Most recent NFL playoff expansion feels wrong
Nothing is special anymore.
Brace yourselves I’m on a rant. I don’t like participation trophies. There’s no place for them in professional sports and yet, the NFL has found a way to cheapen it’s most difficult right.
NFL owners approved the expansion of the playoffs this week from 12 teams to 14 teams. In layman’s terms that means the NFL will make more money and four more mediocre teams will get an extra game.
Both conferences will now have three wild card teams. Only the number one seed will get a bye week to start the postseason. The seven seed will play the two seed. The three seed faces the six seed and the fourth seed hosts the fifth seed.
Feels cheap.
I’ve always felt the 12-team format was the perfect balance. No consumer or financial beneficiary is against more football. But in a 32-team league are we starting to push the outer ranks of the teams that deserve the right to battle for a Super Bowl?
Everyone loves upsets. Let me rephrase that. Everyone loves upsets until two 7-9 teams are playing in the Super Bowl. Making the playoffs should mean a team had to earn their way into the fray at the end of the season.
When 45 percent of the league makes the playoffs it just doesn’t feel the same. After 16 games, 17 in 2021, you’d think teams would have told us all we need to know about them. The playoffs should be about skill. The more teams you add the more it becomes about luck.
