Every season around weeks 15-17 there are teams who choose to rest their starters for the playoff run. Why shouldn’t they? Their spots in the post season are secured. Why would they risk the chance of injury or waste their time game planning on an irrelevant opponent? It’s the intelligent thing to do. After all, the goal is to get to the post season and win the Super Bowl. I’m predicting in the next couple years, we will see teams not even show up for that one last game at Buffalo or Oakland.
Ok, so maybe that is a bit much. Well…… is it?
Jim Caldwell essentially waived the white flag when his team was ahead by 5 points because they had already locked up home field throughout the playoffs. The game meant nothing to him. Nothing to play for. The only reason Caldwell suited up his players and put them out on the field is because he had to. Or did he? Technically, teams can forfeit if they so choose. “A forfeit occurs only when a game is not played because of the failure or refusal of one team to participate. In that event, the other team, if ready and willing to play, is the winner by a score of 2-0.” (check it out here: http://www.nfl.com/rulebook/emergencies) All the Jets had to do was show up in Indy, suit up, and say they were ready.
So why play? Why even suit up? The Patriots lost their most reliable offensive weapon, Wes Welker, yesterday in a meaningless game due to injury. There was really no reason for him, or any of their key players, to be on the field. And now he’ll be on the sidelines for when his team needs him the most. Sure, his injury could have happened week 7. It could have happened on the first play in their first playoff game (ala Palmer in ’07). But it didn’t. It happened the last week of the regular season after Welker worked his ass off to lead the league in receptions and take second in yards. He even missed two games to injury early on. His role is to take a beating over the middle of the field week in and week out. He should have been the first on the team to rest. I suppose he will get plenty now.
But I bet Welker wanted to play. I bet every player on the Colts wanted to play instead of getting yanked out of the game. I would wager every starter in the NFL wants to play every second of every game, no matter what scenario. And as much as I want to watch them play every snap of every game, because I HATE lame ass games that have players not even trying in them, I can’t blame coaches and owners for wanting to pull their players.
Man, I hate revisiting the details of Welker. Of all the people to lose…anyway, about the forfeits – what happens to the tickets. Do you give refunds? I think some of the more logistic, administrative repercussions of these games are being overlooked.
I think teams like the Colts, Patriots, Chargers, etc… Who are commonly in these situations to take it easy through the final weeks should just sell the last 2 weeks’ tickets at a discounted rate. A Colts game in Indy costs a lot of money to see. If I got tickets in advance, only to show up to see Chris Painter throwing to Tom Santi while Peyton and Wayne sit on the sidelines, I’d be pissed. But if I’d payed a discounted rate there’s nothing to bitch about.
If the fans want to be heard about this, they should boycott the games. But I really don’t think the teams would care. Cause a Super Bowl win would bring them and their wallets all back.
That’s how I feel about it too. As a fan, I’d trade the final two games, even at home, if it meant my team would win a Super Bowl, hands down. Teams love their fans, and need their fans, but their job is not to please their fanbase. It is to win the Super Bowl. Just like Lawson said, Super Bowl win = fans happy.
Yeah, I mean it looks like at this point, the people who are talking about it are the people who already talk about shit like this. I guess it wouldn’t be fair to make changes on behalf of the fans until they have angry cardboard signs or aren’t buying seats.
I’m still pissed that Caldwell pulled out the starters. Everyone saw it coming since the beginning of the season but I had some hope that they would keep going for it under the circumstances. I think if history is under your control and the possibility is there, then you should take the chances going for it. I really respect the Patriots for doing that during the ’07 season. No guts, no glory.
However, after seeing what happened to Welker, I’m giving Caldwell more credit. I hate feeling cheated of a perfect season when it was right there but I’d rather feel like that as opposed to seeing #18 or any others injured out. Caldwell did make the right decision even if I’m still feeling hostile towards it.
I think this “incentive” program idea is a good one. It would give teams the OPTION of going for a feasible goal with rewards via hard work. If the teams that have that option still want to rest their starters, so be it. I don’t think there should be any controlling force telling playoff bound teams to start the players every single week.
The forfeit thing is not realistic because of one thing…loot. The owners would not let it happen because there would be too much lost revenue, not just at the arena, but T.V. money etc.
Did anyone notice this past Sunday the Colts kept in their starters in long enough to reach some individual goals? They intentionally threw early and often to Reggie Wayne and Dallas Clark and once each had their 100th recepetion of the year they were removed from the game. So individual accomplishments are more important than capturing a moment of NFL history (19-0)? Weird.
As far as pulling players in late games, me a Mercury Morris are all in favor of it.
I don’t think we will ever see forfeits. I agree that the main reason would be the amount of lost revenue. Ticket sale refunds, not selling those 10 dollar beers and 10 dollar hot dogs…team merchandise, etc.
I also think that it was silly for Indy to sit their starters, when they all worked so hard to achieve a level of greatness that doesn’t happen regularly. There is a list of players that were on the Dolphins team from the 70′s…and their legacy lives on every year. If the Colts team wanted to go for it and worked so hard for it, why rob them of it like that? You could see the disgust in their faces and I felt like some of them still looked weak this week because of that.
Perhaps they gave the individual players their chances to earn accolades to make up for the negative energy they created in letting their perfect season go to waste like they did.
The inconsistency in pulling them halfway through their first loss, but then letting them play the next game, made no sense to me. It makes me feel like they know they messed up and are now trying to make right with the players.
In any event, I hope that their decision pays off for them…because if the loss in team morale carries into week 2, they are gonna be drilled about it…
I purposely left out the whole perfect season scenario from this. As a fan of football, I do feel that they should have pursued perfection. We all want to see things that have rarely happened. But it is not smart. Neither is going for personal records. After all, this is a team sport. Sure individual and team records are cool, but as long as the team wins than mission accomplished. That should be the driving factor.
As for incentives given by the NFL to keep teams playing, I feel it’s a bad idea. The league is structured for parity. If a team beats the system, goes 14-0, and wants to take losses for the last two games to rest their stars then they should. Why should a 15-0 team get incentive for playing game 16 when a 8-7 team isn’t?
I back the personal stats thing. It could hbe something to do with bonuses and/or personal records. And I understand the players not wanting their personal records or pending bonuses to be wasted by a team decision. So I support the coaches letting the boys go get their numbers.
Has anyone thought about how the extension of the season may effect this? What if there are more games added to the regular season, would that mean even less starter playing time before the playoffs?
I guess my feeling on it is, I can’t tell you who won every super bowl and when they did it. A lot of those teams achieving that are forgotten within 5-10 years. The Patriots are remembered as a dynasty for winning a few of them within a few years, but I couldn’t tell you what the years are.
I feel like the achievement of a perfect season, is equal to, if not greater than winning a super bowl. Teams that barely scrape their way into the playoffs via wildcard spots, come back and win the Super Bowl…
As it still stands now, only one team went undefeated and it was 37 years ago…
I honestly haven’t read the entry, or other comments. I just know you wanna boost these comments so here’s my opinion.
OF COURSE YOU SIT YOUR STAR PLAYERS.
if you are already in the playoffs and do not have a 1st round bye to play for, SIT EM after the 1st quarter or half.
Play em a little, but not an entire game.
The welker injury has to fall on billecheats head, I know the players wanna play, and who can blame them? I wouldn’t wanna freeze my ass off sitting on the bench, but you can NOT afford to lose obvious play makers like Wes Welker when you’re trying to make a run for the big show.
While I was somewhat bitter towards Caldwell for benching his players, it was the right thing to do. Colts have been plagued by injuries probably more than any other team in the league this year and to run the risk of a freak accident involving Peyton Manning, Reggie Wayne, or Dallas Clark would be careless.
SUMMARY: Caldwell(or Dungy’s phone call) is smarter than Belicheat.
ANY SMART COACH WOULD NOT (AND SHOULD NOT) CARE ABOUT HIS PLAYERS STATS OVER THE HEALTH OF HIS PLAYERS FOR THE SUPERBOWL RUN.
team > individual.
I agree with most of the comments here. I think it is smart for coaches to rest players when there is nothing to gain by playing them. I also think coaches should be smart enough to know which players need a few more stats to trigger contract clauses and do what it takes to help them get the stats as long as it is also in the teams best interest. But the first owner who comes out and offers the fans their money back (at least a partial refund) after the coach has sat his stars will be a hero to the fans, but again I don’t think the owners really care that much for the fans, they feel that if the team is winning the fans will come back.
I agree that it is smart to sit your starters but only if the situation calls for it. And by that I mean more than just “hey we have already clinched homefield”. If you are a team like the Colts with 6 Pro-bowlers or a QB like Peyton Manning and you are only 5 points up in the 3rd quarter it is more demoralizing to lose that game as they did. The perfect record up to that point only makes the loss that much harder to accept in my humble opinion. Yeah Caldwell saved his starters but I honestly think he may have done more harm than good. Time will tell and no one (except maybe my brother) hopes more than I do that I am wrong.