[News] Eisenberg: Four Suggestions To Improve The NFL Game

[BR News]

The league has been discussing ways to speed up games to keep fans engaged, and columnist John Eisenberg has few ideas that might help.

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[sami]

How about some decent commentators. Also quit interviewing some retired player during the game. We don't need to see an interview going on while trying to watch the action in a little window up in the corner. Also the exposure isn't how many games are on TV, its the 24 hr news, interviewing the same tired old ex coaches, ex players and hall of famers that all share the same view about the 5 teams that are always featured.

[stuckonaboat13]

Continued Focus on player safety will not speed up a game , in fact just the opposite. Egregious and BS calls due to player safety concerns are drawing flags and 15 yards at every turn slowing the game down. We are forcing the officials to make every call at real time regardless wether they are right or wrong because no body wants to be the official getting ragged on ESPN that didn't make that personal foul call.(remember Suggs and Tom Brady's knee, how about cam Newton every time he runs) If its borderline they call it and its ruining the game. The players know the risk and get paid an awful lot to compensate. There are far more dangerous, important, and lightly compensated jobs in the world like the ones who fight for our country,EMT, police etc ... so give it a rest

[ravens4life86]

How to "FIX" football...

1) Shrink commercials, or eliminate commercials. Steve B touched on this already.
2) Agree completely on, less flags per game.. especially on defense.
3)Also Agree on over saturation... Go back to Monday Night&Sunday Football.

But 2 of these realistically wont change cause they are tied to money. Only 1 that might change is limiting penalties

[Godfather A]

Unfortunately commercials keep ticket prices down. That does not impact the individuals who watch on TV. It does impact those of us paying for season tickets or others actually attending a game.
When I used to attend Colts games in the 70's, commercial breaks were 1 minute long. Any out of bounds play stopped the clock.
Then commercial breaks gradually increased to 2 minutes plus a promo for the station's upcoming shows. Out of bounds plays now only stop the clock in the last few minutes of the half and the game.
There are 20 commercial breaks contracted for each game. That is over 40 minutes of stopped play without counting promos. Game time is 60 minutes long. It is the imbalance that is the issue.

[bioLarzen]

Points #1 and #2 seem to somewhat contradict each other... Let the D play - but keep focusing on player safety? If you let the D really play, there are gonna be more injuries - because it's gonna be intense.

[jsarrocohome@yahoo.com]

And stay the Hell out of Politics if I want Politics I'll watch fox news

[usmccharles]

9 minutes ago, jsarrocohome@yahoo.com said:

And stay the Hell out of Politics if I want Politics I'll watch fox news

Oh, they actually cover politics?

[Halshayeji]

I feel like the NFL had right intentions in trying to protect players but took it a bit too far.

no one can hit the QB under the knee. Perfect. No one can ever helmet to helmet a QB. Perfect! If the QB holds on to the ball till the last second you can't even touch him, pathetic! They're just taking it a bit too far. Qbs are supposed to throw a second too early and their supposed to get shoved at least when they hold on till the last second.

the defenseless receiver is also a great rule in theory but it's been taken way too far. WRs duck into DBs all the time and helmet to helmet is called. Or a QB just throws his receiver into trouble and almost automatically called as a defenseless receiver.

im all about players safety and agree with 95 percent of those rules but we have to go back and fix some of the wrongs.

and can someone spend a couple of million and research then develop a damn helmet that really prevents concussions instead of encouraging collision? 

[GRRaven]

Its football let them play. How did Brady get his job? Replacing a injured quarterback.and look what New England got. Players get paid well and they are well aware that the game could be detrimental to their health. Thats why we have a draft each year to replace players with younger and healthier competitors.. It gives teams a new look each year and spreads around the competition so that the weaker teams have a better chance of getting to the big game. There are many jobs that pay a lot less and are more dangerous than football. Ever hear of the Police, Fireman and lets not forget our Military. Its all BS and a money thing just as the climate control is, imo.

[Somerset Ravens]

One thing I feel would speed up the game is getting competent referees. There is no need for the excessive number of conferences for the referees to discuss a call. We need quality referees to make quick calls and move on.

I see no need for the referee to go under the hood to review  a challenged call, let the league office make the call. I also think referees don't make calls and rely on replay to correct their errors, they need to make the call.

I agree player safety is important but the league has gone too far with personal foul penalties, football is a contact sport and players are well compensated for the risks they take. 

 

. 

[BigUgly]

Really looking forward to John's book. Sounds like he will have some very interesting insights from multigenerational owners who have seen this game evolve from an almost XFL-like afterthought to the college game into the juggernaut it is today.

Agree with all of John's premises to improve the game. One area contributing to injuries, I believe, is actually the reduction in preparation time and practice time (including contact drills) hammered out by the collective bargaining agreement. Yes, players are getting bigger and faster, but they are less prepared for full-speed game situations now than ever before. The result is sloppy play, poor technique, and a lack of preparedness for the violence that is inherent in the game.

Have the draft in March, and get the players in with their teams for training and practice more frequently prior to the season. The result will be a higher quality product and fewer injuries.

[Somerset Ravens]

34 minutes ago, BigUgly said:

Really looking forward to John's book. Sounds like he will have some very interesting insights from multigenerational owners who have seen this game evolve from an almost XFL-like afterthought to the college game into the juggernaut it is today.

Agree with all of John's premises to improve the game. One area contributing to injuries, I believe, is actually the reduction in preparation time and practice time (including contact drills) hammered out by the collective bargaining agreement. Yes, players are getting bigger and faster, but they are less prepared for full-speed game situations now than ever before. The result is sloppy play, poor technique, and a lack of preparedness for the violence that is inherent in the game.

Have the draft in March, and get the players in with their teams for training and practice more frequently prior to the season. The result will be a higher quality product and fewer injuries.

Your thoughts about the reduction in preparation time and practice time are incredibly valid. The fundamentals of blocking and tackling are lacking as a result of the current CBA.  Hopefully the next CBA will allow the players to do more to perfect their craft.

[Kacas]

what annoy me the most is on kickoff...soooo many touchback. a complete waste of time and killed 70% of special team importance. there´s no need to have a play if that play will result in nothing....
it´s another exemple of how "players safety" result in no play at all...

[The Beak]

Agree with kickoff situation, so tired of kick extra point then commercial, Kick ball through end zone (touchback) another commercial, two plays lasting 6 seconds then 6 minutes of commercials just start at the 25yd line after score...

[ellicottraven]

Noble thoughts but the League is on a path of self destruction much like the World is lately. All one can do is watch and just shake their heads in wonder and bewilderment.

Edited February 26 by ellicottraven

[Ravenous_Ravens]

One thing I feel would speed up the game is getting competent referees. There is no need for the excessive number of conferences for the referees to discuss a call. We need quality referees to make quick calls and move on.

I see no need for the referee to go under the hood to review  a challenged call, let the league office make the call. I also think referees don't make calls and rely on replay to correct their errors, they need to make the call.

I agree player safety is important but the league has gone too far with personal foul penalties, football is a contact sport and players are well compensated for the risks they take. 

 

. 

Unless you can do a better job at NFL refereeing you should not complain. Given their enormous rule book it is somewhat amazing they can do as well as they do. Remember the stand in refs? I'll assume you can find evidence for yourself if you didn't witness it. Point is they do not have an easy job and your comment does not address the actual difficulty involved.

All replays, challenges etc. should all come from a separate set of booth officials that do not need to be "in the building". They can work remotely and simply get shown the relevant clips and make their ruling. This would eliminate some bias, as they wouldn't be able to necessarily watch the entire game. They would be responsive to which ever calls come in to review. Additionally, if you isolate the booth judges/refs, you could get even more reduced bias. Say 3 refs view the call and make a decision, the ref on the field gets the number of yay's or nay's and on with the game. Reduces time as booth refs call start rolling asap, reduces time with no need to huddle up and discuss who is right, what they saw. Streamlined refereeing 101.

"Some football "players" as you quoted "are well compensated for the risks they take." The reality is most football players do not stay in the league very long. This usually equates to a couple big checks, compared to what they earned before if they had jobs. It is nothing to scoff at, but given the types of injuries they are exposed to and then factoring in that many potential injuries are life long, it does not all add up. You just won't find many if any sources publishing stats on the effects on health for the players that cycle through the system.

[OzzieBisciotti]

For us, we'd improve the game if we had some play makers to watch

[jsarrocohome@yahoo.com]

  16 hours ago, jsarrocohome@yahoo.com said:

And stay the Hell out of Politics if I want Politics I'll watch fox news

Oh, they actually cover politics?

Yes and they are at least reasonably fair in their coverage

[Somerset Ravens]

6 hours ago, Ravenous_Ravens said:

Unless you can do a better job at NFL refereeing you should not complain. Given their enormous rule book it is somewhat amazing they can do as well as they do. Remember the stand in refs? I'll assume you can find evidence for yourself if you didn't witness it. Point is they do not have an easy job and your comment does not address the actual difficulty involved.

Just because a job is difficult does not mean people should not be held accountable for their performance. I do feel referees need more training. They should be full time employees to accommodate thorough training. The NFL has the money to make that happen.

Regardless of the difficulty I do not feel it is acceptable to settle for mediocrity.

[whobilly]

The Pass Interference penalty has to be changed to the college rule of 15 yards. There is no way a team should be able to gain 60 yards on a PI call. Half of the plays defended by the D Backs in college would be pass interference calls in the NFL.

[whobilly]

One rule I'd like to see when posting comments is for the people posting to realize when you write a short story we stop reading them after the first paragraph.

[whobilly]

On 2/25/2017 at 3:45 PM, usmccharles said:

On 2/25/2017 at 3:34 PM, jsarrocohome@yahoo.com said:

And stay the Hell out of Politics if I want Politics I'll watch fox news

Oh, they actually cover politics?

Lets keep it to football.

[jravens1313]

Eliminate the automatic 1st Down! Give a team the yardage for the penalty but replay the down!!!!!!!!

[jravens1313]

Also add two more side judges that cover the deep part of the field 40-60 yards. They should be making the calls on PI or illegal contact, instead of the 50 year old out of shape ref trying to run down world class athletes at full speed. Too many calls are missed because a ref thinks they see something, or misses something due to this issue!

[FarTooJones]

How about expand NFL gameday rosters to 58 or so? Improved player safety, right there.

[gregob56]

Over exposure? Get rid of MNFB. The games are often horrible - bad match ups and bad football being played. ESPN's coverage is worse than horrible. Sunday Night usually has the better teams playing. Let's end the NFL week on a good note. Having to watch crappy camera angles and listen to John Gruden talk incessantly would not be missed.

[letitgosometimes]

You nailed it, John!

[pangefous52]

Holding calls slow the game down even more than PI. I've seen some unbelievably bad calls on players that wouldn't even impact the play...causing a loss of 10 yards and replay of down...and stifling the momentum of the drive. The refs are guilty of really bad judgment, in a lot of PI, holding and illegal contact calls.