Maybe the bye week has gone to my head but is anyone else finding the NFL completely unenjoyable these first few weeks (outside of the Patriots’ games of course)?
Last night’s debacle by the refs is just the cherry on top of what has been a gross start to the NFL season. Big name players getting hurt, teams that were traditionally good are sucking, the new PAT rule is totally in the kickers’ heads and just generally the product on the field has been overwhelming dog shit.
Add in the constant appearances of DraftKings and FanDuel everywhere you look or watch, and now they’re under investigation just four weeks into the season. I don’t know what’s going on but it feels like the NFL is starting to collapse under the weight of their own arrogance and mismanagement.
I’d like to think it all relates to Deflategate. That that controversy was the straw that broke the NFL’s back and now seemingly every team that came out against the Pats or for the NFL is having a run of bad luck, including the overall NFL itself. Despite a ton of weird coincidences, even I can’t truly believe that.
But this is the course the NFL set and really it started in 2004 when every rule change began to be aimed at helping the offense and scoring. This also fed into the fantasy football explosion, but as the years have passed and college football has produced fewer and fewer quarterbacks who are ready for the pro game, the league has become about one thing – having a great QB and really nothing else matters.
We can even look at the 2010 Patriots as an example. They had one of the worst defenses in league if not for all the interceptions they grabbed and they still ended up going 14-2. Think about that, the crappy quarterbacks they faced essentially handed the games to them because they couldn’t stop themselves from turning the ball over.
Now the Patriots travel to Dallas this weekend and while I’m always excited for any Patriots game, this one looks a million times more of a mismatch than we ever thought it would be.
As recently as last year, a Lions-Seahawks games on MNF would have been a well-anticipated matchup. Instead it was largely unwatchable, especially when Detroit had the ball, and then it ended with a great defensive play getting overshadowed by a blown call that decided the game.
I obviously am not a fan of the NFL management and what they’ve done to the game, but it was always something we just went along with because the product on the field was competitive enough across the league that it was enjoyable.
But now it seems like something has changed. Maybe it’s karma coming around, and not just because of Deflategate, but because of all of the NFL’s duplicity over the years when it came to concussions, domestic violence and its heavy-handed punishments that were consistently tone deaf and only made worse when the NFL had the chance to correct them.
What I do know is that if this course around the league continues and the Patriots stay healthy it’s unlikely any team is going to stop them on the way to San Francisco. They might have a hiccup or two in the coming weeks, but in a weird down year like this, it’s hard not to think it’s just setting the table for another Lombardi run.
At least the Super Bowl will probably be good, assuming it’s the Patriots and either Green Bay or Seattle. Otherwise it will be a snoozer.