New England Patriots Wildcard Disaster
Another year of NFL parody has a unwitnessed disaster at hand. Only 5 years after the realignment of the league into 8 division it is foreseeable that the Patriots and the worst division in football, the AFC East will send a division leader to the playoffs with a record worse then the wildcard contenders. This BCS like disaster is the result of the automatic bids given by the NFL to the leader of each division. Under normal circumstances the division leaders are the best teams in the NFL but this years poopfest of parity teams will likely force a team with a better record out of the playoffs due to a lack of space. I've always hated the NFL's 12 team system on playoffs. 1st round byes are nice but I would rather them add four teams making it 16 teams playing and eliminate the first round byes. It would be similar to the NHL and NBA systems. These extra spots would almost ensure top wildcard teams a chance to play, add 4 more games to the playoffs and eliminate the silly bye week for the top two teams. I understand football is a tough sport but that's why there are the fewest games of any sport. The bye week in the playoff only establishes a pass for the best teams undermining the wildcard potentially making them weaker challengers and therefore adding a pointless "wildcard weekend" before the good teams play. I say add a week off for everyone after the season and then play straight through to the Superbowl.