NY Times Writer Recommends Relegation for NFL [Archive]

View Full Version : NY Times Writer Recommends Relegation for NFL

Pages : [1] 2 3 4 5 6

Soccerholic

20 Jan 2003, 12:42 PM

Citing the dismal record of the Cincinnati Bengals for the past decade, a writer on the op-ed page of the NY Times has recommended the NFL use relegation to motivate poor teams to improve. He uses world soccer as an example of a relegation system:

"What the league must do is infuse the Bengals with competitive fire. And one way to do that, while making the season a lot more exciting in the process, is to import the system of relegation used by most soccer leagues around the world. That entails demoting the worst team (in some leagues, it's more than one) to a lesser league, while promoting the lesser league's champion. Fiorentina, one of Italy's most storied soccer clubs, suffered such a demotion last season. In Spain this year, F.C. Barcelona's mediocre season has nervous fans wondering whether relegation could be in store for that team, one of the world's wealthiest sports franchises."

NY Times article (http://www.nytimes.com/2003/01/19/opinion/19SUN3.html)
Note that you need to register with the NY Times to view this. It's free.

Michael K.

20 Jan 2003, 12:48 PM

He got Fiorentina all wrong, and while it's interesting to consider for a few seconds, it's also easy to see that it'll never, ever happen.

astabooty

20 Jan 2003, 12:54 PM

i dont think it would ever happen either but i believe the NFL has around 32 teams right now plus some over in Europe. If they made the NFL with 24 teams and put the rest in a 2nd division i think it would be quite fun. Seeing the Raiders going against the Bengles sucks but if the Bengles only played teams like the Texans, Panthers, Vikings, etc it would be a lot more interesting.

SoFla Metro

20 Jan 2003, 03:08 PM

This is definitive proof that soccer has arrived in this country.

Wolves_67

20 Jan 2003, 03:23 PM

SoFla Metro

20 Jan 2003, 03:24 PM

Originally posted by Mike Segroves
Wrong, dipshit.

Soccer will have arrived in America only after it is prominently featured in a porno.

New from Vivid Video: WorlDD Cup Review 2006 Featuring Clint Mathis shagging busty biergarten girls to naughty hausfrau. Follow Clint from Baden-Baden to Dusseldorf and back again as he plows through the finest midfields in UEFA and buries his shots in their women My bad

Chris M.

20 Jan 2003, 03:27 PM

Originally posted by Mike Segroves
Wrong, dipshit.

Soccer will have arrived in America only after it is prominently featured in a porno.

Look for "I Diddle My Way" on DVD

skipshady

20 Jan 2003, 05:02 PM

I'm sure investors in Houston, Cleveland, Jacksonville and Charlotte who paid 9 figures in franchise fees would be more than happy to play 2nd Division ball.

Soccerholic

20 Jan 2003, 05:12 PM

As a Lion fan, I'm sure the team would be continually relegated to the lowest possible division. :rolleyes:

Lucid

20 Jan 2003, 07:49 PM

Originally posted by skipshady
I'm sure investors in Houston, Cleveland, Jacksonville and Charlotte who paid 9 figures in franchise fees would be more than happy to play 2nd Division ball.

I'm sure all those cities that build the new stadiums year after year would be extremly pleased as well. I hope this guy isn't taking himself seriously. That's so retarded.

20 Jan 2003, 07:55 PM

Originally posted by Lucid
I'm sure all those cities that build the new stadiums year after year would be extremly pleased as well. I hope this guy isn't taking himself seriously. That's so retarded.

What's retarded is all those cities building new stadia year after year to begin with.

Soccerholic

21 Jan 2003, 10:18 AM

I don't think there's any way the idea of relegation would work in the NFL - although the league does need to do something to motivate the constantly hapless Bengals. But I did think it was interesting that the most prominent newspaper in the US would run an editorial espousing a system that soccer uses almost everywhere on the globe, except in the US, of course.

superdave

21 Jan 2003, 12:07 PM

It was a fun article, and I don't think it was meant as a serious proposal.
Originally posted by Soccerholic
But I did think it was interesting that the most prominent newspaper in the US would run an editorial espousing a system that soccer uses almost everywhere on the globe, except in the US, of course.
Those nations tend to use pro/rel in ALL sports, not just soccer.

That's why there's this constant ill-informed whining about pro/rel in the States. Most people don't realize that pro/rel is how sports tend to be organized in general. Pro/rel has NOTHING to do with soccer...it's not the offside rule, or the backpass rule, or the number of subs, any of that stuff. Pro/rel is a business arrangement.

MikeLastort2

21 Jan 2003, 01:03 PM

Why are so many soccer fans in the US obsessed with promotion/relegation?

I don't understand it at all. I mean, I try to understand, but I just can't comprehend it. Are they that unaware of how sports leagues function in the US?

skipshady

21 Jan 2003, 01:25 PM

Nobby

21 Jan 2003, 02:29 PM

Originally posted by MikeLastort2
Why are so many soccer fans in the US obsessed with promotion/relegation?

I don't understand it at all. I mean, I try to understand, but I just can't comprehend it. Are they that unaware of how sports leagues function in the US?

That was the reason why I was unaware of how American pro leagues work. I didn't care for spectator sports growing up. I liked playing soccer and as I got older, I liked watching the games. Before there was MLS there was some TV access to the European leagues, so I associated soccer with the pro/rel system they use. I understand now why American leagues don't adopt this system. Its still a shame that it will "never, ever happen".

MikeLastort2

21 Jan 2003, 02:33 PM

Originally posted by Nobby
That was the reason why I was unaware of how American pro leagues work. I didn't care for spectator sports growing up. I liked playing soccer and as I got older, I liked watching the games. Before there was MLS there was some TV access to the European leagues, so I associated soccer with the pro/rel system they use. I understand now why American leagues don't adopt this system. Its still a shame that it will "never, ever happen".

Why is it a shame? What, in your opinion, makes promotion/relegation somehow better than the American sports franchise system?

superdave

21 Jan 2003, 03:16 PM

If baseball had pro/rel...Cal Ripken would unquestionably have been dealt from the Orioles when they sucked in the late 80's. Would that be a good thing? Tony Gwynn would never have been a lifelong Padre. Ernie Banks would not be Mr. Cub.

There are things to like about pro/rel. But there are downsides.

It makes sense for hockey, just because it would a) bring some fiscal sanity to the sport and b) allow the Canadian cities like Winnipeg to compete. Pro/rel was a solution for baseball's woes.

It makes no sense in football, because football is played once a week, for 16 weeks. As a result, it lends itself a) to huge stadiums and b) a strong national TV presence. Further, the nature of the sport is such that little development goes on in the pros (compared to hockey, or baseball), which means you gotta have a draft system. All are indications for socialism.

RichardL

21 Jan 2003, 03:50 PM

One point often overlooked is why such a system works well in America. Just how many other countries are there in the world that have as many 1-2 million+ markets as America has? America is 'blessed' with a number of large markets unequalled elsewhere. Imagine if the US had a population similar to reasonably big European country, 30-40 million people, about the same as California - but rather than each urban area shrinking proportionally, imagine California was the whole of the US with the cities and towns as they are now. Trying to fit a 30 team league into an urban market like that would make it nigh on impossible to have any kind of sensible parity. What you'd get would be a marked decline in the size of the clubs, with large clubs from the big cities at one end and smaller clubs from large towns or city suburbs at the other. That is what the situation is pretty much everywhere else in the world and under those conditions pro/rel is necessary to keep the league interesting. It's that or pretending that suppressing wages to a level that enables Bakersfield to compete financially with a team from San Francisco makes a good sporting product.

Nobby

21 Jan 2003, 05:05 PM

Originally posted by MikeLastort2
Why is it a shame? What, in your opinion, makes promotion/relegation somehow better than the American sports franchise system?

Americans are missing out on some great sport stories. Teams from small markets can go the distance and give their all against the big teams in top flight. Former giants, bloated by their own excess, can face sever consequences of their wayward ways. Teams can have a second chance on their return. The top division can be an exhibition of some world-class teams. Themes of domination, rejuvination, innovation, corruption and redemption play out in dramatic fashion in a system of promotion and relegation.

An all-or-nothing mentality gives way to more tempered measures of success and failure. The synergetic properties of a successful team in a lower division is retained when promoted. The structure of the sport is open-ended, pro/rel has no limit to how far and wide the organization and the sport can expand. It can unify the sport played at the professional and amateur levels.

Its an epic form, in my opinion. Its a shame we won't see it in the USA.