So how would you fix sports if you were king of the world?
That’s obviously going to be something different for everyone. Here’s what I would do:
First of all, free agency has to go. It’s great for the players, but doesn’t do anything for fans. Fans grow emotionally attached to a player, and then suddenly he comes to town playing for the enemy and you have to root against the guy? I’m a fan, so it’s gone if I’m king.
But I do think players should get paid for entertaining the masses just like movie stars do. They are providing a service to a lot of people and that’s worth money. They should still be making millions. In my world the football players get paid the most though...they pull in the biggest ratings by a mile and certainly put their bodies at risk. From there the pay scale drops to basketball and baseball players. It makes no sense for NBA and MLB players to make more than NFL players when their sports are far behind the NFL in popularity. Hockey is least popular so they get paid the least. Sorry guys.
I would also decree that national sports media leave New York City occasionally so they can figure out that the rest of the country isn’t that interested in the Jets, Knicks, Giants, Islanders, and Mets. There is no need to shove those teams down everyone’s throat. The Knicks aren't a "legendary franchise" as was recently suggested by one writer from the northeast. Baseball fans definitely care about the Yankees though. Similar to the coverage the Lakers and Cowboys get. Fans are actually interested in those teams even/especially if they root against them.
I’ll start with the least broken major sport in my mind.
The NFL is the most popular for a reason. The season is not too long and each event means something. One thing I would lose is bye weeks. Not a fan of that. I already took care of free agency. From now on, fans don’t have to worry so much about tossing out those expensive jerseys they bought when the player leaves to play somewhere else. Other than that, carry on NFL...you got it right.
82 games? Really? I love basketball and that’s too much. You know what the best indication is that your season is too long? This phrase: “Playoff basketball”. What does that really mean? It means there is no possible way the players can give their best effort during the insanely long regular season and have to save it for the playoffs. Fans actually pay to watch players giving less than their best effort during the regular season. Does that sound like a good thing? The players and coaches don’t/can’t care but the fans should? A win or a loss means almost nothing in the NBA regular season...that’s why it’s not “playoff basketball”. I’m reducing it to 26 games at most....tempted to go lower. Every single game is going to count big in my world. And players will have longer careers too.
A related problem here is “playoff basketball” as determined by officiating. Suddenly, when the playoffs start, players are allowed to be much more physical. This makes zero sense to me. First of all, basketball is not a test of manhood...it’s a test to see who has the most basketball skill. Any “finesse team” that excels during the regular season should be able to succeed just as much in the playoffs. There is no logical reason to change the rules so a less skillful team can bully their way to playoff victory. How the term “finesse” got to be an insult is a mystery to me. Sounds like a bunch of macho BS. We've got football to prove manhood.
The idea that players would foul out left and right makes no sense either. Players can play by the rules...it’s not that hard to do. If a coach thinks he can push it by having his players get more physical than the rules allow....and assumes the refs will just give up? ...don’t fall for that crap. Call the game by the rules...that coach will get the point when his players are getting the whistles.
Another problem is the perception that the NBA is dirty. This perception is far more prevalent toward the NBA than any other sport for a reason. Fans actually notice that the star players play by a different rule book than non-star players. Fans aren’t that dense. I think the league actually believes “star treatment” is a good thing. Their reasoning is apparently a fear that the fans would revolt if the stars fouled out of games or had to sit long stretches with foul trouble. The first problem with this thinking is the idea that stars would be somehow unable to play the game by the rules like the non-star players do. If they can’t figure that out, they aren’t that great.
The second problem is assuming fans want star treatment or don't notice it. It makes no sense to give an already superior player yet another advantage. What the heck kind of logic is that? Any stat line from a Hall of Famer since the 80s is inflated by this. We’ll never know what their careers would really have been like. Let’s call “star treatment” what it really is...fixing games. In my world, all players play by the same rule book.
Oh...and there will be no more obviously biased officiated playoff series like Lakers/Kings or Heat/Mavs either. ....fans saw through that stuff very quickly and it made the NBA the butt of many jokes. That’s why so many people think the NBA is fixed and don’t bother with it. Far from being something that grows the league, the NBA can’t seem to climb out of that long shadow of the NFL. David Stern got a lot of credit for “bringing the NBA to prominence”. I have to giggle anytime anyone suggests that. Yeah right....Magic and Bird did that.
All the Stern reign was able to do was maintain a small segment of the sporting audience who are willing to ignore the suspicious officiating practices.
Oh...the NBA lottery is gone. Boom! The other sports get by just fine without that. Worst team gets the #1 pick. Simple. Sorry Spurs fans...no more gifts for you.
When the TV ratings go up due to all these changes the players get bigger paychecks too. Everyone wins.
Ok...82 games again? Again...that’s far too many. They mean almost nothing. Same problem as with the NBA...you get “playoff hockey” when the games actually mean something. Asking fans to care about almost meaningless games is the worst reasoning ever. 26 games. Each game is now important.
Which of course means the players can stop with those fake fights they put on to entertain the fans during the long regular season. How do I know it’s fake? Well for one thing the refs just stand there and watch. And for another thing that stuff suddenly stops when the playoffs start. Yeah...weird how that works, eh? Hockey fights make my eyes roll...out they go!
My big rule change is the offsides rule. That sucker is GONE. Scoring will go up for one thing...and no more watching a potentially exciting play being blown dead because a player got too far ahead of the puck. If a team wants to let players leak out...that’s their gamble. If the puck doesn’t get to them, they just gave the other team a nice power play advantage at the other end. Teams will figure out how to use it and defend it....they aren’t idiots.
Now let’s venture into the real absurdity. 162 freaking games!! If NBA and NHL regular season games mean almost nothing, then MLB regular season games are worth half of that. Winning or losing a baseball game has almost no impact on a season. To illustrate, a team would have to win 10 games in a row to have the same impact as 1 win by an NFL team. The TV ratings show which method is working quite well. It’s so bad that preseason NFL games can get higher TV ratings than World Series games!
This absurd schedule came about during the early years of baseball when it actually made sense to give the public a baseball game every day. Today, it’s just a long endless droning assault of meaningless baseball scores cluttering up sports newscasts for months on end. Enough of that...I’m cutting it to 26 games.
The public might actually start to know the names of baseball players. Each team will have a starting pitcher similar to starting quarterbacks in the NFL since they will be playing about once a week. Maybe baseball players will become less surly with the media too since the drudgery of the regular season will be gone.
Baseball “managers”....stop wearing uniforms. You look ridiculous. (Imagine a football coach wearing a helmet and pads on the sideline!...or a NBA coach in shorts!) Seriously guys, you aren’t going to be needed to play in the game....get over that fantasy. And I’m changing your title to “head coach” too.
I expect the popularity of MLB to increase greatly as the games mean something finally, so of course the players will benefit accordingly. If the ratings do increase, at least baseball fans will have something to base their superiority complex on for a change.
They are closer than most, but 36 events is still too many. The season starts in February and ends in November. That’s too long. We’re bringing this one down to 25 races. That’s gonna help in an important way when we...
...Get rid of the stupid “Chase”. Dumbest idea ever. NASCAR was in a unique position in team sports. They actually compete against every other team each week. There is no need for a playoff. Playoffs only exist in other sports because they need a way to pit the best teams against each other to find the best team. It’s not perfect since it doesn’t always crown the best team, but it’s the best they can do.
NASCAR used to have the most accurate measurement of its champion in all of team sports. Whichever team performed the best throughout the entire season was the champ. Simple and accurate. No flukes or “hot streaks” giving the trophy to a team that didn’t have the best season.
But NASCAR is actually owned by a family...the France family. I’m getting rid of that. In my world the team owners elect a commissioner to run the sport.
Anyway...this Brian France guy came up with the idea of the “Chase”. Basically adding an unnecessary playoff format to the sport. It is flawed in every way. Since NASCAR made its biggest gains in popularity before the Chase (in the 90s) and has not grown since...it’s pretty obvious it is not effective or needed.
First, it reduces the accuracy of the championship. A team can have the best season but have a couple of bad luck races in the “Chase” and lose the championship. Any “excitement” created by this is artificial....and obviously not growing the sport.
Secondly, it acts to keep the sport from gaining popularity. It first makes all “non Chase” races less important. These races run from February to August....the one time period when NASCAR has Sundays to itself to gain viewers!
Guess which races become more important with the “Chase”? Yep...the races from September through November. Can you guess how many sports fans will be choosing NASCAR over the NFL during that time? Nice logic there Mr France. De-emphasize all the races that can get you new fans and emphasize the races where you have no chance to attract new fans.
So my NASCAR is going to go from February to August at the most and have Sunday afternoons to itself.
Oh...since most of the drivers aren’t even from the South any more (the last champ from the south was in 2000), there is no reason to emphasis the “redneck” in the sport. They actually named the huge TV screen at Texas Motor Speedway “Big Hoss”. Really? That image no longer fits drivers like Jeff Gordon, Jimmie Johnson, Tony Stewart, etc.
And stop catering to the Dale Earnhardt fans....it makes fans of other drivers feel excluded. The “Saint Dale” vibe is nauseating. He wasn’t a god, Jeff Gordon used to run circles around him.
They are getting a playoff format so that fixed their biggest problem. I still laugh at the idea that they used to vote for their champ.
I would endeavor to stop college football fans from claiming that any college team could ever defeat a NFL team though. That’s silly. Oh...and college players aren’t playing “for the love of the game” any more than pro players do. Most of them are only there to try and make the pros!
Ummm...I got nothing. I know almost nothing about the sport.
No complaints. I love it just the way it is.
That’s obviously going to be something different for everyone. Here’s what I would do:
First of all, free agency has to go. It’s great for the players, but doesn’t do anything for fans. Fans grow emotionally attached to a player, and then suddenly he comes to town playing for the enemy and you have to root against the guy? I’m a fan, so it’s gone if I’m king.
But I do think players should get paid for entertaining the masses just like movie stars do. They are providing a service to a lot of people and that’s worth money. They should still be making millions. In my world the football players get paid the most though...they pull in the biggest ratings by a mile and certainly put their bodies at risk. From there the pay scale drops to basketball and baseball players. It makes no sense for NBA and MLB players to make more than NFL players when their sports are far behind the NFL in popularity. Hockey is least popular so they get paid the least. Sorry guys.
I would also decree that national sports media leave New York City occasionally so they can figure out that the rest of the country isn’t that interested in the Jets, Knicks, Giants, Islanders, and Mets. There is no need to shove those teams down everyone’s throat. The Knicks aren't a "legendary franchise" as was recently suggested by one writer from the northeast. Baseball fans definitely care about the Yankees though. Similar to the coverage the Lakers and Cowboys get. Fans are actually interested in those teams even/especially if they root against them.
I’ll start with the least broken major sport in my mind.
NFL
The NFL is the most popular for a reason. The season is not too long and each event means something. One thing I would lose is bye weeks. Not a fan of that. I already took care of free agency. From now on, fans don’t have to worry so much about tossing out those expensive jerseys they bought when the player leaves to play somewhere else. Other than that, carry on NFL...you got it right.
NBA
82 games? Really? I love basketball and that’s too much. You know what the best indication is that your season is too long? This phrase: “Playoff basketball”. What does that really mean? It means there is no possible way the players can give their best effort during the insanely long regular season and have to save it for the playoffs. Fans actually pay to watch players giving less than their best effort during the regular season. Does that sound like a good thing? The players and coaches don’t/can’t care but the fans should? A win or a loss means almost nothing in the NBA regular season...that’s why it’s not “playoff basketball”. I’m reducing it to 26 games at most....tempted to go lower. Every single game is going to count big in my world. And players will have longer careers too.
A related problem here is “playoff basketball” as determined by officiating. Suddenly, when the playoffs start, players are allowed to be much more physical. This makes zero sense to me. First of all, basketball is not a test of manhood...it’s a test to see who has the most basketball skill. Any “finesse team” that excels during the regular season should be able to succeed just as much in the playoffs. There is no logical reason to change the rules so a less skillful team can bully their way to playoff victory. How the term “finesse” got to be an insult is a mystery to me. Sounds like a bunch of macho BS. We've got football to prove manhood.
The idea that players would foul out left and right makes no sense either. Players can play by the rules...it’s not that hard to do. If a coach thinks he can push it by having his players get more physical than the rules allow....and assumes the refs will just give up? ...don’t fall for that crap. Call the game by the rules...that coach will get the point when his players are getting the whistles.
Another problem is the perception that the NBA is dirty. This perception is far more prevalent toward the NBA than any other sport for a reason. Fans actually notice that the star players play by a different rule book than non-star players. Fans aren’t that dense. I think the league actually believes “star treatment” is a good thing. Their reasoning is apparently a fear that the fans would revolt if the stars fouled out of games or had to sit long stretches with foul trouble. The first problem with this thinking is the idea that stars would be somehow unable to play the game by the rules like the non-star players do. If they can’t figure that out, they aren’t that great.
The second problem is assuming fans want star treatment or don't notice it. It makes no sense to give an already superior player yet another advantage. What the heck kind of logic is that? Any stat line from a Hall of Famer since the 80s is inflated by this. We’ll never know what their careers would really have been like. Let’s call “star treatment” what it really is...fixing games. In my world, all players play by the same rule book.
Oh...and there will be no more obviously biased officiated playoff series like Lakers/Kings or Heat/Mavs either. ....fans saw through that stuff very quickly and it made the NBA the butt of many jokes. That’s why so many people think the NBA is fixed and don’t bother with it. Far from being something that grows the league, the NBA can’t seem to climb out of that long shadow of the NFL. David Stern got a lot of credit for “bringing the NBA to prominence”. I have to giggle anytime anyone suggests that. Yeah right....Magic and Bird did that.
All the Stern reign was able to do was maintain a small segment of the sporting audience who are willing to ignore the suspicious officiating practices.
Oh...the NBA lottery is gone. Boom! The other sports get by just fine without that. Worst team gets the #1 pick. Simple. Sorry Spurs fans...no more gifts for you.
When the TV ratings go up due to all these changes the players get bigger paychecks too. Everyone wins.
NHL
Ok...82 games again? Again...that’s far too many. They mean almost nothing. Same problem as with the NBA...you get “playoff hockey” when the games actually mean something. Asking fans to care about almost meaningless games is the worst reasoning ever. 26 games. Each game is now important.
Which of course means the players can stop with those fake fights they put on to entertain the fans during the long regular season. How do I know it’s fake? Well for one thing the refs just stand there and watch. And for another thing that stuff suddenly stops when the playoffs start. Yeah...weird how that works, eh? Hockey fights make my eyes roll...out they go!
My big rule change is the offsides rule. That sucker is GONE. Scoring will go up for one thing...and no more watching a potentially exciting play being blown dead because a player got too far ahead of the puck. If a team wants to let players leak out...that’s their gamble. If the puck doesn’t get to them, they just gave the other team a nice power play advantage at the other end. Teams will figure out how to use it and defend it....they aren’t idiots.
MLB
Now let’s venture into the real absurdity. 162 freaking games!! If NBA and NHL regular season games mean almost nothing, then MLB regular season games are worth half of that. Winning or losing a baseball game has almost no impact on a season. To illustrate, a team would have to win 10 games in a row to have the same impact as 1 win by an NFL team. The TV ratings show which method is working quite well. It’s so bad that preseason NFL games can get higher TV ratings than World Series games!
This absurd schedule came about during the early years of baseball when it actually made sense to give the public a baseball game every day. Today, it’s just a long endless droning assault of meaningless baseball scores cluttering up sports newscasts for months on end. Enough of that...I’m cutting it to 26 games.
The public might actually start to know the names of baseball players. Each team will have a starting pitcher similar to starting quarterbacks in the NFL since they will be playing about once a week. Maybe baseball players will become less surly with the media too since the drudgery of the regular season will be gone.
Baseball “managers”....stop wearing uniforms. You look ridiculous. (Imagine a football coach wearing a helmet and pads on the sideline!...or a NBA coach in shorts!) Seriously guys, you aren’t going to be needed to play in the game....get over that fantasy. And I’m changing your title to “head coach” too.
I expect the popularity of MLB to increase greatly as the games mean something finally, so of course the players will benefit accordingly. If the ratings do increase, at least baseball fans will have something to base their superiority complex on for a change.
NASCAR
They are closer than most, but 36 events is still too many. The season starts in February and ends in November. That’s too long. We’re bringing this one down to 25 races. That’s gonna help in an important way when we...
...Get rid of the stupid “Chase”. Dumbest idea ever. NASCAR was in a unique position in team sports. They actually compete against every other team each week. There is no need for a playoff. Playoffs only exist in other sports because they need a way to pit the best teams against each other to find the best team. It’s not perfect since it doesn’t always crown the best team, but it’s the best they can do.
NASCAR used to have the most accurate measurement of its champion in all of team sports. Whichever team performed the best throughout the entire season was the champ. Simple and accurate. No flukes or “hot streaks” giving the trophy to a team that didn’t have the best season.
But NASCAR is actually owned by a family...the France family. I’m getting rid of that. In my world the team owners elect a commissioner to run the sport.
Anyway...this Brian France guy came up with the idea of the “Chase”. Basically adding an unnecessary playoff format to the sport. It is flawed in every way. Since NASCAR made its biggest gains in popularity before the Chase (in the 90s) and has not grown since...it’s pretty obvious it is not effective or needed.
First, it reduces the accuracy of the championship. A team can have the best season but have a couple of bad luck races in the “Chase” and lose the championship. Any “excitement” created by this is artificial....and obviously not growing the sport.
Secondly, it acts to keep the sport from gaining popularity. It first makes all “non Chase” races less important. These races run from February to August....the one time period when NASCAR has Sundays to itself to gain viewers!
Guess which races become more important with the “Chase”? Yep...the races from September through November. Can you guess how many sports fans will be choosing NASCAR over the NFL during that time? Nice logic there Mr France. De-emphasize all the races that can get you new fans and emphasize the races where you have no chance to attract new fans.
So my NASCAR is going to go from February to August at the most and have Sunday afternoons to itself.
Oh...since most of the drivers aren’t even from the South any more (the last champ from the south was in 2000), there is no reason to emphasis the “redneck” in the sport. They actually named the huge TV screen at Texas Motor Speedway “Big Hoss”. Really? That image no longer fits drivers like Jeff Gordon, Jimmie Johnson, Tony Stewart, etc.
And stop catering to the Dale Earnhardt fans....it makes fans of other drivers feel excluded. The “Saint Dale” vibe is nauseating. He wasn’t a god, Jeff Gordon used to run circles around him.
NCAA football
They are getting a playoff format so that fixed their biggest problem. I still laugh at the idea that they used to vote for their champ.
I would endeavor to stop college football fans from claiming that any college team could ever defeat a NFL team though. That’s silly. Oh...and college players aren’t playing “for the love of the game” any more than pro players do. Most of them are only there to try and make the pros!
Golf
Ummm...I got nothing. I know almost nothing about the sport.
Tennis
No complaints. I love it just the way it is.
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