Football Hall Of Fame 2014

If you have read my previous posts on here (specifically about the MLB hall of fame vote), then you are already aware of how mentally challenged I believe a large part of the BBWAA to be when it comes to voting for players for the Major League Baseball Hall of Fame. The NFL writers aren't much better. In fact they're probably on the same boat, but just on a different deck.

The Board of Selectors, comprising of a forty-six man group, mainly football writers, are those whom select from a potential group of NFL players, coaches, staff, and etc. Just like baseball, a football player has to wait for five years before eligibility. Unfortunately, just like baseball, the board holds grudges against players and believes that players shouldn't be voted in during their first year of eligibility. They also prefer to only select up to one player from each position each year (i.e. one wide receiver per year).

Now ask yourself if this makes sense...you're the sixth all-time rushing running back in NFL history behind players such as Walter Payton and Barry Sanders. You've lead a team to a Super Bowl victory, been an all-pro six times, won NFL Comeback Player of The Year, won NFL Offensive Rookie of The Year, and won the Walter Payton Man of The Year. You're a first year shoe in, right? Wrong.

Running backs of lessor caliber (not bad themselves though) get voted in before you. 2011 Marshall Faulk, 2012 Curtis Martin, no one in 2013, and snubbed again this year. Edgerrin James is even being talked about ahead of you for the 2015 ballot. You're name is Jerome "The Bus" Bettis and you're the all-time leading rusher for the Pittsburgh Steelers (even ahead of Franco Harris). The fact that he is not in the Hall after this many votes is ludicrous.

The fact that the "Board of Selectors" prefer to vote only one player per position gets in every year is a joke. Sometimes, legends will retire in the same year. Imagine if this rule worked in baseball. Greg Maddux, Tom Glavine, and Mike Mussina all retired the same year. If you chose one of them (i.e Greg Maddux), then the other two would carry over to 2015. Now in 2015, you also have Randy Johnson and Pedro Martinez. Only one of them with the other two from 2014 carried over get in? It would take five years before they could all get in and that's if no other quality pitchers retire during that time. If you deserve to get in, you deserve to go in whether or not someone playing the same position is also eligible.

Also spited for the same reason this year was Marvin Harrison, because Andre Reed made it this year. One of the top receivers in the past twenty five years, he'll have to wait for while himself with the way things are currently set up.

You say you're a scary defensive player that made quarterback shake in their cleats. You've been all-pro multiple times, more super bowl rings than any other player in history, and over one hundred career sacks. You should get in obviously, right? Wrong. You're Charles Haley and the "Board of Selectors" doesn't like you from a personal standpoint. You weren't the friendliest player to the press and now you're going to pay for it. Grudges will be held and this is wrong.

Not only does the selection process for the MLB need to be reviewed, but so does the NFL's.

The Start Of A New Season

The start of a new season of football is here. Week one has passed and we have already been surprised. Tom Brady breaking the week one record for most passing yards in a game, a one hundred eight yard kick return, the broken streak of consecutive games played by future Hall of Famer Peyton Manning, and the Dolphins defense...gasping for air.

One of the many things experts were wondering about, was how players would handle the first week of the season conditioning wise. With limited practices and conditioning, players could be expected to be gasping for air. The Dolphins showed signs of fatigue in the middle of the third quarter. From here the Patriots began to use a no huddle offense to exploit this and build on their lead.

Some teams and players performed their own voluntary practices during the lockout, but without strength and conditioning coaches and trainers, as well as some of the older players taking the time off completely to gain more rest time. This is turn made it harder for certain players to be in the condition they normally would start the season at. Although it is also believed that NFL teams have gone overboard with off season workouts which can induce injuries in the long run to players.

With the new season ahead, it should be interesting what else develops this season. With new changes such as kick offs being kicked from the thirty five yard line and new rules on hitting specialty players, the season should have it's own new flavor.

Expanding To 18

One of the issues that was being discussed in the talks between the NFL and the NFL Players Association was expanding the schedule to eighteen games. Doing so would bring in more revenue via television and ticket sales to the teams, but is this really a good thing? No.

The argument the owners have made is that there are already twenty games being played per team every year, counting the four games played in pre-season. In order to play the eighteen, the owners are suggesting to cut two pre-season games to keep the total of twenty games played before playoffs. Sounds okay right? Wrong.

The counter arguments by the players makes a lot more sense to me. First off, in the first four games of the pre-season, players don't play as much as they do during the regular season. This includes bench players. With so many players on the squad trying to make the final roster, players don't usually play more than a quarter to two quarters at most. Playing in two more regular season games means more time on the field to all the players that make the opening day roster.

Well it's only eighteen games right? MLB plays 162 and they don't complain. Well MLB is different that NFL. MLB injuries come from long term circumstances and over use or exertion. Most of the injuries in the NFL are impact based that happen instantly. A lineman for example is subjected to the same force as a car crash when they bash into other linemen. Adding two more games doesn't just mean more of a chance of injuries, but it also means the stronger possibilities of not being able to finish the season or even shorter careers.

Another negative factor is players such as linemen have had shorter life spans that doctors believe are related to football. Linemen are dying too often in their late forties and early fifties. With an extended schedule, who knows if this could get even worse.

I can also imagine painkiller addictions could go up as well. With players having injuries, aches, and pains that last well after their careers are over, an expanded season could worsen injuries and batter the bodies even more of the players, resulting in more painkillers being taken.

Last, but not least, I believe that from a statistics category, records will fall and it would be disasterous. More running backs will be getting closer to two thousand yards rushing per season, one thousand yards will mean less and less, wide receivers getting one hundred catches will be good still, but not great, etc. With twenty-two percent more games a season that during the time of legends like Jim Brown, records back then can't be compared to now.

The big controversey when baseball expanded their season was that the season went from one hundred fifty-four games to one hundred sixty-two. A five percent increase in games in the last one hundred years.

Expanding to eighteen games would be disasterous on many levels for the NFL. This is one of the reasons I side with the players during the current arguments with the owners.