FAKE RONJAN!!Stupid, Stupid Idea: 32-team NFL playoff bracket
"Hey, aren't you the guy who quit the NFL forever?" Why yes, yes I am. It's going quite well, actually, and I don't think I'll have trouble sticking to it.
I haven't watched any football, NFL or otherwise, since quitting. My final season of fantasy football ended with a championship in the biggest money league I've ever played in, and now I have absolutely no rooting interests left. It's a liberating feeling.
That said, I did check the standings recently, and I found out that the 12-4 49ers have to travel to 8-7-1 Green Bay for a playoff game. I know that these kind of disparities have happened several times in the NFL in the past, with debates inevitably raging. And the team with the worse record seems to win more often than you'd expect. (No, I am not going to do that analysis.)
Is winning a bad division a bigger accomplishment than finishing second in a good one? Who knows. All I know is that maybe this is a good time to debut a new segment, "Stupid, Stupid Idea".
So here it is. What if every NFL team made the playoffs and they played in a 32-team tournament?
Let me tell you: it'd be fantastic! If I cared about the NFL, that is. Why?
- Even if your team sucks, they could still play spoiler.
- Good seasons are rewarded, bad seasons are not.
- With 31 playoff games instead of 11, the likelihood of rivalry or division matchups in the playoffs increases significantly.
- The regular season still matters because seeding is so much more critical.
- It would be wacky and crazy: everything the NFL hates.
- It would help Peyton Manning to finally get his playoff record to .500 (he's 9-11 as of today).
- Seriously -- if you're a Bills or a Browns fan, your team would have a chance. To win a game. That matters.
I decided to look at how this could work in 2013. I seeded the teams based on wins (with just scoring margin as a tiebreaker), preserving AFC and NFC brackets so the Super Bowl is still an AFC vs. NFC matchup. Here's what the bracket might look like:
AFC Bracket
- Houston Texans (16) @ Denver Broncos (1)
- Baltimore Ravens (9) @ Miami Dolphins (8)
- Cleveland Browns (13) @ Kansas City Chiefs (4)
- Buffalo Bills (12) @ Indianapolis Colts (5)
- Jacksonville Jaguars (15) @ New England Patriots (2)
- New York Jets (10) @ Pittsburgh Steelers (7)
- Oakland Raiders (14) @ Cincinnati Bengals (3)
- Tennessee Titans (11) @ San Diego Chargers (6)
NFC Bracket
- Washington Redskins (16) @ Seattle Seahawks (1)
- Chicago Bears (9) @ Green Bay Packers (8)
- Minnesota Vikings (13) @ New Orleans Saints (4)
- New York Giants (12) @ Philadelphia Eagles (5)
- Tampa Bay Buccaneers (15) @ San Francisco 49ers (2)
- Detroit Lions (10) @ Dallas Cowboys (7)
- Atlanta Falcons (14) @ Carolina Panthers (3)
- St. Louis Rams (11) @ Arizona Cardinals (6)
Thoughts? If it can work in European soccer, why can't it work in the NFL? I'd watch! (If I hadn't quit the NFL, forever!)
-rj