Football is awesome, but we need to fix it

Football is the most popular sport in our country and it’s not close.

I, myself, am not a huge fan. I prefer basketball 10-fold to the pigskin, but I also will not lie and deny the fact that countless hundreds of hours of my year are spent plopped on the couch watching teams do battle against one another.

But I think we can all agree that while the sport is amazing and highly popular, it could be better — much better.

So here I am to save the day.

As I watched bowl games, NFL playoff games and College Football Playoff Games over the holiday, I got to making a list of the ways that we can make football better.

You may agree with some (I think a few are almost universal) and disagree with others.

Regardless, I’d love to see your lists.

Send them to me at casey@rushing-media.com.

FIX TARGETING IN COLLEGE FOOTBALL

This is universal. I have literally not spoken to a single fan in the country who does not think that targeting rules in college football are dumb.

We get it. The sport is dangerous. People get concussions. Concussions are bad. Yadda, yadda, yadda.

But to police a contact sport as heavily as they do in college football is foolish and it’s becoming dangerous for the popularity of the sport.

The idea that every helmet-to-helmet hit — intentional or not — should be a 15-yard penalty is fine. I agree with that.

But the idea that players will get ejected for such offenses is just stupidity.

How is a helmet-to-helmet hit any more or less dangerous than a facemask, horse collar or any other play that doesn’t come with an ejection?

I think we need to give targeting penalties tiers — like flagrant fouls in basketball. Tier 1 will be fouls that involve helmet contact, but that are deemed incidental. Those fouls come with a 15-yard penalty and nothing else. Tier 2 will be fouls where a player is blatantly launching his head at a defender like a torpedo to try and injure. Those fouls will carry the ejection.

Literally everyone I’ve spoken to agrees with this. We need it in college football badly.

FIX OFFICIATING IN THE GAME

Officiating in college and pro football is out of control. It’s become so bad that conspiracy theories have formed and fans legitimately think there are biases for or against certain teams.

I won’t go that far, but I will say this: officiating — especially at the NFL level — is as bad as I’ve ever seen it. Every, single game, there are 2-3 calls that leave us wondering what in the world those guys were looking at on the field.

My theory for why this is stems to instant replay.

I think instant replay has become a crutch for lazy officials to fall asleep on the job, knowing that if they miss a call, it’s no big deal because Big Brother upstairs will fix it with no harm done.

In the College Football Playoff semifinal between Clemson and Notre Dame, six … count ‘em … SIX plays were overturned by replay. That’s too many times to be wrong in a 60-minute game when it’s your job to be right.

Of course, that game was also officiated by the same crew that had the LSU and Texas A&M — a Matt Austin-led crew that should have all been fired from top-to-bottom as soon as that game was completed. But that’s another argument for another day.

I think that officials need accountability for their mistakes — just like players have. If a call is overturned by instant replay, pay should be docked by a small percentage as a fine. I think we also should hire an honest, objective firm to grade these guys — at all levels. At the end of the season, the crews who missed the most calls get dropped down in rank — no questions asked. Those who were the best, get promoted and get a bump in pay. And I want these results to be made public.

Too often, we see the same guys make the same mistakes every week. That just can’t keep happening.

FIX POSTSEASON IN COLLEGE FOOTBALL

I think we need to expand our college football playoff to 8 teams. I think all the Power 5 conference champions should get an automatic bid and I think 3 wild cards should be picked from the pool.

To me, those games should be the only games played after the regular season. To eliminate players sitting out bowl games, I would play the “bowl games” to start the next season. For example, LSU and UCF — if neither team had made the 8-team playoffs — would have been the Fiesta Bowl Kickoff Classic to open 2019.

I think honoring conference champions so heavily will make the season better. Teams can schedule tougher non-conference games without fear that a loss will all-but end their seasons. It’s a win-win for all.

ODD-BALL TWEAKS

OK, so now, it’s time to get a little silly.

I think all field goals and extra points that hit the uprights should be good — much like baseballs that hit the foul pole and ricochet foul are still home runs. To me, it takes more skill to hit a small post in the sky than it does to hit the 10 yards of space between them.

I think if a kickoff hits an upright, an opposing team should start at the 20-yard-line, instead of the 25. If a kick splits the uprights, the opposing team should be backed up to the 15. This would increase the importance of special teams in a game.

I think in college football overtime, if a team scores in one play, the opponent should also have to score in one play or the game ends … and so-on. Whoever scores in the least amount of plays wins.

I think the illegal formation rule should be eliminated. Who cares how many people you have on the line of scrimmage? I think the NFL should adopt Bird Rights — like in the NBA. Why should teams who draft well be penalized by not being able to re-sign the players they scouted and selected? I think there should be a third-place game on the Saturday before the Super Bowl on Sunday. It should be between the losers of both Championship Games and it should erase the Pro Bowl from existence. The winner of the game should get a Top 10 pick in the NFL Draft. Speaking of that, I think the nine worst teams (and the winner of my 3rd-place game) should be placed in a lottery to determine the NFL Draft order. The lottery wouldn’t be weighted and would be 100 percent random. It would be TV gold. I’m tired of seeing teams tank late in the season. This fixes that and it makes for a 2-hour TV show that would generate huge ratings.

—

OK, OK, I quit.

But I’m not done for good. I’m sure I’ll tackle basketball and baseball sometime soon.

I vowed to speak my mind more in 2019. So far, so good, I guess.

Joe Burrow

Follow Casey on Twitter for more. 

https://twitter.com/casey_gisclair