final week, 6 of 16 games were divisional games that affected nothing. BUT, 3 of the remaining games had so much playoff implication that the same teams met the following week in the playoffs.

[theyhateme45]

I love the idea... Say what you want about Godell but the man is not just accepting things for how they have been, when he sees an issue he tries to find a fix. I may not always agree, but I appreciate what he's doing. Love it.

They need to make football season longer, why not they will make more money. You would think anyways..

I believe that is going to be a hard sell to the players.... More games equal an even greater amount of physical toll on players, and higher risk of injury.

They were all ready concerned about player safety with new overtimes rules...

[PowerlessDan]

And give the Lions and Raiders a Bye that week.

[theyhateme45]

The Saints rested their starters for about half a game against us last year. If a team has a chance to rest players, let them.

Edit- last season, in the final week, 6 of 16 games were divisional games that affected nothing. BUT, 3 of the remaining games had so much playoff implication that the same teams met the following week in the playoffs.

This is not a perfect solution that is going to fix everything, but changing the schedule will give the games a better chance of having meaning...

In a close divisional race the divisional tie breakers probably would not be decided going into week 16 and 17. Meaning teams playing in their division would probably still be jockeying for position. It would also probably take longer to clinch the division because the teams would have multiple divisional games left to play...

[3 > 17]

I thought this was already being done the last several years at least for week 17

'04 - wk 17 opp - TB*

'05 - wk 17 opp - Atl

'06 - wk 17 opp - NO*

'07 - wk 17 opp - TB

'08 - wk 17 opp - NO

'09 - wk 17 opp - NO

* - we had divisional opponents for week 16 these seasons as well

[Swarly]

They need to make football season longer, why not they will make more money. You would think anyways..

because it would destroy the players

16 game season is perfect.

[Ricky Spanish]

i like it better than the proposed longer season. smart idea that won't necessarily injure more players in the process.

[skarbar001]

If they do a longer season they need to bump up the roster # and the amount of game day active players.

[thunderraiden]

I thought this was already being done the last several years at least for week 17

'04 - wk 17 opp - TB*

'05 - wk 17 opp - Atl

'06 - wk 17 opp - NO*

'07 - wk 17 opp - TB

'08 - wk 17 opp - NO

'09 - wk 17 opp - NO

* - we had divisional opponents for week 16 these seasons as well

its no secret it has been largely already done, but this is to streamline it moreso so that ALL teams get this treatment AND week 16 as well.