Never Freaking Learn

The NFL just doesn't get it, and they don't care. Today I heard the exciting news that the NFL would finally switch the way in which it does overtime. This was exciting. The rules are simple: Team A wins toss, elects offense. If they score a touchdown the game is over, if they kick a field goal then Team B gets a chance at offense. If Team B scores a touchdown, game is over, if they kick a field goal, then we start all over under the previous season sudden death rules (first to score anything wins). Now, there are all sorts of things such as giving up a safety, which renders a loss that I simply do not care to discuss I'll explain why.

This isn't something you'll see in week one, week two, or week seventeen. It's something you'll see only in the playoffs, that is, if any playoff game goes into overtime. Now, most people have rationalized this and stated "oh! Well those are the games that matter most, that's where it should be implemented". No. That's fucking stupid. The NHL doesn't go from normal OT rules in the regular season to the 4 on 4 / shootout system in the playoffs, so what the hell is the NFL thinking?

The league has a proposed system in which teams vie for playoff spots for 17 weeks by having overly controlled Tiger Woods-esque game plans derived by psychotic obsessive-compulsive coaches, so to suddenly change the rules in which you're playing is entirely dumb. Period! Now, I like this overtime plan, don't get me wrong, but the NFL has to either propose it, first, for the regular season games and not playoffs (which in my opinion would also be dumb, but would be far more sensical than this plan) or adopt it entirely for every single game. To me, that's what should be done. But no, it's the NFL. The league that can be described as one thing: boring. You can sit there and pretend you get excited by it, but you don't. You fall asleep watching it on your couch on Sunday afternoons so you can relax before Monday starts all over again. Every time you think you see something exciting, the ref throws the flag and puts you back in your seat. That's all that is being done here.

If the NFL was ballsy enough, they'd just adopt the proven system used in college football and be done with it. This isn't going to happen in the league where Joe Buck (the guy who can't even make game winning drives in the freaking Super Bowl against undefeated teams exciting) is the premier announcer.

You don't change the rules of the game when you get to a new stage of the season. And before someone comments about the NHL doing so, I will remind you this: the rules are the same as the regulation for 82 games, plus the regulation periods of playoff hockey, so there isn't any new rules in place in playoff hockey at all, only in regular season overtime. They continue the manner in which they just played for 3 separate 20 minute periods until somebody scores.

So in typical NFL fashion, I got all excited thinking they did something "edgy", "progressive", or for the betterment of the game, only to find out that I'll have to wait (which is boring) and it'll wind up causing more controversy over some conservative decision that some coach will inevitably make during the next post season. Nice try guys, but you still don't get it. And judging your bank accounts, why would you care?