Why baseball is improving and the NFL is getting worse

[chiefzilla1501]

Last night and this week said so much about why MLB leadership is kicking NFL leadership's ass.

To the NFL, the Royals would be a super bowl nightmare. Midwest city, not a national presence.

The MLB commissioner had a chance to boost ratings by eliminating defensive shifts. Getting rid of defense creates more offense which gets casual fans excited. He declined. The NFL, on the other hand, has chosen the past few years to emphasize defensive holding to open up an already advantaged passing game.

This defensive approach, by the way, favors small market. While the Yankees were loading up on power and pitching, the Royals countered with defense and bullpen. The Royals, in fact, beat a Blue Jays team that took that exact approach mid-season.

Even in the larger markets, this year FOUR out of eight playoff teams were teams that had a significant playoff drought -- Cubs, Toronto, Houston, Mets.

We saw a banned gambler and a justly punished PED in the studio. The NFL, on the other hand, is considering penalizing Johnny Manziel for an incident in which no charges were pressed and is dealing with a gambling site with integrity issues.


I love the NFL a hell of a lot more than I love MLB. It's just a shame to see the two very different directions the two leagues are moving in.

[Deberg_1990]

Originally Posted by DaFace

While there's probably some truth to this, the reality is that the whole "Royals are good" and "Chiefs suck" thing is probably swaying opinions more than a tiny bit. If the Chiefs won the Super Bowl this year, this thread wouldn't exist.

This is probably true. I dont remember many "MLB is great" threads around here before the Royals got good...

[chiefzilla1501]

Originally Posted by milkman

I don't agree with this.

The Patriots, in the AFC, are clearly the favorite because of coaching, talent, and history.

But Andy Dalton is playing at an elite level right now, and making plays in clutch moments.
His playoff history has been piss poor, but he's just into his prime, and his history won't dictate what he does moving forward.
This Bengal team can win in the playoffs if Dalton continues to play at this level.

In the NFC, the Pack are playing better defense than they have in some time, but the Cardinals and the Seahawks are still a threat, and they play great defense, though the Seahawks have faltered late in games this season.
They have good enough QBs in Palmer and Wilson, and the fact is, despite the stupid shit that zilla posts, defense still wins.

Only true because we have probably the weakest QB talent in years.

This year has to be one of the worst parity years in a long time. A few very good teams. Lots of really mediocre teams. Even more teams that are completely terrible.

None of it changes the intent of the league. There is no good reason for the nfl to make defensive holding a point of emphasis if they weren't trying to artificially create offense.

[chiefzilla1501]

Originally Posted by Deberg_1990

This is probably true. I dont remember many "MLB is great" threads around here before the Royals got good...

If the mlb wanted to, they could easily make KC more irrelevant. KC is only in the mix because the mlb is doing things to put small market teams on a more even playing field

[cmh6476]

the death of the nfl is coming

[Brock]

Playoff baseball has always been awesome. It needs to be primetime always though. That daytime shit doesn't work for me.

[okcchief]

College and NFL football get more boring to me each year. It's a combination of the Chiefs sucking, bad QB play around the league, and though I've always enjoyed fantasy I think it's out of control. Another issue is the best athletes are going to keep picking other sports. It's just the smart thing to do.

I enjoy baseball and basketball overall over football these days. When there's a really great game I'm all in, but they seem harder to find each year. I also understand that watching the Royals and Thunder vs the Chiefs could be clouding my vision massively lol

[tk13]

I've always thought baseball had way more parity, people just didn't notice it because the Royals stunk. But if you go look at the playoff results, it's probably not even close.

Look at it this way, so far this century there have been 15 AFC championship games played to go to the Super Bowl. Out of those 30 spots, the Patriots, Colts, Broncos, Steelers and Ravens have taken 24 of those 30 spots. Those five teams have also represented the AFC in 18 of the last 20 Super Bowls.

So far this century there's now been 15 AL Championship Series. Every single American League team has been to a Championship Series, including Houston when they were in the NL.

So while every team hasn't won, every AL baseball fanbase has at least watched their team be one step away from the title. In the AFC, you haven't had much luck unless you're a fan of 5 of the 16 teams. And football allows more playoff teams than baseball.

[BWillie]

Originally Posted by Brock

Playoff baseball has always been awesome. It needs to be primetime always though. That daytime shit doesn't work for me.

I love the Royals, and I love baseball, but nobody and I mean nobody watches MLB postseason baseball unless their own team is in it. People are just hating on the NFL because it has become as popular as it is. It's at the peak of his popularity, and in our society, popular things will be torn down, critiqued, and criticized more than anything else. The NFL ratings and interest in the NFL compared to the MLB is a joke and isn't even close. This is coming from a guy that likes MLB more than NFL, but that is the reality.

[jason54858]

Originally Posted by cmh6476

the death of the nfl is coming

It's funny lol, out of all the NFL forums I visit I only see this sentiment here.

[kcxiv]

Originally Posted by BWillie

I love the Royals, and I love baseball, but nobody and I mean nobody watches MLB postseason baseball unless their own team is in it. People are just hating on the NFL because it has become as popular as it is. It's at the peak of his popularity, and in our society, popular things will be torn down, critiqued, and criticized more than anything else. The NFL ratings and interest in the NFL compared to the MLB is a joke and isn't even close. This is coming from a guy that likes MLB more than NFL, but that is the reality.

Not me, its not the game i used to watch. They are tweaking things so it's all offense. Its not people bashing the NFL because they are so popular, they are bashing the NFL because of stupid ass rules. Roger Godell doing whatever the **** he wants. Taking away home games from teams.

The game has changed. They claim that they are looking out for the players health now days, but thats all bullshit they have them play thursday night games on 3 days rest putting players at even more risk.

[chiefzilla1501]

Originally Posted by BWillie

I love the Royals, and I love baseball, but nobody and I mean nobody watches MLB postseason baseball unless their own team is in it. People are just hating on the NFL because it has become as popular as it is. It's at the peak of his popularity, and in our society, popular things will be torn down, critiqued, and criticized more than anything else. The NFL ratings and interest in the NFL compared to the MLB is a joke and isn't even close. This is coming from a guy that likes MLB more than NFL, but that is the reality.

I like and watch the nfl much more than I do the mlb.

But your second to last comment says it all. The nfl cares about ratings even if that means destroying the integrity of the game. The mlb tomorrow can drive ratings and interest by pumping offense and restoring power to mega markets like new York. They chose not to. That's the difference between the two leagues.

[Bearcat]

Originally Posted by DaFace

While there's probably some truth to this, the reality is that the whole "Royals are good" and "Chiefs suck" thing is probably swaying opinions more than a tiny bit. If the Chiefs won the Super Bowl this year, this thread wouldn't exist.

If the Royals sucked, there wouldn't be a reason to compare the two leagues, but I don't agree with "if the Chiefs won the Super Bowl this year," because there's been plenty of discussion on the decline of the NFL for several seasons. Maybe that wouldn't be the case if the Chiefs didn't spend this decade and the previous 4 ignoring the most important position in sports... but, my overall interest just isn't there until mid-late January.

I'll watch almost any NHL game, any MLB postseason game and some interesting regular season matchups (and have watched almost all Royals games in the past season and a half), but even the wild card games in the NFL are mostly crap.

[Bearcat]

Originally Posted by BWillie

I love the Royals, and I love baseball, but nobody and I mean nobody watches MLB postseason baseball unless their own team is in it. People are just hating on the NFL because it has become as popular as it is. It's at the peak of his popularity, and in our society, popular things will be torn down, critiqued, and criticized more than anything else. The NFL ratings and interest in the NFL compared to the MLB is a joke and isn't even close. This is coming from a guy that likes MLB more than NFL, but that is the reality.

The popularity has ruined the game, but not in the way you think... I don't hate Bud Light because a lot of people drink it, I hate Bud Light because it's shitty, watered down beer. And my interest in the NFL has declined not because a lot of people watch it, but because it's a shitty, watered down product, and the NFL is all about making money, even if they sacrifice the product.

Just like with the NHL, I don't necessarily care if a lot of people watch it or care about the league, yet I'd rather it stay a niche sport that does well at the gate, because there's a higher chance or ruining the sport if it becomes nearly as popular as the NFL.

[notorious]

Intensity elevates during the playoffs for baseball and basketball.

Football just kind of stays the same. Not horrible, but not great.

[Bearcat]

Originally Posted by tk13

I've always thought baseball had way more parity, people just didn't notice it because the Royals stunk. But if you go look at the playoff results, it's probably not even close.

Look at it this way, so far this century there have been 15 AFC championship games played to go to the Super Bowl. Out of those 30 spots, the Patriots, Colts, Broncos, Steelers and Ravens have taken 24 of those 30 spots. Those five teams have also represented the AFC in 18 of the last 20 Super Bowls.

So far this century there's now been 15 AL Championship Series. Every single American League team has been to a Championship Series, including Houston when they were in the NL.

So while every team hasn't won, every AL baseball fanbase has at least watched their team be one step away from the title. In the AFC, you haven't had much luck unless you're a fan of 5 of the 16 teams. And football allows more playoff teams than baseball.

Yeah, that's a big failure for the NFL... on one hand, they've watered it down to the point where most teams have a chance on any given week and any mediocre team can make the playoffs, which is why so many people still care about the Chiefs. Yet, they've made it a quarterback league because that's what the masses find entertaining, but don't have nearly enough good quarterbacks to make things interesting in the playoffs.

Except it's not really a failure, because there's enough parity in the regular season to keep fans of most teams interested... 20 teams right now have at least 3 wins, and the four 2 loss teams in the NFC aren't out of it.... and fans eat it up, even if the reality is what you stated, where only a handful of teams really have a chance in the postseason.