Pete Rozelle famously strove for parity within the NFL, preferring to not have a league of “haves’’ and “have-nots,’’ high heavy with dominant groups beating up on the weaklings yearly.
The prescient Rozelle, who was commissioner from 1960-89, wished each workforce to have equal probability to win the Tremendous Bowl. What Rozelle certainly didn’t need was for the NFL to be mired in widespread mediocrity.
But that's the place we're in the present day. Via the primary month of the season, the NFL has been marred by plenty of ugly soccer.
Did anybody on the market watch the sport Thursday evening between the Colts and Broncos?
Did you discover that sport — a 12-9 Colts time beyond regulation win in what was basically a pillow battle between a bunch of 300-pound males — entertaining?
That sport was offensive to the senses. It was troublesome to look at.
And to suppose: The 2 quarterbacks in that sport — Denver’s Russell Wilson and Indianapolis’ Matt Ryan — have appeared in three mixed Tremendous Bowls. Wilson, who was given a $245 million contract extension by the Broncos, appeared like an inexperienced free-agent rookie with the rash of errors he made. And Ryan merely appeared 10 years older than his beginning certificates age of 37.
Via 4 weeks, simply the Eagles (4-0) stay undefeated. After that, 15 of the opposite 31 groups have 2-2 information coming into Week 5.
Parity or mediocrity? You make the decision.
Mediocrity is the decision Buccaneers quarterback Tom Brady, who is aware of a factor or two about successful, having received seven Tremendous Bowl rings, made this week when chatting with reporters: “I believe there’s plenty of unhealthy soccer from what I watch. I watch plenty of unhealthy soccer. Poor high quality of soccer. That’s what I see.”
That’s what all of us see.
I had a dialog with veteran Jets quarterback Joe Flacco on Thursday about what he thinks second-year starter Zach Wilson realized from the comeback win final Sunday over the Steelers, and that is what he advised me: “His greatest factor Sunday was realizing typically video games are ugly. You’re going to have plenty of wins that aren't the prettiest.’’
Flacco unwittingly described most NFL video games this season.
The excellent news is that there was no scarcity of shut video games this season. The unhealthy information is that too a lot of these video games have been mistake-riddled affairs with groups wanting as if they could by no means rating a landing once more (see: Colts at Broncos, Thursday).
You recall the politically incorrect saying in golf and in baseball, “Chicks dig the lengthy ball?’’
Nicely, the NFL digs scoring. For years, the league has manipulated the principles to assist promote offensive manufacturing. But via the primary 4 weeks, groups are scoring 21.9 factors per sport this season, a tempo that may be the league’s lowest common since 2017.
What has occurred to the so-called dominant groups?
Two of these groups, in recent times, have been the Chiefs and Packers. The Chiefs (3-1) misplaced to the identical Colts workforce that Thursday set offense again twenty years. And the Packers, who barely survived a Patriots workforce right down to its third-string quarterback in time beyond regulation final week, are 3-1, however have a degree differential of merely six factors.
The defending Tremendous Bowl champion Rams are 2-2 and obtained back-alley bullied by the 49ers final week. The Payments (3-1) appear like the category of the AFC East and the Eagles are atop the NFC. However can we really belief both of these groups, each of which have vulnerabilities?
Former Jets coach Herman Edwards usually advised me of the NFL: “The league is an 8-8 league. Most groups have 8-8 expertise. It’s the few that get on a run that separate themselves.’’
Proper now, the NFL really seems to be an 8-8 league with few, if any, groups wanting poised to separate themselves.
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