Monday, November 2, 2009

Problems With Parity

Have you looked at the 2009 NFL standings yet? If you’re having a rough day and need a good laugh, take a look at the records of the bottom feeders in the NFL this season. http://espn.go.com/nfl/standings WAIT, WAIT, WAIT! You don’t live in Tampa Bay, do you? Detroit? St. Louis? What about Cleveland? Kansas City? Nashville? Well, if you do happen to call one of the aforementioned cities ‘home’, then you probably don’t need to look at the standings for one of two reasons. One, you won’t find the standings quite as humorous as someone in Indianapolis or New Orleans. Two, if you live in one of the cities listed above, you already KNOW your team’s record and you don’t need The Tundra to remind you again. The Bucs, Lions, Rams, Chiefs, Browns and Titans have a COMBINED FIVE WINS so far this season. Six teams. Five wins. If you think that is bad, consider this; there are eleven teams in the NFL right now that have five wins on their own. The NFL prides itself as a league with great ‘parity’. Could someone please e-mail me when and if they find ‘parity’ in the league this season?

While the bad teams continue to drop lower in their divisions, the great teams continue to steamroll towards division titles, home field advantage, first round byes and the Superbowl. Unfortunately, many of the bad teams this season had similar records last season. No fan of the NFL will soon forget what the Detroit Lions did in 2008. Sixteen games. Sixteen losses. The St. Louis Rams just won their first game in over a year against…wait for it…that’s right, the Detroit Lions! The Rams, Chiefs, Lions and Browns had a combined record of 8-56 last season. Now, here we sit about halfway through the 2009 season and those same four teams have won a total of four games. Even if you’re like me and are not so great at math, you can figure out where those teams are headed this season. If you’re having trouble dealing with your teams’ futility right now, remember, “There’s always next year”.


I’m sure the players, coaches, owners and fans of the NFL's lowliest teams this season are anxiously awaiting the end of this season, in an attempt to regroup and reformulate the game plan for 2010. With slow labor negotiations, however, commissioner Roger Godell seems to think that next season, the NFL may not have a salary cap. That sort of darkens the light at the end of the tunnel, eh? How much wider will the gap become between the Lords and the Peasants in the NFL next year? One thing is for sure; due to their claim of having ‘parity’, the NFL has now become a 'parody' of itself.

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