Do-gooder.
Joe guesses the Lions are still peeved at the Bucs.
This week, at the request of the Lions, NFL owners will vote on a proposed new rule for the postseason that seeds the seven playoff teams by record, not by division winners and wild cards.
What that means is if a division winner doesn’t have one of the top four records in the conference, it would not get to host a first-round game on wild card weekend. This would mean no true home playoff game reward for winning a division, an NFL tradition since there were wild cards.
(Back in 2022, the Bucs had a worse record than the Lions but it was the Bucs that went to the playoffs and hosted a playoff game because they won the NFC South. Lions-types must still squirm about this.)
If the NFL isn’t going to reward division winners, why have divisions?
Why should the Bucs, for example, be stuck hosting a regular season game each season with the Stinking Panthers, the Dixie Chicks and the slimy Saints when the Bucs could, in theory, host a game or two from teams that better pull fans into the stadium and eyeballs to the TV?
At least when the Bucs were good under Father Dungy and played in the NFC Central, the Bucs always were involved in high-profile games. Moving to the then-new NFC South hurt the Bucs in the long run from a marketing and prestige standpoint.
Maybe it’s just Joe, but Joe senses more of a rivalry exists between the Bucs and the old NFC Central foes (Lions, Bears, Packers. Vikings) than among the current NFC South teams, aside from possibly the slimy Saints?
Sadly, this proposed new playoff format all boils down to TV ratings, not what’s fair or right.