In an effort to address the issue of integrity at the end of the season, with playoff-bound teams often resting their best players, Commissioner Roger Goodell recently announced that the NFL has moved to a schedule format that will feature mostly divisional matchups during the last few weeks of the season. Though this doesn’t guarantee that the best players will play the final weeks of the season, it is a wise move that should help. While playoff teams may be willing to be less than competitive against a team out of their division or conference, the philosophy is that it will be hard to do the same with division rivalries. Goodell cannot force prominent players to play the final weeks of the season, but this is still a progressive step in the right direction.

As an opponent to the changes to the NFL made to the postseason overtime rules, I think this change is a sign of good faith for ticketholders. Though I don’t really have a problem with a playoff-bound team resting their players, there are plenty who do. This should help to sell NFL tickets and could even increase attendance in the final weeks of the season. If the decision helps in this regard, it’s hard to argue that it’s a negative addition to the scheduling format.

However, for those hoping that this will instantly change the last weeks of the season and that the top-seeded teams will start playing their top players, the change shouldn’t get your hopes up. One thing that is clear in the NFL is that you have to remain healthy at key positions and as a whole to have a chance at winning the Super Bowl, which should always be a team’s ultimate goal. The move doesn’t attempt to force players onto the field but does provide some potential motivation that should in turn allow us to Cialis see more star players during the final weeks of the season. If anything, fantasy football players may just be the biggest winners.

A big picture overview should also remind us why the NFL continues to be the dominant sport in the United States. While Major League Baseball and even to some extent the NBA are slow to improve their game, even when there are obvious flaws that need updating, the NFL continues to prove capable of evolving from year to year. Though I didn’t believe there was anything wrong with the original sudden-death overtime format for the playoffs, it’s hard to argue with the changes that were made; the NFL managed to find a solid compromise between the college overtime that many fans want and the sudden-death format. With such a record of improving the game in the offseason, fans should be confident that they will soon take a look at the current state of rookie contracts in the NFL, which has made some teams ambivalent about obtaining high draft positions.

The NFL has consistently done well at updating their rules and regulations without doing anything too dramatic, and the same could be said of the changes to the scheduling. For those who have no problem with players resting in the final weeks of the season to prepare for a playoff run, this doesn’t take away the possibility that the best teams can still do exactly that. At the same time, those who felt it was a travesty that Peyton Manning didn’t play Brand Levitra the entire game in the final week of the 2009 season have to be happy that the NFL has at least made an effort to address the situation. It’s the willingness to evolve with changing demands that has helped to keep the NFL head and shoulders above the other professional sports around.

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Category: Recreation and Leisure/Sports/Football
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