New NFL Playoff System: One More Week for More Entertainment Value!!

It’s been a painful day today, watching the Seattle Seahawks take an absolute beating at the hands of the Chicago Bears…a sharp contrast to the entertaining game they posted in Seattle against the New Orleans Saints just a week ago.

It should not be that way!  This is the playoffs for crying out loud!!  This is what we make all the sacrifices for (giving up golf, hunting, fishing, the honey-do lists, wandering the hardware store, etc)!!!

And that’s the point of today’s article…improving the ENTERTAINMENT.  Divisional playoff games should be entertaining!  With all the time that we invest watching NFL football (and, I also watch college ball too), we as fans deserve it as a, well…a “Return-On-Investment” for the time we spend laboring all season long in our recliners.

How else can I convince the "Admiral of the House” that it is time very well spent?!

After all, many of us work very hard, applying absolute genius to our game, trying to convert our “significant others” to slap the jersey on and watch the game.   The playoffs are the time when we press our case the most.  Many of us get our partners to actually sit down, after we convince those cherished-cooks to prepare another “butt-ton” of food for the game table and having been expertly coaxed into a normally unfounded “rah-rah” football mode. All this with the hopes that the game will be a historical battle of the beasts containing back-and-forth scoring all game long—a game that is settled with an OT field goal!  A game in which she can feel the testosterone flowing like Niagara Falls…oh, heck yeah!!

But, alas…

What we end up with is a 7-9 team, trekking across two time-zones, a team that last won a playoff game on the road in the 80’s, taking on the NFC’s No. 2 seed…we end up with a real snorer (until the last few minutes). 

My wife took a nap after the Bears scored their third touchdown in a row (the Seahawks had not even registered a first down yet). 

Who could blame her?!

It was just a week ago that you could not peel Seahawk fans from the ceiling. And all week long the upstarts from the Pac NW were staying cool, calm and collected, with Pete Carroll having sold his POS-MO to the entire Emerald city.  Fans were calling sports-talk shows saying that the team was back and ready to make a run.  Experts began to realign their thinking, giving the 'Hawks a chance if they performed perfectly.

And then, they played the game…

35-24 it was, but it was not that close (21-0 at half!!).  Da Bears de-winged the helpless, rag-tag youngsters while simultaneously embarrassing Seattle’s veterans.  A disappointing, low entertainment game (except if you were a Bears fan!) disguised as a divisional playoff game.

Then, in an effort to salvage something meaningful from the first three boring hours of football, the wonder began to set in…

Hum…maybe that’s why so many fans (mainly the Tampa Bay Buccaneer and New York Giant fans) argued that a 7-9 division winner has no business in the playoffs!!

Granted, Seattle had pulled off a historical upset of the defending Super Bowl champions the week prior, a very entertaining, down-to-the-wire show.   But, as so many argued last week, it was the New Orleans defense that lost that game—the 7 and 9'ers did not win it. 

So what were we, the rest of “Football Nation,” left with?

A game that sets a new low for entertainment value (not to mention TV ratings!).

Now, we can just ignore this game, or we as fans might be left with a decision to push to the Commish.

Is it time to change the rules and take ONLY the top teams in each conference? 

Or, could there be a compromise?

Could we shave a week off the number of regular season games to 15 and add four more teams to the playoff mix, thus extending the most important time of the year by adding yet another playoff-partying, food-munching, recliner-chairing football weekend?

And, for those traditionally-minded fans, we could still keep the divisional winners. 

Let’s THINK BIG. Instead of 18 games per regular season, like some are suggesting for 2011 (a plan that many players are saying will not happen), let’s drop one preseason game, keep the season at 16 games and push for a newly developed "el grande entertainment" playoff package!!

Who’s with me?!!!

Whaddaya mean we need a CBA first?