Week 17

Its Week 17 in the NFL and despite our best attempts many of your favorite NFL players will be warming the bench.  Does this take away from the integrity of the game?  There’s this idea that NFL coaches want you to believe: win at any cost and you play to win the game.  Those rules don’t matter when playoff seeding has been decided and coaches suddenly remember that this is a violent sport.

Don’t get me wrong, strategically, this is the right move.  Risking injury in an otherwise meaningless game is the kind of decision that coaches can get fired over.  The risk is far greater than the reward.

However, last week, the decision made by Jim Caldwell to sit Peyton Manning and other starters was not only the wrong decision, it was an unfortunate one.  I will get to who it was unfortunate for.

Sitting Manning and others in the middle of an undecided game robbed the fans of something that every fanbase should be entitled to; the chance at perfection.  Manning’s brilliance has been on full display this season, one in which he was supposed to take a step back.  His record consecutive season streak of winning 12 games was supposed to be snapped and the loss of ol faithful Marvin Harrison was supposed to be devastating along with grooming two new receivers.

Somehow, Manning has taken his level even higher.  I argued when Peyton Manning won his first Super Bowl, and beat the Patriots in the process, that Manning had finally “got it”.  Its that mental big game IQ that automatically makes that great player even better.  When Jordan finally beat the Pistons and won his first championshipn he never looked back.  With a good supporting cast he could win every year all on memory of what it takes.  That big game IQ is so advanced in the great ones that its ultimately difficult to see them stopping from winning championships as long as they have a decent supporting cast.  Jordan’s last 2 titles against Utah was won because he knew what it took to win those games and Karl Malone and John Stockton didn’t.

That IQ is being put on display this season.  Everytime a game seems close, Peyton digs deep into his big game IQ and pulls another one out.  All he asks of everyone else, is that they be in the right spot everytime.

The call to take Peyton out robbed the Colt fans and football fans of seeing our living legend from doing what he does best: win.  Not because his team is better, but because he’s undoubtedly the best player on the field on every occasion.

There wasn’t a doubt that the Colts were going to win that game.  None.  It was 15-10 after Peyton answered a Jet special team TD with a TD drive of his own.  I hate to simplify the difficult chess match that football is but when its Peyton Manning it is that simple.

Don’t blame Caldwell, this decision, like every year, was made by GM Bill Polian.  His reasoning is based on sound reasoning: he’s not trying for a perfect season, he’s trying for a Super Bowl and in order for him to achieve that, he must protect his best players from the risk of injury.

That’s fine, except, the Jets don’t get the respect of earning that victory and headlines of the Jets ending their perfect season ring hollow when you consider how it all played out.

This week, the Jets play a Bengals team, who also have very little to play for.  A team unwilling to risk injury to play for competitive pride.  Of course the problem is this: we have an example of a team with nothing to play for on the final week of the season playing for only pride and it paying off.  The Giants in 2007 decided to play the Patriots at full strength even though they had locked up a playoff spot and look what that resulted in.

But teams are not that interested in moral victory to risk the public lashing if Peyton Manning gets injured and ruins a possible Super Bowl victory.  We applauded the Pats for going for it and the Saints and Drew Brees earlier this season when they said they would go for it too.

Now for the unfortunate people in this story.  The wronged are the fans.  The unfortunate ones are the owners.  Next season will likely be played without a CBA (Collective Bargaining Agreement) in place which means it will be an uncapped year.  One of the major sticking points will most certainly be the idea to extend the season to 18 games.  Imagine if you will your team at 14-1 having locked in a playoff seed.  Week 17 in a rather meaningless game, they will most likely rest the starters making 4 weeks of meaningless football being played in front of half interested fans who hate themselves for taking out that second mortgage in order to pay for season tickets.  The fans will not go for that.  They were in outrage last week over the Colts, just imagine how it plays out when the owners demand an 18 game season and get it.  There will be a downward spike in ticket sales and in the midst of an economic recession, it could result in a very bitter winter indeed for many owners.

Owners can force the players into playing but they run the risk of alienating their coaches who would favor sitting the players.  The owners are staring down the barrel of a very difficult decision: play an 18 game season and hope its competitve for the most part, OR face backlash from fans who will most certainly not pony up extra cash for 2 more games when they are already paying for 4 preseason games.

Single ticket sales may see a spike but that’s because there will be more seats to be had and the risk of a half empty Lucas Oil Stadium could ultimately be bad news bears for the bottomline of teams.

In my opinion, we should keep seasons to 16 games.  The best part of the NFL is that its such a limited amount of games that we look forward to the season and love it and we want more.  The greatest showmen will tell you that you should always leave your audiences wanting more.  Not only will non competitive games be played, Sunday afternoons in December and early January will be meaningless.  That can’t happen.  More games mean there’s an even greater chance that a Peyton Manning gets injured.  Last season when Tom Brady got injured in the first quarter of the first game of the season, the NFL got robbed of the Patriots response to them losing out on the Super Bowl and the perfect season.  Who knows how it wouldve played out.  Injuries do that and teams constantly play in fear of that risk.  Let’s not increase that risk so that week 17’s for years to come will actually mean something.