Comments on: Ravens, Eagles will play four games in 17 days this season

By: bobzilla1001

bobzilla1001 — Sun, 16 Sep 2012 10:13:44 +0000

raideralex99:
You are absolutely right: scheduling does make a difference.
Last season, the AFC North produced three playoff teams, but only because the AFC North teams were assigned to play teams from the NFC West and AFC South, the two weakest divisions in the league.
The Steelers were 12-4 last season, but only defeated one (alleged) quality team all season, the Patriots, who were 13-3 without having to beat a single team with a winning record.
The Bengals were 9-7 overall, but were only 2-4 within the division. That means they fattened up their record against the NFC West and AFC South.
Then there were Tebow’s Broncos, who reached the playoffs without a single significant win the entire season.
Scheduling means everything.

By: ncarolinarn7

ncarolinarn7 — Sun, 16 Sep 2012 03:11:03 +0000

I believe it’s that guy Roger again. Replacement refs, patty cake football, 25% of your Superbowl dream in 17 days. Life is good.

By: raideralex99

raideralex99 — Sat, 15 Sep 2012 20:40:26 +0000

Seriously some of you are unbelievable … if you think scheduling doesn’t have an effect on a football team or the standings.
Hello … why is there on the average 6 new teams in the playoffs every year … 2 easy games against bad teams.
How about west coast team playing the early game on the east coast … Easy bet … the east coast teams win 80% of those games. Example the Chargers only played 1 early east coast team last year … why did the Raiders play 4. I know the NFL does favorite certain teams for the TV deals but it also gives them an unfair advantage.
I can see why you guys never win the football pools.

By: thirstymofo

thirstymofo — Sat, 15 Sep 2012 20:39:56 +0000

Talk about the whole “suck for Luck” campaign last year, suck for not having nationally televised games will be this years theme.

By: cooklynn17

cooklynn17 — Sat, 15 Sep 2012 18:05:49 +0000

Cry me a river…

The United States military will defend this country 24 / 7 in other countries with very little rest and BTW not get 3 million dollars a year for doing it.

Your welcome.

By: mjkelly77

mjkelly77 — Sat, 15 Sep 2012 17:59:56 +0000

geauxjay says:Sep 15, 2012 9:57 AM

If Roger would have proved that, then the suspensions wouldn’t have been overturned.

Let it go. Roger lied about the bounties enough. You don’t have to do it too.
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Uhhh, the suspensions weren’t overturned. The ruling was proceedural and the Commissioner was asked to clarify the language. That’s all. The suspensions will be back on soon and upheld. Swamp people. They just don’t get it.

By: jonsilver1947

jonsilver1947 — Sat, 15 Sep 2012 16:44:45 +0000

Re eaglesfanintx’s idea of coordinating with the bye weeks, take it a step further: spread out the byes, so that only 2 teams a week have a bye, and those are the next Thursday opponents…rotate the bye week locations season by season, so no one has an early bye or a late bye too often….

By: bluebongzilla

bluebongzilla — Sat, 15 Sep 2012 16:44:07 +0000

’bout time. Seems like it’s always the Cowboys that get this kind of schedule. 4 games in 18 days every year since 2009. Business as usual.

By: whitdog23

whitdog23 — Sat, 15 Sep 2012 16:43:44 +0000

just now noticing this? did your schedule not include dates when it was released?

By: raqaiw

raqaiw — Sat, 15 Sep 2012 16:24:39 +0000

steelersownyou says: Sep 15, 2012 11:39 AM
Well if their owner wasn’t crying & whining before the schedule came out this year about the ratbirds never getting any primetime games at home they wouldnt have 4 games in 17 days dumba**

One of the newest teams,one of the smallest regional fanbases,top 10 in NFL profitability. What a terrible owner.
Or maybe,a shrewd businessman who knows his team puts on a show at home and he can display that show to a national audience,thereby growing his fanbase,if he gets a home Monday Night game. 44-13 -mission accomplished.

By: theinformerman

theinformerman — Sat, 15 Sep 2012 16:14:59 +0000

The bounty scandal is nothing more than a PR move by the NFL since they have a civil lawsuit on their hands by former NFL players. We all watched those so called alleged games against the Cards and Vikings,
show me the video evidence of Vilma hitting someone to injure em? You can’t.
Makes me disgusted how many naive, ignorant people are out there that believe whatever is told to them. Grow a pair and think for yourself.

By: thestrategyexpert

thestrategyexpert — Sat, 15 Sep 2012 16:12:08 +0000

Why wouldn’t the players want to also sue the players’ union? That sounds like it just gives them more deep pockets and leverage to get money. What would be the harm in that to the players that wouldn’t be surpassed by the total cash injection. I’d think that would have to be worth a lot more than any negative fallout.

By: steelersownyou

steelersownyou — Sat, 15 Sep 2012 15:39:36 +0000

Oh I can here the ravens excuses now! After this 1-3 stretch..crying & whining! Well if their owner wasn’t crying & whining before the schedule came out this year about the ratbirds never getting any primetime games at home they wouldnt have 4 games in 17 days dumba**

By: mungman69

mungman69 — Sat, 15 Sep 2012 15:30:09 +0000

Just make the playoffs baby.

By: giablommi

giablommi — Sat, 15 Sep 2012 15:25:35 +0000

Is the league hypocritical for trying to convince players and the public that they are concerned with player safety while at the same time trying to shove an 18 game schedule down everyone’s throats and playing Thursday night games every week? Of course! but then everything the league (owners) do today is in the name of greed and trying to bleed every last dime they can out of the product and the public.

For me though, the real issue with Thursday night games starting is September is that the quality of play on the field really suffers. Sorry but for a matchup of two supposedly top teams in the league, that Bears- Packers game on Thursday was borderline unwatchable, and I’ve noticed that a lot (not all, but more than average) of the games on Thursday nights the past few years have been ugly slopfests with more players on average getting injured.

By: thelastpieceofcheese

thelastpieceofcheese — Sat, 15 Sep 2012 15:05:21 +0000

Four games in 17 days? Poor babies? Give me a brake!

On Oct. 8, 2005 the Northwestern College of Minnesota football team played not one, but TWO football games on that day.

They out-scored their opponents 106-14 and tallied over 1,000 yards on offense:

12 p.m. | Northwestern def. Trinity Bible, 59-0

7 p.m. | Northwestern def. Macalester, 47-17

Hall of Famer Chuck Bednarik played both ways, center and mike, throughout his illustrious career. And he was never out with an injury!

By: ravenator

ravenator — Sat, 15 Sep 2012 15:00:11 +0000

Bet the Ravens still won their division though, bank on ot.

By: eaglesfanintx

eaglesfanintx — Sat, 15 Sep 2012 14:57:49 +0000

Why can’t they coordinate the Bye weeks with the Thursday night scheduling? I know it won’t work for the first couple or last couple of weeks in the season when no teams are on bye, but for the majority of the season, you could:

Play game 1 on Sunday followed by 10 days rest
Play game 2 on Thursday followed by 9 days rest then play game 3 on Sunday.

Seems to make a lot of sense to me – but one problem is it would be a clear disadvantage for those teams having to play Thursday game without benefit of Bye in beginning and end of season…

By: waraggie

waraggie — Sat, 15 Sep 2012 14:57:06 +0000

Florio, you are kidding right? Are you really going to blur the lines with those last two paragraphs? Are you so lost in your own cesspool of questionable integrity that you are now willing to imply that the bounty system is just a reward for something the players would do anyway. You are a joke. This has never been about that. The issue with the bounty is derived from motivating injuries…rewarding players for injuries to opposing player….re-inforcing that it’s permissible to celebrate when other players are injured. I understand that it’s a physical game and I sincerely hope that it remains such. But it is hypocritical of you to hold players to a standard of civility off the field (Police Blotter) and ask them to be animals on the field. If you are going to chose to blur the lines for on-field standards then you should do the same for off the field issues as well.

By: SeenThisB4

SeenThisB4 — Sat, 15 Sep 2012 14:52:48 +0000

So What if it’s 4 games in 17 days? They will all still play only 16 games in 17 weeks!

By: rhodeislandpatriotsfan

rhodeislandpatriotsfan — Sat, 15 Sep 2012 14:50:46 +0000

From a definitional standpoint, any effort to put a kinder, gentler face on a bounty program by couching it in terms of “clean, legal hits” is, I think, asking us to make an unrealistic assumption. Are we to assume, for example, that none of these “clean, legal hits” ever involve twisting an opponent’s facemask, piling on, chop blocks, or any form of unnecessary roughness (e.g., roughing the passer, illegal crackbacks, blindside or peel-back blocks, etc.)? My guess is that any study of past instances of “cart-offs” and “knockouts” would show that a sizable number—though certainly not all—resulted from what officiating crews and/or the league concluded were illegal hits.

By: jae121704

jae121704 — Sat, 15 Sep 2012 14:50:04 +0000

lilrob10201 says:
Sep 15, 2012 10:26 AM
I doubt it is possible ,but wouldn’t it suck for players had a Thursday night game,then their very next game was a Monday night game ?

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It wouldn’t be possible, as the Thursday night games start the football week, and monday night games end the week. Can’t have two games in the same week.

I must agree with most people here though. A normal schedule has you playing 4 games in 20-22 days, so a 17 day span isn’t that bad. Also, they have a lot less contact at practice now, so they can take the brunt of the extra 3 days. Really not a big deal, but here comes PFT misleading everyone again…

By: dd36

dd36 — Sat, 15 Sep 2012 14:46:27 +0000

So it’s 4 days less than normal… Boohoo?

By: geauxjay

geauxjay — Sat, 15 Sep 2012 14:45:33 +0000

I doubt it is possible ,but wouldn’t it suck for players had a Thursday night game,then their very next game was a Monday night game ?

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I’m not sure you’re proving your point. There would be a 10 day break between those games.

By: nothimagain

nothimagain — Sat, 15 Sep 2012 14:42:24 +0000

Whitlock is a little late to the party. Teams have routinely been playing 4 games in 18 days (Monday, Sunday, Sunday Thursday) with the advent of Thursday night football. To be consistent he should take issue with every Thursday game – and that includes the Thanksgiving games. You know, the ones that existed before Goodell apparently ruined your lives.

And the players agreed to this because the NFL is now holding a television package worth a half billion to 1.2 billion per season. The players won’t complain when ABC or whoever shells out for the Thursday night package.

Bring on the 18 game regular season.

By: bigperm33

bigperm33 — Sat, 15 Sep 2012 14:42:22 +0000

But wait. For Roger Goodell health and safety is paramount. I mean didn’t we all see the league fined a player $15,000 for a block in the back just last week. They really care about health. THis has to be an oversight because Goodell really cares about safety. He isn’t just a moron who knows nothing except how to try to maximize profits.

By: det5899

det5899 — Sat, 15 Sep 2012 14:41:08 +0000

It’s normally 4 games in 21 days, so what’s the big deal?

By: jonsey2028

jonsey2028 — Sat, 15 Sep 2012 14:26:46 +0000

Ridiculous!!!! I have never seen the NFL in such TURMOIL since Roger Goodell has been at the helm, time for the owners to find better leadership.

By: lilrob10201

lilrob10201 — Sat, 15 Sep 2012 14:26:35 +0000

I doubt it is possible ,but wouldn’t it suck for players had a Thursday night game,then their very next game was a Monday night game ?

By: ihaterogergoodell

ihaterogergoodell — Sat, 15 Sep 2012 14:10:47 +0000

What a danger to the players, and how exhausting this must be!

Roger Goodell and his band of idiots are single handedly ruining football. They are destroying the importance of the run game by tilting the advantage towards passing with new rule changes (admittedly, I do love the passing game). He will levy a punishment on players without full proof, and the punishments are inconsistent. He speaks out of one side of his mouth about player safety, yet wants to expand the season. He is trying to make the NATIONAL Football League INTERNATIONAL with talks of getting some stupid team in London…. like that flight won’t have an affect on the visiting teams. And lastly, this Thursday night football crap is killing the die hard fans, especially on the east coast. As if going to work tired as &^$# on a Monday and Tuesday morning were not enough, now we have to be half asleep on a Friday. GET THIS GOON OUT OF THE LEAGUE OFFICE!