NFL in 2022

[JWL]

While driving to work this morning, I listened to Boomer Esiason talk about how he thinks each team will play 17 regular season games and fewer preseason games a few years from now. He also thinks the number of playoff teams will increase from 12 to 14.

I know this is a forum mostly about football history but this thread might be interesting. I am sure some of us are tiring of the excessive "power rank the .500 teams in even numbered years in the 1970s" threads.

What are some changes you feel will occur within the league in the next half decade?

[Rupert Patrick]

I don't think the schedule will increase. The Player's Union will shut it down, and it will be over the concussion issue. As doctors and scientists learn more and more about the concussion issue over the years to come, there will be calls to shorten the schedule, not lengthen it.

With ratings down seemingly another year, the networks are going to take a financial bath in lost ratings revenue, and it will cost them when it comes time to negotiate the next television contracts with the league. The teams will pass a lot of these losses on to the consumer in the form of increased ticket costs or other fees. The Networks will encourage the NFL to come up with new gimmicks, such as these silly end zone celebrations. What's next, a stripper pole on the sidelines for cheerleaders to perform on during the game? Will they get commercial sponsorship for those? How about the National Anthem kneeldowns/protests? Can those get commercial sponsorship for those, since they seem to be a part of the game from this point forward? I noticed during one game I watched that the announcers pointed out the players who did not participate and what they did during the National Anthem.

[Reaser]

The better question is what do you think society will be like in 2022? Since that will directly relate to a majority of potential changes the NFL would/could make.

[JeffreyMiller]

The game will be played by cyborgs ....

[Rupert Patrick]

The better question is what do you think society will be like in 2022? Since that will directly relate to a majority of potential changes the NFL would/could make.

Flying cars in every garage, robots in every home doing all your housework, everybody taking vacation trips to the moon...

Oh, the real societal changes. I think Kaepernick opened up a Pandora's box with his protest of the National Anthem (leaving the politics out of it) and it has seriously damaged the brand of the NFL, and alienated a big chunk of it's audience. I don't know if or when or how the NFL recovers it's audience from this. I worry that the NFL has reached a place that MLB did in the mid-late 1990's with the strike that wiped out the end of the 1994 season and World Series followed by the steroid scandal which led to three juiced up players smashing the single season Home Run record a total of six times over the course of four seasons. That drove a lot of fans away from Baseball, myself for one.

[James]

I shudder to think what the NFL will be like in 2022. The game has become so pussyfied today. I mean, hell, if you lat a pinkie and barley touch the QB, 15 yard penalty and don't get me started about a WR going over the middle. It is so not the game I grew up with and fell in love with as a kid in the 1970's. I still watch, but I'm just not that excited as I used to be, not in the last 5 years or so. Now they can do endzone celebrations, which is stupid as hell, jackasses kneeling during the national anthem, and the NFL has gotten so damn commercialized that to me is really sad. Not to mention all the fantasy crap. Okay rant over....

[Jay Z]

I shudder to think what the NFL will be like in 2022. The game has become so pussyfied today. I mean, hell, if you lat a pinkie and barley touch the QB, 15 yard penalty and don't get me started about a WR going over the middle. It is so not the game I grew up with and fell in love with as a kid in the 1970's. I still watch, but I'm just not that excited as I used to be, not in the last 5 years or so. Now they can do endzone celebrations, which is stupid as hell, jackasses kneeling during the national anthem, and the NFL has gotten so damn commercialized that to me is really sad. Not to mention all the fantasy crap. Okay rant over....

They couldn't have kept the style of the 1970s. You'd have 1,000 Daryl Stingleys today. Seriously.

I grew up in the 1970s but I'm not that big a fan of the style of play. Too much defense. Preferred either the 1960s or 1980s. The 1978 rules changes were the right thing to do.

I'm fine with mothballing more preseason games; they are pointless. I have found the regular season this year a little dull. Not sure why. The ratings are going the way of all network TV, I suppose sports aren't immune any more either.

[James]

I shudder to think what the NFL will be like in 2022. The game has become so pussyfied today. I mean, hell, if you lat a pinkie and barley touch the QB, 15 yard penalty and don't get me started about a WR going over the middle. It is so not the game I grew up with and fell in love with as a kid in the 1970's. I still watch, but I'm just not that excited as I used to be, not in the last 5 years or so. Now they can do endzone celebrations, which is stupid as hell, jackasses kneeling during the national anthem, and the NFL has gotten so damn commercialized that to me is really sad. Not to mention all the fantasy crap. Okay rant over....

They couldn't have kept the style of the 1970s. You'd have 1,000 Daryl Stingleys today. Seriously.

I grew up in the 1970s but I'm not that big a fan of the style of play. Too much defense. Preferred either the 1960s or 1980s. The 1978 rules changes were the right thing to do.

I'm fine with mothballing more preseason games; they are pointless. I have found the regular season this year a little dull. Not sure why. The ratings are going the way of all network TV, I suppose sports aren't immune any more either.

Jay, not trying to start anything, but do you really think there would be 1,000 Daryl Stingley's today?

I love the 70's style of play. Yeah, it was all defense, but a great RB, O.J., Csonka, Franco, to name a few, could make a defense look really bad. Some RB's like Chuck Foreman for example, a poor man's Lenny Moore, who was also a threat as pass catcher out of the backfield. I also love the 1930's and 1950's.

Preseason games used to be cool, as you would see the starters play more, if I remember correctly, but now with all the money involved they are so scared of a star player getting hurt, that they hardly play in the preseason anymore. I don't know why the players do not want an 18 game regular season as they have 16 game season and if they play all four preseason games, that would be 20 games. It sounds good in my head. I also hate free agency.

[JuggernautJ]

The game will be played by cyborgs ....

It already is.

The better question is what do you think society will be like in 2022? Since that will directly relate to a majority of potential changes the NFL would/could make.

Can't argue with logic like that.

Either things will continue to degenerate into the abyss of over-commercialization and over-litigation or there will be a reactionary swing that counters the current trends.
And football will probably go pretty much the same.

I think the NFL will continue it's (de-) evolution into Arena Football, with more "fast-action," less contact and fewer runs.
Litigation regarding health issues may well determine the rules in the NFL of 2022.
Commercials will make up more than half the time of a three hour broadcast.
There will be advertising on the uniforms.

Neither the Browns nor the Lions will have made it to a Super Bowl.
Still.

[Jay Z]

I shudder to think what the NFL will be like in 2022. The game has become so pussyfied today. I mean, hell, if you lat a pinkie and barley touch the QB, 15 yard penalty and don't get me started about a WR going over the middle. It is so not the game I grew up with and fell in love with as a kid in the 1970's. I still watch, but I'm just not that excited as I used to be, not in the last 5 years or so. Now they can do endzone celebrations, which is stupid as hell, jackasses kneeling during the national anthem, and the NFL has gotten so damn commercialized that to me is really sad. Not to mention all the fantasy crap. Okay rant over....

They couldn't have kept the style of the 1970s. You'd have 1,000 Daryl Stingleys today. Seriously.

I grew up in the 1970s but I'm not that big a fan of the style of play. Too much defense. Preferred either the 1960s or 1980s. The 1978 rules changes were the right thing to do.

I'm fine with mothballing more preseason games; they are pointless. I have found the regular season this year a little dull. Not sure why. The ratings are going the way of all network TV, I suppose sports aren't immune any more either.

Jay, not trying to start anything, but do you really think there would be 1,000 Daryl Stingley's today?

I love the 70's style of play. Yeah, it was all defense, but a great RB, O.J., Csonka, Franco, to name a few, could make a defense look really bad. Some RB's like Chuck Foreman for example, a poor man's Lenny Moore, who was also a threat as pass catcher out of the backfield. I also love the 1930's and 1950's.

Preseason games used to be cool, as you would see the starters play more, if I remember correctly, but now with all the money involved they are so scared of a star player getting hurt, that they hardly play in the preseason anymore. I don't know why the players do not want an 18 game regular season as they have 16 game season and if they play all four preseason games, that would be 20 games. It sounds good in my head. I also hate free agency.

I exaggerated about Stingley. But if Tatum's style of play had been allowed to continue, sure, there could have been more of them. It was not just Stingley. It was the zone defense. Tatum could sit back in a zone and pop people. The '70s were great if you loved the safety position. Tatum's play did not demonstrate a lot of football skill. I want to see more football skill; speed, quickness, strength, good moves.

Everything Tatum and company did in the 1970s could have been done before. I'm sure moving the hashmarks in probably helped the zone, but it was already heavily in use by that time anyway. Could have been done before, teams just didn't. The rules don't exist in a vacuum. Teams come up with new stuff, it changes the game, the league needs to decide whether to change the rules or not. Roy Williams and the horsecollar tackle is an example. Moving the extra point back, I'm in favor of that. The kickers just got too good. Wouldn't mind if the kickers went away (having regular players kick) but that would require more limited substitution.

If 1970s rules had remained with today's kickers you'd probably see most of the games with nothing but field goals.