The Seventh Deadly Seed
/The 2011-2012 was the Packers year. Sure, they had just won the Super Bowl in the prior year, but the ’11 season was special for Green Bay. Aaron Rodgers crushed every defense they faced and the team cruised to a 15-1 record. The Packers were the number one seed in the NFC.
The Packers were a lock to repeat as NFC champions at least and very likely win consecutive Super Bowls.
Except they didn’t even win a playoff game.
After all their offensive records, going undefeated at home and basically looking unstoppable, the Packers fell victim to a Giants team that barely squeaked into the playoffs.
The 2011 New York Giants should have stayed home in January. They went 1-5 in a crucial stretch of games in November & December and they already lost to the Packers in New York.
I would have bet my house that if the Giants played the Packers in the playoffs 100 times that year, they’d have 100 loses.
But I was wrong and so was everyone else. Even the most hardcore Giants fans were certain that game would be the Giants last of the season.
It was one of those golden moments in sports history. The type of moment you will never forget. You witnessed something so unexpected and special.
This is exactly what’s so great about the playoffs and it’s also why the post season isn’t as cool as we think.
It’s time to stop talking about changing the playoffs and just change the format. The league needs to add in a seventh seed in each conference for the playoffs. We need more of these moments. The Arizona Cardinals were the only team that actually won in Seattle in 2013, who wouldn’t have wanted to see what they could have done in the playoffs as a seventh seed?
Pundits will complain that adding in more teams to the playoffs will water down the level of competition. It’s simply not the case.
The 2012 Ravens barely qualified for the post season and when they arrived to play the top seeded Broncos in the divisional playoffs they were supposed to get laughed out of Denver. The Broncos had beaten the Ravens just a few weeks ago in Baltimore. Peyton Manning was going to get taken out for the second half to rest after putting up a huge lead.
Of course none of that mattered when the game started. Manning struggled to get anything going against a fired up Ravens defense, and the Broncos defense couldn’t get off the field when they needed to. Baltimore clawed its way to a stunning victory in a double overtime thriller. Pretty impressive for a team that supposedly shouldn’t have bothered traveling cross country.
This is exactly what makes the games worth watching. It doesn’t matter how amazing you were in the regular season, the teams you’re most confident will win can still get embarrassed in prime time.
Don’t pretend like you don’t want to watch.
Judging by the current success of the NFL, we seem to be nowhere near oversaturating the public with more football. And why wouldn’t you want more?
The NFL playoffs bring out the absolute best in sports. Who doesn’t want more Malcom Butler game saving interceptions? How about more thrillers like the Seahawks playing the best eight minutes of football to steal the game from the better team in the 2014 NFC title game?
Yes, more of that please.
The ratings and money are there, the league just needs to figure out how to do it.
Right now, there are four post season games each weekend nationally televised on Saturday and Sunday. By adding in two more teams, there needs to be an established “fair” time slot for these extra teams to play in. If you schedule an extra game for Friday or Monday, then the winner of the game would have considerably less or more time to prepare than their next opponent.
Another aspect to consider - who gets a bye week in the expanded playoffs? Right now, the top two seeds in each conference don’t play until the second weekend in the playoffs. By adding in a 7th seed, the number 2 seed in each conference would host this 7th seed. This would mean only the top seed in each conference would earn a bye unless the league finds another creative way to schedule the match ups.
In 2014, ESPN broadcasted an NFL playoff game for the first time ever. The fact that there is a new network in the mix means changes are coming. How do you think the playoff format should be changed? When should the games be aired? Who should play in the opening round? How many teams should earn a bye week?
Post below and share what you think!
