Boutte

When I was young the NFL was the Greatest Show on Earth and we used to walk to school barefoot through the snow.

Well the first part of that sentence is true. And yeah I'm an old fart. But the game we're watching today is a poor imitation of what it was in 60's and 70's. It started when free agency was introduced in the early 80's. I understand that it had to happen. For the first time the players began to control their own careers, it was only fair. Before you know it the idea of parity began to take hold and there's a lot of positives to the idea that any team no matter how bad could turn it around quickly by signing the best players away from the more powerful teams.

The big draw back to that is that there are no great teams anymore. Yeah there are franchises who are great in that they manage to put a superior product on the field year after year but the teams themselves aren't great. If you never got to see the Lombardi Packers, Knoll's Steelers or Shula's Dolphin I'm sure it's hard for you really agree with what I'm saying. I think probably the last great team was the Cowboys team that featured Aikman and Emmit Smith. Parity has led to mediocrity.

As if that isn't bad enough the NFL has decided that what we want to see is run away scoring and unstoppable offense. Defense has become a dirty word. Even mediocre QBs are throwing for 35-40k on a regular basis. The rules have turned every defense in the League into the Washington Generals. A good hit is just as likely to draw a 15 yard penalty as a high five and heaven forbid a DB should break up a pass with by thumping a WR. (Oddly enough RBs are still fair game)

It's barely even football any more.

saintsfan1976

And cars aren't what they were and the country isn't what it was and foreign competition isn't what it wasn't...

Sports are so big now that they are included in the public microscope of judgement. How does the saying go - 'adapt or die'?

Boutte

Cars are better, phones are better, TV is better, women stay hotter longer.

The NFL isn't as good as it used to be. (Ask Dick Butkus).

st thomas

hey boutte.after reading your ever so truthful post. I have to believe i am not the olddest fart on here. I always told myself that they brought on free agency was to keep the franchizes from cheating there way to championships. And to bring up one team i dispized all my years was san fransico. And eddie the mob boss debartillo. Remember them years and the beatings we took. Just took me back to those lean years. Thanks boutte.

Boutte

"They" (NFL) didn't really buy into it. The were dragged kicking and screaming the whole way. Oddly enough our own Bobby Hebert was the first player to win his case against the NFL which allowed him to become a free agent. He and a couple of player strikes finally forced the NFL owners to recognize that the times were indeed a changing. Being the smart group that they are they took the ball and ran with it. They may be greedy SOBs but they're smart ones.

jeanpierre

The NFL got one thing right - they have a salary cap that has some substance to it...

...And credit the owner in the biggest market for seeing the bigger picture and greater good, Mr. Wellington Mara...

If more business and government were run that way, even sometimes, the country would be a much better place...

SloMotion

You're right, it's a far different NFL today ... Bud Grant's Vikings, those two upstart, AFL QBs (Len Dawson/Joe Namath) having the audacity to win SuperBowls, Madden's Raiders, Landry's Cowboys ... those were teams, that's when the league commanded some respect. Sometimes when I watch the prima-donnas of today's game celebrating a score, a sack, a tackle, a good play, I find myself speculating if they would have been able to handle the day-to-day life of the NFL in the '60s & '70s or even the '80s. Probably not.

If it weren't for the NHL being on strike, I would have checked out of this NFL season back in October or so. It's almost getting to be Arena Football, for crissake.

saintsfan1976

From your perspective, yes.

Boutte

Of course. And it's all just my personal opinion. I'm sure there are people out there who've watching football for just long as I have who like the game better today. I'm not going to tell them or anyone else they're wrong. It's a matter of taste.

Vrillon82

Since the Salary Cap came in, we saw alot more parity, Falcons, Saints, Bucs, Panthers, Cardinals, Seahawks, and few more teams went to the SB that was thought to never ever make it to that stage.

If things stayed the same, none of those teams would of gotten there.

But it has also created controversy, to where now you wonder is the best teams going into the playoffs?

Their was no arguing who belonged in the playoffs prior to the mid 1990s. But now when you start seeing 9-7 teams go to the SB and 1 of them win it, and the 13,14, and 15 win teams are losing out, you just begin to question the playoff formula. Most of this is due to some very absurd scheduling from season to season.

Take the Falcons this season, does anyone really believe they would even be near 12 wins this season with a more tougher schedule like the Saints have had? More so speaking in where the game is at and what time of the season....

Or if last years Packers that went 15-1 didnt face cupcake teams like the AFC West and hosting the only NFC South team that was dangerous in their opener along with the fact the rest of the NFC North completely collapsed?

Its these type of scheduling from season to season that has made or break an entire NFL season, its become too much of a factor since the Division Realignment which was 4-5 years after the cap was in place, I recall back in the early 90s and all through 80s where their was no team in the NFL who would have a too hard of a schedule or too easy of a schedule, now a days you see schedules like the Falcons...........its like WTF?