Dear Mr. Commissioner: Four-step guide to make NFL better

Thank you, Roger Goodell, for what you’ve done for the NFL in your now four seasons as commissioner.

We as fans appreciate your efforts to clean up the game by imposing harsh suspensions on the bad guys of the league.

We also appreciate the efforts you’ve made recently to accommodate the retired NFL players who played in an era that did not have state-of-the-art equipment and are now struggling to take care of their health, because they also played in an era that did not have seven- and eight- figure salaries like players do today.

Those players laid the foundation for the game to be as successful as it is today and they definitely deserve to be taken care of and we appreciate the help you’ve given our heroes.

But despite some of the great things you’ve done for the sport, I have a few suggestions for how you could make the game better in the new season – yes, I am already thinking about next season.

I wanted to write this now, so you could have plenty of time to mull them over before the 2010-11 season begins.

I figured you were probably a pretty busy guy.

Here is what I came up with, just let me know what you think.

Four ways to make the NFL better:

Move the Pro Bowl back to Hawaii:

Everyone makes mistakes, Mr. Goodell, but I honestly have no idea what you were thinking on this one.

Moving the Pro Bowl game to a week before the Super Bowl makes absolutely no sense.

It’s a given that the two teams playing in the Super Bowl won’t send their players to the Pro Bowl out of a fear of injury.

But what’s happening now is the teams who are losing in the Championship games (like the Vikings and Jets) aren’t sending their players, either, because they are just seven days removed from having their hearts broken and they don’t want to play in an unimportant game that soon.

So now we have an “all-star” game that is without the stars from the four best teams in the NFL.

I’m a big fan of football, but even I wasn’t excited seeing Aaron Rodgers and the big, bad NFC team take on the AFC’s two-headed monster of Vince Young and David Garrard.

Just move the game back to Hawaii and play it a week after the Super Bowl like it always was before. The players have incentive to play in the game that way, because they want to go to Hawaii and see the trip as a vacation, not a punishment.

Change overtime rules:

This one is a bit of a quagmire to me, Mr. Goodell, because I know the current rule stinks, but I just don’t necessarily know how to make it better.

There is nothing worse than seeing a coin toss decide a game, or even worse, seeing a coin toss decide who goes to the Super Bowl – ala the Saints and Vikings game.

But I also don’t like the college-style overtime that sees both teams get the football in the red zone, because those games sometimes stretch to five and six overtimes and that is just ridiculous.

I know this might be a stretch, because TV time slots are so tight, but why don’t we just play a full, 15-minute quarter and crown the winner based on the team who wins that full quarter. It would be fair to everyone involved and it would have allowed the Vikings to get the football back and score the game-winning touchdown on the Saints that Sunday – not that I am bitter. I’m sure the Saints fans would support this one, too, because with this suggestion in place, they probably wouldn’t have lost to the Buccaneers, either.

Create a rookie pay scale:

I won’t ride you too hard on this one, because I know you’ve said publicly you plan to fix this one.

But each year, there are 32 first-round draft picks. And each year, those 32 players become some of the highest-paid players in the NFL before they ever step foot on an NFL field.

Just a few years ago, LSU’s JaMarcus Russell was the first pick of the NFL Draft by the Oakland Raiders. Russell then signed a $68 million deal to make him one of the richest quarterbacks in the NFL.

Three years into his playing career, most Raider fans would argue Russell isn’t worth a bag of Doritos, much less $68 million.

I’m a big believer in earning your keep. Set a rookie pay scale similar to the one in place in the NBA and after the players’ rookie contracts are over, NFL general managers will have a much better idea about who to give the big bucks to.

Stop playing games in Europe:

OK, OK, I get the general idea on this one. You want to make the NFL a global game. I get it.

But what is lost in this plan of yours to play games across the pond is how unfair it is to the teams who actually make the trip.

Imagine being the Tampa Bay Buccaneers this season – or heck, the Saints last season – and have to play one of your eight allotted home games in Europe.

Or imagine being a visiting team and being able to play one of your “road” games in an atmosphere that isn’t necessarily friendly to the “home” team. That must be kind of nice.

Parity is at an all-time high in today’s NFL world and if you give a team one team a few inches, you’re setting back every other team a few miles.

So that is my list, Mr. Goodell. Do with each item what you see fit.

No pressure, because I’ll be a loyal fan no matter what. But then again, maybe that’s part of the problem.

Signed,

A Concerned Cowboys fan