Things I Want to Disappear From the NFL

Dear Commish Roger Goodell,
Please eliminate the following from the NFL:

1. Thursday night games. I love football and I watch every game I can but enough with the Thursday night games. It creates an unfair disadvantage for the teams playing. Football is a violent enough game without cutting down the days to recover from one game to the next. It serves no real purpose other than to create another cash cow for the league.

2. Staggered bye-weeks through the middle of the season. Why give some teams a week three bye and others a week ten bye? If you must give bye weeks, do two weeks in the middle of the season. One week for half the teams and the following week the other half.

3. Overseas regular season games. Really what's the point? It takes away a home game for one team and forces two teams to do something no other teams have to do during the season. I'd be really upset if I only got seven regular season games to see the Texans. The season is short enough with only eight home games. Why rob a home team and its fans of a game?

4. Sudden death overtime. At the very least give both teams a possession with the ball. If after one possession each the game remains tied then let it go to sudden death.

5. End the exclusive agreement with DishTV or whoever you have the deal with for the NFL Sunday Pass or whatever the hell you call that monopoly. The NBA, NHL, MLB and even MLS allow both satellite and cable to carry their seasons for a premium price. Why not the NFL? Any revenue lost from the Thursday night games will probably be made up from opening up this market. Plus not everyone has a southwest exposure to point a dish satellite dish.

And a corollary to 5, quit your little pissing match with Time Warner and other cable companies about witch tier to carry the NFL Network. To state that it limits NFL viewership while the NFL maintains an exclusive satellite coverage with one company just isn't right. Open all the markets up or quit complaining about shoddy treatment from cable companies.

In summary, a theme develops here. I want the best competition on the field for as many viewers as possible. Eliminating the Thursday night games, the staggered bye weeks and overseas games keeps the playing field level. Altering the overtime rules gives a fair chance to both teams. And finally opening up coverage by ending an exclusive agreement with satellite and settling differences with cable companies widens the market of viewers.