I don't know the details but I do know Buf gave him a nice deal and they were very aggressive in going after him.
Absolutely ridiculous to seed a WC higher than a Division winner. The division winner won the division playing almost the exact same teams as the other teams in the division. Another division team who is a WC could come from a division that was paired with 2 weaker divisions as opponents. So comparing the records is like apples and oranges, hence why they have the tie breaking procedures like strength of schedule for the WC.
this is an absolutely terrible argument. embarrassingly so. I can't fathom how anyone could even make it. let's take it one stupid argument at a time. Or the WC could come from a division with 2 stronger division opponents. Did you not watch any football this year? who had tougher division opponents, the Panthers or the Cardinals? and yet the Panthers got the home field with a losing record. who the hell is talking about giving a WC home field over a division winner when the division winner has the better record? tie-breakers only apply when the records are...wait a minute...a tie, regardless of strength of schedule. When was the last time the NFL took strength of consideration into play when teams don't finish in a tie? strength of schedule is completely irrelevant in this argument.
I don't think you understand English -- don't look at the division games, that is equal when determining who is the DIVISION winner. So you play the same competition as your divisional opponents. If you WIN your division you get REWARDED as a division, winner. I am not talking just about this year, but in general. Sometimes there are obvious weaker division and stringer divisions so the overall record of a wildcard should not supersede a divisional winner under any circumstance. But because you want to bring up this year - to put some perspective on it. The Panthers out of division games included the AFC Central (Strongest AFC) + 2 divison winners from last year (cause they win the division last year) The Cardinals out of division games included the NFC East and AFC West which featured the Giant, Redskins and Raiders - who were all worse than any out of division team the Panther faced I love how people try to fix something that isn't broken. If you won your division -- you earned the right to host a playoff game. End of story.
Then they should go to 2 8 teams divisions per conference. 4 team divisions lets bad teams into the playoffs all the time. There have only been 5 seasons out of the last 14 where all the division winners won 10+ games. Since 2008 we've had 5 teams win divisions with 8 wins or less.
Not jilted at all. I was glad to see him go. To assume he can "pick a spot next year" when he isn't good enough for any of the openings he had for this season is quite the myopic opinion. Why would his market value go up next season if he wasn't good enough to beat out a litany of unproven OC's and DC's filling HCing positions around the league this season?
They could figure it out to make it not suck. Play each team in your division once each season with home and road toggling each season. Play half the other teams in the opposite division in your conference each season without regard to record on a rotating basis. Play 5 teams in the opposite conference, with a formula that matches you up against the most similar teams in performance each season. That would at least give the sad sack franchises incentives to improve performance because trying to sell tickets to the Bucs, Skins and Rams each year would really suck.
