The Top Ten Things That Suck About The NFL

Sports radio broadcasters, ESPN personalities and some fans believe that the NFL is the best run professional sports league and not because it has the best cheerleaders. One of the most important factors in this evaluation is the regular high ratings of the games which translates into tons of cheese. No doubt, son. Yet, plenty of negative factors hound the NFL. So, without wasting anymore of your time, these are my top ten things that suck about the NFL.

1. Four games on Sunday. Why is that you can see about twenty college games on a Saturday but only four NFL games on Sunday? I'll toss in Monday Night Football to make it five for a week. If you want to see more games, you have to pay for a service like Sunday NFL Ticket. If the NFL is really the most popular sport in the universe, why can't the league bust off some television contracts to TBS, TNT or Spike? Hell, even VH1.

2. NFL player contracts aren't guaranteed. Yes, this doesn't affect you at all. Still, it isn't fair. This means you're favorite player, be it Peyton Manning, Donovan McNabb or Rob Bironas can, excuse me, WILL be cut the nanosecond they aren't of any use to the organization. No farewell tour, gold watch or nothing.

3. Your NFL signing bonus is not guaranteed. As Michael Vick and Rickey Williams have found out, just because it's a bonus, doesn't mean you get to keep it. Let me ask you something, if you got a bonus at work and you ended up on the wrong side of the law, would you want to give your bonus back?

4. You're stuck watching your local team. That's great if the team is has made the playoff in the last century but what if you're a Lions, Texan or Falcons fan? Do you have to watch them every week? This goes back to point number one about the sport, not enough choices on Sunday. Come on, break off an NFL contract to TBS, TNT or The Food Network. Anybody.

5. The NFL doesn't pay its minor league players. Neither does the NBA. I'm talking about the Michigan Wolverines, Auburn Tigers, Norte Dame Fighting Irish and so on. Why is it acceptable to have young men in their late teens and early twenties in a baseball minor league system but 100,000 plus fans show up to watch Penn State and the college players don't get one copper penny? Hey, I know what you're thinking, college football teams aren't farm teams for the pros. They aren't? You wanna double check that?

6. The NFL pension and health plan for former players. The NFL pays for a retired players health care for five years after retirement. Former players want it paid for the duration of their lives. Why not?

7. The salary cap. The salary cap is communist. Well, at the very least it's socialist. Why does a league that doesn't have an official farm system, can cut players anytime they want and makes billions from teams that play 16 games have a salary cap? The Washington Redskins are valued at 1.3 billion dollars and the New York Mets are valued at 505 million. The Redskins play 16 games. The Mets play 162.

8. Madden. Not John Madden the broadcaster but Madden the EA Sports game. Madden Football has an exclusive licensing agreement with the NFL. This means no one else can produce a video game that features current NFL. Granted that Madden is the bomb but a little variety in NFL video game market would be, you know, American. There is hope that this monopoly of the NFL license will be stopped.

9. The hypocrisy of the NFL and gambling. This really no reason to publish an injury report. None. If I were an NFL coach, why would I want anyone to know which one of my players were jacked up? Yet, the NFL publishes an injury report. Why? Gamblers.

10. Starting any NFL game after 8.00 P.M. (Eastern Time). This causes games to go well past most adult and all children's bedtime. Come on, move it up an hour or TWO. Some people work. Even bloggers. Well, some bloggers work.

This is just some of the things I think suck about the NFL. In the upcoming months, you're going to hear about how the NFL is all that and bag of Funyuns esp. compared to NBA. Yeah, but the NFL has its flaws too. ESPN has a major stake in the league (it does airs Monday Night Football), so, don't expect them to show you all the warts.

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