What Happened To NFL Parity?

Senior Writer Written on October 28, 2009

By Derek Lofland.

I thought the NFL was supposed to be all about parity, where any team could raise from the pits to contend for the title.

There are always 12 playoff-caliber teams, then about 10 teams that are very close, eight teams that are bad, (but can be good any given Sunday) and two teams that are a free win for the rest of the league each week.

This year the Cleveland Browns, Detroit Lions, Kansas City Chiefs, Oakland Raiders, Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Tennessee Titans are so bad that it defies logic. Almost all of them are free wins and every one of them would be a slam dunk worst team in other seasons. Any NFL team should feel like they have a bye and can beat these teams with third string players most weeks.

In 2008, there were just two teams that were outscored by 200 points (12.5 points per game) on the season: the 0-16 Detroit Lions (-249) and the St Louis Rams (-233). The Cincinnati Bengals had the third-worst point differential at -160 or -10 points per game.

In 2007, the 3-13 St Louis Rams had the worst point differential (-175), in 2006 it was the Oakland Raiders (-164), in 2005 it was the San Francisco 49ers (-189) and in 2004 it was the San Francisco 49ers (-193).

Full article >>>

(0)

0 Comments

There are no comments yet. Get the conversation started by leaving the first comment

Loading more comments...

posted just now

Loading...
Nobody has liked this comment yet

Cancel

This comment and all replies have been deleted This comment has been deleted Undo delete

<form action="/accounts/create_from_facebook_comment" class="new_facebook_user" id="new_facebook_user" method="post">	<input id="facebook_user_facebook_id" name="facebook_user[facebook_id]" type="hidden" />
	<input id="facebook_user_proxied_email" name="facebook_user[proxied_email]" type="hidden" />
	<input id="facebook_user_profile_pic" name="facebook_user[profile_pic]" type="hidden" />
	<input id="facebook_user_profile_url" name="facebook_user[profile_url]" type="hidden" />
	<ul>
		<div id="facebook_questions">
			<li class="fb-question" id="facebook_full_name_container">
				<p class="question">
					<label for="facebook_user_use_full_name">Use your full name <strong class="full_name"></strong> on Bleacher Report?</label>
					<br />
				</p>
				<p class="options">
					<input name="facebook_user[use_full_name]" type="hidden" value="0" /><input checked="checked" id="facebook_user_use_full_name" name="facebook_user[use_full_name]" type="checkbox" value="1" />
					<label for="facebook_user_use_full_name">Yes</label>
				</p>
				<div class="input full-name-edit" style="display:none">
					<p>Edit your name for Bleacher Report:</p>
					<div class="fb-first-name">
						<label for="facebook_user_first_name">First Name <em>(required)</em></label>
						<input class="signup_text_input" id="facebook_user_first_name" name="facebook_user[first_name]" size="30" type="text" />
						
					</div>
	
					<div class="fb-last-name">
						<label for="facebook_user_last_name">Last Name <em>(required)</em></label>
						<input class="signup_text_input" id="facebook_user_last_name" name="facebook_user[last_name]" size="30" type="text" />
						
					</div>
				</div>
			</li>
			<li class="fb-question">
				<p class="question">
					<img src="/images/default-user-icon-medium.png" class="profile_pic" />
					<label for="facebook_user_use_profile_pic">Do you want to use your Facebook profile picture on Bleacher Report?</label>
				</p>
				<p class="options">
					<input name="facebook_user[use_profile_pic]" type="hidden" value="0" /><input checked="checked" id="facebook_user_use_profile_pic" name="facebook_user[use_profile_pic]" type="checkbox" value="1" />
					<label for="facebook_user_use_profile_pic">Yes</label>
					
				</p>
			</li>
			<li>
				<a id="facebook_connect_submit"><img src="/images/shared/submit.png" /></a>
			</li>
		</div>
	</ul>
</form>

31
reads

0
comments

0
likes

written on October 28, 2009 Opinion