This could work well in the bitching thread.

I've drifted away from football. Many reasons. Marginal advantages from playing fields (Green Bay, Denver), ridiculous salaries, misbehavior, the sense that good players never get a shot coming up through college....

Perhaps the greatest reason is the way the teams can be spoiled early in the game and early in the season. These games are won and lost at the margins. A bad bounce or bad call or one bad move can give the opposing team a score advantage that can quickly take off the razor edge that is needed to come back. A good team can lose 2 of the first three or 3 of the first 5 games of the season and again lose their edge.

I think this can be largly offset by new rules:

If a team takes a lead of more than 7 points, the losing team could get an extra down. If they are behind by more than 14, they could be spotted an extra 10 yards as well as the extra down. This is not out of some hippy-chick desire to protect the loser's self esteem, but to keep the edge and the spectator's interest. The winning team would really have to prove that they are the best and not just benefiting from an early lucky turn or two.

The play-off rules could be altered to keep all teams involved throughout the season. For example, each conference could produce 4 division champs and two wildcards as well as 4 more lottery winners. The lottery teams would be chosen according to a drawing of the winners of the last 2/3 of regular season games. If game 8 of the regular season is drawn, the teams that won the 8th game of their season would play another lottery winner while the six best teams have a by-game. If every losing team and their fans knew there was a significant chance that the latter-season game they were playing might be chosen by lot, they would have a reason to try instead of avoiding injury.

Apart from this, they should eliminate pre-season and begin regular season in mid-August, ending just after Thanksgiving.

Get on this, OTers!!!