Super Bowl 2015: A fitting end to a terrible year
Feb 1, 2015; Glendale, AZ, USA; The New England Patriots and the Seattle Seahawks fight during the fourth quarter in Super Bowl XLIX at University of Phoenix Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Richard Mackson-USA TODAY Sports
Well, at least nobody is talking about the Baltimore Ravens’ crimes anymore. After a year of off-field issues, discussions about seemingly everything but football and a huge (potential) cheating scandal, Super Bowl 2015 ended with a fight, maybe the biggest in the NFL this year. Hundreds of millions people saw it, and now the NFL will have more reason to not focus on football.
I’m not going to dwell on all these events. Instead, I want to focus on what we can learn from them.
Let’s start with the off-field crimes. Expanded use of the Exempt List was a decent development. Players being investigated for violent crimes should not be playing or practicing until their case reaches a verdict. The Exempt List helps keep it that way.
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Moving on to rules that came into question this year:
Dez Bryant‘s non-catch will probably result in a rule change (something that should have happened years ago). Hopefully, the NFL will be able to better define what a catch is after this offseason.
More consistency in the following areas would have improved the game as well: Defining illegal pick plays, defining pass interference better (this is an area that’s improving), and more consistent implementation of sideline violations (Dez doesn’t get called but John Harbaugh does?).
As for cheating or fighting, I don’t have answers to eliminate either of them. They will always happen. To be honest, the Ravens pick fights too often for my taste as well. Fighting is not tough. Toughness is beating up your opponent between the whistles. Doing it after the whistle is just cheap.
I do hope the NFL starts penalizing that crap more harshly. Numerous players from both the Seahawks and the Patriots should be facing suspensions for what happened in the Super Bowl. Unfortunately, most fights are penalized with minor fines.
As for the NFL’s image, which is in the toilet right now, that one is easy. I just listed a ton of problems with the NFL. Roger Goodell has a reputation for not doing anything about them. If you want to fix the NFL’s image, start to address its problems. Don’t just talk about it, do it. That will fix its image more than anything else possibly could.
Thankfully, the 2014-15 NFL season is over. The time has come to put all the off-field garbage in the past and move on. To do that, the NFL has to learn from it all. Here’s hoping that happens.