Parity Stinks
Is anybody else sick of parity in the NFL? I know I am. Everybody’s calling it a “crazy” year in the league but it’s not crazy it’s just mediocre.
Really.
When Dallas beat Washington on Monday Night Football a couple of weeks ago, everybody thought it might be the Cowboys’ only win of the year. Instead, they’re just a game and a half out of first in the NFC East, with two wins.
A couple of weeks ago I was doing the weekly picks on the Lex and Terry Radio Network and went 11-2. Thinking I had it figured out, I expected the same next week, only to have 4 right, including “out on a limb picks” like Cleveland over Baltimore and the Redskins winning their fist game. At least I thought they were out on a limb.
It’s apparent the draft and the salary cap have caught up to just about everybody, making it a league full of possible 8-8 teams.
Does anybody really like that? I mean even the league can’t like the fact that instead of everybody looking like they’re good, everybody looks like they’re average. Why are players like Lonnie Marts and Tom McManus out of the league? Not because they can’t play, but because as veterans, their minimum salary is too high to warrant keeping them because of their knowledge weighed against a rookie’s potential, and cheap price. The middle year veteran player has been squeezed out of the league, leaving teams with a dozen or so high priced “playmakers” and the rest of the roster filled out with minimum salary rookies and free agents.
So what wins with that formula in the NFL?
Muscle.
Plain and simple, you’ve got to spend your left over money after you pay your stars on muscle. You can’t afford to have extra skill players around. If you don’t pay the price now, it will catch you in a year or so and you’ll have to dismantle, like the Buffalo Bills or the Redskins. You’ve got to have muscle among your middle and late round draft picks, and you can’t miss on many of them. Guys picked after the 3rd round have to come in a play a role on your team.
I subscribe to the dominant team theory. If the Rams are on television, I’ll watch that game because right now they’re the closest thing to a dominant team in the league. Plus they have fun; they throw it around, on-side kick at any time, and don’t mind what people think.
Over the years Green Bay, Dallas, Chicago, San Francisco, Washington, Oakland and others have been dominant teams. Fans like that. They want to see somebody climb to the top of the mountain and claim it as their own for a while. It gives other teams something to shoot for. Right now, everybody’s looking at 9-7, and that will get some team in the playoffs every year.
Yawn.
