NFL Playoffs: Did the NFL Get it Right?

The 2009 regular season came to a conclusion on Sunday evening, and there was plenty of intrigue to be had in week 17 of the NFL season. Unfortunately a lot of the news and speculation came in the form of questions about the quality of play and the effort many teams exerted on Sunday. The playoff race in the NFC was locked up entering Sunday, but the 2nd-6th seed were all in question. Over in the AFC, the playoff picture was very cloudy, and came down to the evening game to decide the six teams.

Many questioned the Colts and the Saints for sitting their starters and resting players going into the playoffs. The questions and complaints were so loud that the NFL Commissioner is now debating making rule changes that would prohibit teams from resting players, and essentially tanking games. For what it's worth, here at Walker Sports, think this is a horrible idea. The NFL cannot stick its nose in teams business, and litigate how teams manage their players, but we will save that argument for another day.

Our debate with the NFL stems from an interesting circumstance that took place on Sunday where three of the final games featured match ups that will be replayed next week during the Wild Card Round of the playoffs. This created an interesting situation in Dallas, Green Bay, and New York, all of these games were blowouts. The Jets destroyed the Bengals, Arizona ran over Green Bay and Dallas shut out Philadelphia. For the most part the games were not even worth watching.

Now the NFL has the issue of trying to hype these games for the upcoming season. Now granted there is plenty of story lines to go around. And for the most part, much like the resting playing situation, there's not a lot the NFL can do to prevent the repeat match up issue. In the end of the day, this is like hitting the lottery and a complete fluke.

What makes this all interesting is, the biggest sport in the United States his heading into their post season, and everyone should be excited about the games and who will reach the Super Bowl in Miami. Instead, there are dozens of questions, and once again Commissioner Goodell finds himself in the middle of something trying to express opinions from the top down.