Now that the NFL is somewhere between free agency and the draft on the annual calendar, owners will be gathering for their semi-annual league meetings this week. On the agenda: potential rule changes.
Every year the competition committee and teams themselves propose rules that they would like to see changed. Most of them don’t pass, but occasionally one or two do. This year there are 17 proposed rule changes. It will take 24 of the NFL’s 32 team owners to pass any of them.
While most of this year’s proposals aren’t that unheard of, I don’t think very many will pass, if any at all. The owners are pretty conservative and don’t like to make too many changes to the game, especially big ones.
Chiefs’ division rival put forth a valid proposal
But there is one proposal that has been put forth by the Chiefs‘ division rivals, the Los Angeles Chargers. The proposal calls for re-seeding playoff teams who would otherwise be wildcards but have significantly better records than another team in their conference who won their division.
To be specific, the ‘wild card’ team would need to have at least four more wins than the division winner and that division winner would need to have a losing record (under .500). This doesn’t happen very often, but when it does it’s clearly unfair to the ‘wildcard’ team who is essentially being punished for being in the wrong division.
For example, this scenario played out just last season with the Dallas Cowboys and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. The Bucs won their division with a losing record because the NFC South was dreadful. Their reward? The fourth seed and a home playoff game.
The Dallas Cowboys on the other hand went 12-5, a record that would typically win divisions. But because they happened to be in a division with the eventual conference champion Philadelphia Eagles, they were relegated to having to travel to Tampa Bay and play an inferior opponent.
Now some might say this doesn’t matter. But it actually does. The first time this scenario ever happened was back in the 2010 season when the Seattle Seahawks became the first team ever to win their division with a losing record. In the now infamous ‘Beastquake’ game, the Seahawks shocked the world by defeating the defending champion New Orleans Saints who were an 11-5 wildcard.
Would the outcome have been different if Seattle had needed to travel to New Orleans? Maybe.
I don’t often agree with division rivals, but the Chargers were right to propose this rule change. I’ve thought it should be the rule for years now. My proposal would’ve just required the division winner to have a losing record – but I understand the want to have the ‘wildcard’ team be at least 4 games ahead. It ensures that this rule would be rarely enforced.
The truth is, bad teams shouldn’t be rewarded with a home playoff game just because they happen to play in an even worse division. And good teams shouldn’t be punished by being forced to go on the road against a team that does not deserve a home game just because they happen to have another really good team in their division.
I’m all for rewarding division winners with home games – that should be the norm and stay. But occasionally there is a rare scenario in which an exception to the rule needs to be made. This is one of them.