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