NFL to use radio hedsets for all players?

Other Leagues and Entertainment
#1

http://www.tsn.ca/tsn_talent/columnists/chris_schultz/?ID=187236

Suggestion #3 by Shultz:

[i]Can NFL football be improved?

Yes, yes, yes! If Roger Goodell is allowed to have head sets and audio devices in every player's helmet, to take away crowd noise, then every team should run no huddle offense after the first play of every drive in 2007. With commercials, time-outs, challenges, injuries and penalties, NFL games are too slow. But, if teams are encouraged or demanded to run no-huddle, limiting defensive substitutions and put the spontaneity back into football, taking some of the planning out, the game would be so much more entertaining. You can run an entire NFL offense through no huddle. You just need very bright players and a very, very bright quarterback. It may be a little revolutionary, but the more plays run in a game, the better, and you maximize the ability to run plays when you run no-huddle all the time. [/i]

I'm staunchly against any such proposition:

1-- It takes the crowd out of the game... football is arguably the most crowd influenced sport in the world. This would definitely rob the fans of a sense of involvement.

2--It would mark such a fundamental change to the game that other things would begin to have to be looked at.

3--As it is, offenses use the majority of the 40 second play-clock to set-up their play. A no-huddle offense would expedite this resulting in more plays in a given time... I'm not so sure there's much defenses can do to counter. Their own headsets would be inconsequential since it would still be a matter of matching the right personnel and making the right reads which they'd have less time to react to. Given this would decidedly give offenses an immense advantage and give them more plays with which to execute in a given game... would we begin to see scores rivaling basketball?

4--Goodell ultimately has to answer to the TV gods that keep owners' wallets fat... No huddle offenses running plays every 20 seconds or so is going to leave how much time for all the flashy graphics, analysis & recaps from around the league?

5--When is enough technology in a sport enough? I'm all for sideline support and instant replay that doesn't affect the pace of the game... The game on the field should be a human sport with basic equipment to protect the athletes. Pro sports should consist of a game's best athletes playing the same game played since they were tykes. Having technology play such a huge role between the sidelines really makes this game fundamentally different than the one played by the rest of the football playing community.

I think if Schultz wants a more spontaneous, quicker NFL... that league only has to look to the NCAA and CFL for answers that don't involve making football into Delta Force...

What do you think of such a change if it ever were to happen?

#2

not gonna happen, and sicne this doesnt relate to CFL, it shoulda been in ‘off topic’.

#3

What's next..."Let's build robots"? Programe them to play the game for us? :roll:

#4

Whether or not Commercials, time-outs, etc make the game too slow or not, those same breaks in the action allow for networks to sell advertising, which pays the salaries of the players, coaches, refs, announcers, and practically everyone else associated w/the NFL. I guess I don’t know what to think about it, because IT AIN’T NEVER NEVER EVER GONNA HAPPEN! There may be more headsets-but the NFL is NOT gonna speed up the pace of the games…if there are less natural pauses in the action, the NFL will just do what basketball does; call the “TV time out.” And with the ratings that NFL -and NCAA- football games get, I would beg to disagree that the games are too slow…[ratings] numbers don’t lie, at least not to advertisers.

#5

Yeah, pretty bad to try and take the fan out of the game considering that by paying the exorbitant ticket prices and DISGUSTING prices for the "NFL Sunday ticket" programming. And anything else they have to pay for which makes these overpaid idiots their money, The FAN should be the last person any owner,coach or player should be concerned about!!

#6

Well, Geo, understand your frustration; but there is an adage I learned in Real Estate: "a property is worth whatever someone is willing to pay." Samething goes for entertainment, I guess.

#7

If I were ranking the dumb ideas I've heard, this one were be at or near the top.
Schultz says,"You just need very bright players and a very, very bright quarterback."
Au contraire, this would seem to suit the dumb guy who can't think for himself.
An ideal situation for the coach who would be better off playing 'Madden 2007'

The argument about speeding up the game will never go anywhere in the NFL. The one most important factor in the NFL is MONEY. As has been said, if you cut down on commercial time, that's dollars out the door, a NO-NO that will never fly.

All that having been said, if more action is required, the best thing the NFL could do is eliminate the 40 seconds between plays, adopt our 20 second interval, and make the guys sweat a little.

#8

Wow for some reason I'm starting to miss Talibague.

#9

Our 20 second clock gives as much time between plays as the NFL's 40 second clock. Their playclock starts at the end of the previous play. Ours starts as the official's 'time-in' signal while the game clock runs freely. The actual time between plays tends to be about the same. The only thing our playclock does is squeeze more plays under the 3 minute warning where the game clock won't run without the 20 second playclock.