Super Bowl 2012: Why NFL Is Foolish to Give Teams 2 Weeks Off

The Super Bowl would be best served to ditch the week off, and just jump right into the awesomeness. This approach works for the rest of the playoffs, and the NFL should let it work for the Super Bowl. 

There are many factors that play into them leaving a week off between the conference championship games and the grand season finale. Most of those reasons deal with logistics. People from all around the world travel to the game. This takes a lot of time and preparation. 

However, there is enough time in a week to get this easily accomplished. The other factor at play here is the extra week allows players to rest their aching bodies, but the small gains made by the extra healing time are outweighed by the following factors that detract from the game. 

Rhythm 

Players get into a certain rhythm as the season goes on, and that is built on players having a week in between games. 

While teams will do their best to maintain their edge in practice, there is only so much a team can do to simulate the speed and intensity of a real game. 

This invariably leads to players building up a layer of rust that is only intensified by the bright lights of the world's biggest sports stage. 

Numerous Super Bowls have been marred by sloppy early play as the players get their game form back. This problem would be erased with less time off. It would allow players to keep their rhythm and give them less time to fixate on the enormity of the task at hand. 

Can't Live up to the Hype

This one is all about the fans. Just like the players, two weeks is too long for fans and the media to fixate on the game. 

The media beats all storylines repeatedly and to death. By the time the game arrives everyone is just as eager to have the monotonous pregame coverage come to an end as they are to have the game kick off. There are only so many times you can hear about a player being a saint because he rescued a dog from a shelter before you start to roll your eyes. 

And all of this only serves to create a level of hype and expectations that the game cannot live up to. One week is the perfect amount of time to let the hype hit a peak and then play the game before it builds up unreachable expectations and fans become tired of hearing certain players' names.