Disenfranchised

The labor dispute has threatened my 2011 football season. Therefore, I came up with an ideal way of settling the dispute.

Now first of all, I do not know where every penny goes so please do not get too critical about this but I think this would be a great solution to this issue.

Currently, the NFL is a 9 billion dollar industry. The NFL collects its revenue mostly from Advertising, Licensing, and TV contracts. Ticketing and Concessions makes a lot of money. As for Licensing, every time a person buys a players jersey or if you watch an old NFL game on TV, the NFL collects. TV contracts is where the money is the greatest for the NFL. This is the bread and butter of the organization. All teams get the same cut from the TV Contracts.

Currently, the players receive about 3/4 of the total revenue of the NFL. This is set up by the players association. The Players Association meets with the NFL every 5 - 10 years and discusses finds ways to increase the players earnings.

In 2011, 4 billion dollars will go to the 32 teams for their TV Contracts. Let's just say that the NFL has to take a cut so the 32 teams receive 100 million dollars each. Each team must go down to 53 players each year. Every team offered the players a base salary of a million dollars per year. This is guaranteed money. If the player gets hurt, if he sits on the bench, if he sends naked pictures to a jets employee...it doesn't matter the player always gets their money. Each team would then be left with 47 million dollars. The 47 million would be broken into three parts; bonuses, Owner, and management of the organization. Lets say out of the 47 million dollars, 20 million dollars was set aside for bonuses. These bonuses would come in forms of Most Rushing Yardage, Most Receiving Yardage, Most Interceptions, Most Tackles, Most Sacks, etc... There could even be stipulation bonuses if starting QB throws 20 interceptions this year he will not receive the bonus. 20 million dollars would go to the Management of the team. Head coach would get 2 million, assistant coaches would receive a 1 million dollars, etc... The owner would then have to find a way to run his organization off of 7 million dollars for the year.

Now as for the Ticketing and Concessions, lets say team XYZ has a stadium that seats 60,000 fans. Tickets are 50 per person. Each team gets 8 home games...the way it works right now is that the home team receives 60 percent while the visitor receives 40 percent. Let's say that we make it 50 / 50. On a sold out game both teams would receive 1.5 million dollars. .5 should go to the owners / management while 1 million dollars should go back to the team. After a 16 week season, we are talking an additional 16 million dollars minus concessions. An additional 301,886 per player.

Licensing and Advertisement should be done in the same manner. If three people buy Charles Woodson jerseys, then the proceeds should go to the team to be spread amongst the players.

Where would this leave old Payton Manning. Payton Manning just signed a contract for 99 million for 7 years. Well, if he played soild for all seven years, and they structured his bonuses for 2 million per year, we would be looking at 23 million dollars for seven year minus concessions, advertisement and Licensing.

Sure this may not be perfect but it would be instrumental rejuvenating the NFL. No more Randy Mosses giving up, no more T.O. crying about the QB, no more stadiums not getting filled up because the players would start to care again. They would have to come to signings and show themselves in public so that the public wants to come see them perform. This is why the NFL has been disenfranchised.

The Bengals

The Bengals...this team was awful. I am appalled by the fact that the 2010 Bengals could even call themselves an NFL team. This team reminds me of the 2004 Oakland Raiders.

Let us dissect this team and see where the problem lies:

Offense
Carson Palmer - 3970 Yards, 26 Touchdowns, 20 Interceptions and 7 Fumbles.
Cedric Benson - 1111 Yards, 7 Touchdowns, 7 Fumbles
Ocho Cinco - 831 Yards, 4 Touchdowns, 1 Fumble
T. O. - 983 Yards, 9 Touchdowns

The Offensive line allowed for 26 sacks.

Defense
Really the only stand out player on the defense is Carlos Dunlap who recorded 10 sacks this year. The rest of the defensive squad was terrible.

Special Teams
Same...really poor.

Play Calling and General Coaching
Poor at best.


With this offense and with such an under average defense, this team should of been racking up the points. However, this team only scored 30+ points in 4 games. The rest of the time the team could barely get a first down. Why?

Poor coaching.

Here is my two cents and you can take it or leave it. Carson Palmer could definitely be a great quarterback again. His inconsistency in throwing interceptions is the biggest concern. This maybe because of the play calling or the average performance of the receivers. Keep these players. 1st player in the draft they need to recruit a great lineman. A Guard or Tackle that can apply consistently allow for Carson to make the plays. In the lower rounds, they need to draft a tight end, a receiver, and a two defensive players preferably both that could start immediately in LB and in the secondary. The entire defense needs to be reworked. They need to start at the draft and who ever they get they need to build around. Which mean making some great after draft choices at line men and secondary. The most pathetic part of the Bengals is that they don't even know what they have. They should of been a playoff contender.

This is all fine and dandy but the truth is that this team will continue to perform like this next year even if they take the steps that I just layed out for them. Why? Because the coaching is piss poor. They need to make sure that all of their players know that they are expendable. And that they can use a different guy in that position. They need to hold these players accountable for their actions. This is the greatest challenge for the Bengals. Unfortunately, we will have to wait and see if this coaching group will do just that.

Within the rumor mill is that Palmer won't come back. If the Bengals were smart...which is still up in the air...they need to make sure that Palmer comes back but knows that he could be second in the line up. Make sure when training camp starts that another younger QB is waiting in the locker room. He will change his tune once he sees that he can be replaced.

L.A.

Remember the L.A. Rams? How about the L.A. Raiders?

Now, L.A. is attempting to get a new Football team! Will they steal a team already in the league? Minnesota? Jacksonville? Oakland? Chargers?

All of these names have been thrown around. Some more, than others. Currently, the front runner is San Diego! Really? They have a solid fan base? Why should they move? Jacksonville seems like the clear choice to me. Jacksonville hasn't sold out a game...in some time.

But to be completely honest. The league is set up brilliantly the way it is. 4 teams in a 4 division conference with two conferences. Makes plenty of sense to steal a team rather than create a team. But I got a different spin on things. Hear me out:

Remember when the NFL joined with the AFL? Wasn't that a real spell bounding moment? What if, the CFL and the NFL joined forces? Some teams were moved to the United States, while other teams went even further south, and some teams were disassembled. Imagen an NFL where there were four conferences: North, South, East and West. Each conference would have 2 divisions made up of 5 teams. Each team would play their divisional rivals twice in a season. Then they would play their cross divisional rivals once a year. Then the final three games would be based off of the previous years schedule. If the Patriots were 15 -1 and the Packers were 15 - 1. Then they would play again the next year.

The Playoffs would take four conference champions, four divisional winners and four wild card teams. The Wild Card teams would play first against the divisional winners. The winners of those games would then play the Conference Champions.

Could you imagine an NFL where the Mexico City Aztecs played the Toronto Cannucks in the Super bowl? Might take some getting use to.

The End of an Era

In the past twenty years, we have seen some of the greatest football in the NFL. 6 teams come to mind:

Pittsburgh Steelers
Green Bay Packers
Dallas Cowboys
New England Patriots
San Fransisco 49er's
Indianapolis Colts

These teams have dominated the past twenty years. However, if you really break it down...Indianapolis and New England have never really had stand out teams until the last twenty years. The 49er's ruled the 80's and the 90's but before that they were not much to look at. The three stand out teams of all time have been the top three: Pittsburgh, Green Bay and Dallas. How fitting that this Superbowl is being held in Dallas and that the Steelers and the Packers will be battling to see who is best.

However, it brings into question what happened to all the other greats? Miami, Oakland, Minnesota, Buffalo. What happened?

What happened is the NFL has put road blocks into effect that causes the "Dynasties" to die out much quicker. If you watch any of the conferences each year their is usually a different team leading the ranks.

In my opinion, the dynasties will no longer occur within the NFL. We will start seeing a lot more even playing field within the next twenty years.

So, this beer is for the Superbowl. Two of the NFL's all time great football teams battling it out in the home of another great football team. However watch out. It may be a while before you see them again.

Where Shall Vince Go?

Where should Mr. Vince Young end up?

I've heard Arizona, Miami, Oakland, San Fransisco, etc...

Here is my pick...I bet Vince eventually gets released and then a team like the Texans will pick him up but only for a short time where he will be dealt and end up in Dallas, of all places.

Let me hear from you...where do you think he should go and why?

the Last Prediction

Here are my predictions from the beginning of the year. Lets see how I did?



AFC:
Ravens - 1st seed - Patriots - Close but no cigar!
Colts - 2nd seed - Steelers - Close but no cigar!
Patriots - 3rd seed - Indianapolis - Close but no cigar!
Raiders - 4th seed - Kansas City - Well, I don't know I think Al Davis rhetoric has completely fried my brain.

AFC Wild Cards:
Titans - Baltimore - Hmmm....
Jets - Jets - Cigar!!!

Truth to be told, I guessed 4 of the 6 teams in the playoffs! Not too bad.

NFC:
Packers - 1st seed - Atlanta - Never saw Atlanta coming!
Saints - 2nd seed - Chicago - This was possible.
Eagles - 3rd seed - Philly - Bingo!
Cardinals - 4th seed - Seattle - Way off here. But then again, who would of ever of guessed.

NFC Wild Cards:
Giants - New Orleans - I didn't think the Saints would slip this far.
Redskins - Green Bay - The Pack had alot of injuries and still made it to the dance.

3 of 6.

Total: 7 of 12

I stayed above .500

Prediction for the Superbowl:
Jets to play the Packers

Jets take the lead early. Jets lose a major player on offense. Packers make a big come back and then go into the lead. Jets kick a 45+ field goal in final seconds and miss the game winning kick.
Packers 28 - Jets 27

2 Minute Drill

Ok...Sorry work has kept me from being as active on here as I have been in the past. I promise to do a prediction this week.

2 Minute Drill a quick run down of all that I have been missing out on in the past two weeks.

Shannahans VS. McNabb

McNabb is within the top 5 quarterbacks in the league today. Only few can stand up and take control of a team like McNabb does. His performance this year has not been very effective. This is his first year within a new system and he wasn't traded early in the year. Mike Shannahan has a great record with the Denver Broncos. Throughout majority of his career, he had John Elway: who is a top ten quarterback of all time. Now, how much coaching did Mike have in that roll or was Elway just Elway. Mike has also had Brian Grease and Jake Plummer. Plummer was a good quarterback for the Cardinals. Why couldn't he cultivate that quarterback? As far as the Shannahan son...well...you got your job because your dad is who he is. McNabb has more control over that locker room than Mike does and that right there proves the fact that Mr. Shannahan needs to retire. Get out of the game cause you couldn't coach in Oakland, you couldn't coach in Denver and you are not coaching in Washington.

Randy Moss is now a Titan
Well...here is the long story short. Randy Moss is a man who needs discipline. If your team has discipline and is ran like a football team then well Randy Moss will succeed in your program. As a coach, you can not have your players walk on you. Moss has walked on the Vikings, Oakland and now the Vikings again. Moss is an extremely talented player. If I was the coach of a team, I wouldn't pick him up but teams like New England or teams like Steelers or the Colts would do very well with him.

The Return of Mike Vick
Kolb played great while Vick was away. However, now that he his back Kolb takes the bench. I am really torn between these two players. Both really do deserve a chance to start. Personally, I would take Vick.

Oakland Won Three Straight?
Yes...this is true. How? Who knows?

Falcons on a Roll
I would of taken the Falcons this week. Atlanta proved that they really are destine to be in the playoffs.

Cowboys already making Superbowl plans
Too bad they are making party plans rather than football schemes. What happened to this team? Phillips claimed that if he "knew what to do he would of done it." Guess what. That was the nail that sealed your coffin my friend. What kind of coach admits do being dumbfounded by this season, weather it be true or not. Never admit you don't know what you are doing. Jones said he wasn't releasing anyone until the end of the season. Bad call. Get rid of that bum and the one that throws the ball.

Big Ben rolling rolling rolling
Steelers have continued to dominate with Ben under the wheel. This team is looking good.

Dolphins sinking
As Bill Parcels left the office, soon did the Wildcat offense and then quickly followed there wins. Who is making the decisions down there. Bring the Cat back and play football like you know it. B. Marshall is all you got for receivers. So you are going to rely on one player to start making all of your plays. Really?

KC Joke or No Joke
Well, with a lose to the Raiders it seems like a joke. But the truth is, they have a great rushing game. They have a fairly decent defense. Their Quarterback has been very inconsistent. They make a lot of mistakes. They continue to throw the ball when they know that they are a rushing team. Hmmm...maybe the offensive coordinator needs to go.

After MNF...I will put out my mid season playoff predictions.