It’s been quite a year for Pittsburgh sports fans like me – the Steelers winning a record 6th Super Bowl, the Penguins going to the Stanley Cup Finals, Pitt being ranked #1 in college basketball, etc. So I really cannot ask for more, but that isn’t stopping me from creating this list anyway! This week’s America Loves Countdowns® series looks at ten things that absolutely need to happen in sports. Some of these may never happen, but we can always hope.
Cleveland Goes to the Super Bowl
Yes, I know that it is blasphemy to write this on a Pittsburgh-slanted web site, but those poor fans have suffered long enough. There are now only five NFL franchises that have not been to a Super Bowl – Jacksonville, New Orleans, Houston, Detroit, and Cleveland. Who deserves it more than Browns fans who have endured everything from heartbreaking playoff defeats to losing their team? This needs to happen.
NFL Stops Policing YouTube
I understand why copyright protection is an important thing. If you intend to sell something – a song, a television program, a movie, etc. – and someone else is giving that away for free, then your work needs to be protected. However, can someone PLEASE explain to me how posting a 20 second clip of a play filmed from the stands violates the NFL’s copyright? Or how posting the nostalgic opening to some game from 1987 infringes on their right to make money?? Honestly, show me how someone who was going to spend money on an NFL product has altered course because of something posted on YouTube. It’s all about control and power for the NFL. Logic and reason were thrown out the window a long time ago.
Outdoor Hockey Game at PNC Park
The NHL has made a plethora of mistakes in the past decade that have been well documented, but they also rarely get credit when they make smart decisions. When the league started the annual Winter Classic two years ago, it proved to be a huge success. Tons of fans showed up for the games at Ralph Wilson Stadium and Wrigley Field, and a huge number watched on television. Now we need one here in Pittsburgh, which has as great/loyal of a fan base as any NHL city. Could you imagine 40,000 fans tailgating and cheering at an outdoor hockey game in one of the most beautiful ballparks in the country? It would be fantastic.
Dermontti Dawson Inducted into HOF
I made a push for this a few years ago by showing a long-forgotten clip of Dawson taking out the entire Denver Broncos defense on a Kordell Stewart touchdown run. Unfortunately, the NFL had it removed from YouTube (see item #9). The reason I showed the clip (which you can still see here) is because offensive linemen have no stats. All they have when it comes time to talk about their Hall of Fame credentials is how good people remember them being. Well, I remember Dawson being the best center of his era, and plays like the one he made against Denver were not uncommon at all. How is that not good enough to qualify for Canton? Maybe I’m being a homer, but I just don’t get it.
Baseball Salary Cap
Every other major pro sports league has a salary cap to ensure some measure of competitive balance except for Major League Baseball. They are content to let the Red Sox and Yankees outspend everyone else. Well, that’s fine, but don’t expect to attract any new fans outside of those markets. Baseball needs to realize that history and mystique will only take it so far. There is a whole generation of fans who could care less about the sport because the teams in their hometowns never had a chance to win anything. Nothing sells tickets better than putting a winning product onto the field. If small market teams were given a chance to compete on an annual basis, the sport would grow by leaps and bounds (and the Pirates would still suck).
Football League with No Kicking
Various leagues have tried over the years to either compete with or at least take some of the revenue share away from the NFL. With the possible exception of the Arena league, these have all been massive failures. The reason is simple: they tried to package NFL football with less talented players. The XFL for example advertised itself as some kind of “rebel” league, but when you watched the games, it looked just like an NFL pre-season game after all the starters had been taken out. Arena Football succeeded because it made drastic changes to the game. So here is what I would do if I were starting a new league: take away ALL kicking. That’s right – no field goals or punts (kickoffs would also be replaced by starting at the 40 yard line). Teams would be forced to score touchdowns or bust. They would be forced to go for it on every 4th down. It would make the game so much more exciting. If you want to compete for fans, you’ve got to try something different.
Cowboys Sign Michael Vick
The soap opera that is the Dallas Cowboys is getting old and stale. Everyone is kind of burnt out on their drama (with the possible exception of the Cowboy-worshipping media). They have already picked up all the bums and troublemakers out there in order to complete Jerry Jones’ master plan of killing any chance of team chemistry. But there is still one final piece to the puzzle: signing convicted felon Michel Vick when he is released from prison. Why not – it honestly couldn’t make things worse in Dallas! Plus it would give everyone something to talk about for months. Think about all the animal rights activists who would be standing outside of Dallas’ new stadium next season, or the hourly updates ESPN would have while following him around all during training camp. And it would all end the same way everything ends in Dallas – with the whole thing going down in flames. I would love to see this happen.
Pirates Set Epic Losing Record
One more season of losing. That is all it will take for the Pittsburgh Pirates to establish themselves as the single most pathetic franchise in the history of North American pro sports. The record for consecutive losing seasons in the four major sports leagues – the NFL, NBA, NHL, and MLB – is 16 years. The Pirates currently share that record with a depression-era Phillies team, but they can set the new standard by going under .500 in 2009. Doing so would clinch their right to be called the single worst franchise in the history if pro sports. After all these years of crapping out on their fans, the least the Pirates can do is give this city something to celebrate, even if it is an ominous milestone!
College Football Playoff
Who won the championship in college football last year? That’s a trick question because there is no champion in college football. Some media guys vote on who they think was the best team, but how is that any different from asking ten of your buddies who they think the best team is and declaring that team to be the champion? The Bowl system is the biggest joke in sports. EVERY year there is a debate over who is #1. This past season a team finished undefeated and didn’t even play in the “championship” game. What sport would determine its best team via votes by journalists?!? The simple solution is to start a playoff. This would be incredibly lucrative for colleges. The ratings would be thru the roof. This just makes so much sense that I cannot believe it hasn’t happened yet.
#16 Seed Wins a Game
In the history of the NCAA Tournament, there have been numerous upsets and Cinderella stories. That is what helps make the tournament so great. But there is one thing that has never happened: a #16 seed has never won a game. Every year there are four #16′s, and each year they all get knocked out by the #1 seeds in the first game. The #1 seeds are 96 for 96 since the tournament went to the current format in 1985. The closest any team has ever come was in 1990 when #16 Murray State took #1 Michigan State into overtime, but the Spartans still prevailed. It would be the upset to end all upsets, and it absolutely needs to happen at some point.
Honorable Mentions:
- Relaxed Roughing the Passer Calls: These are getting more absurd each year. How are you supposed to stop dead in your tracks when you are running full speed to try to sack a guy? Let the guys play football for goodness sakes!
- Four-Point Shot: The NBA needs to institute a rule that if you sink a shot from beyond half court, it counts for four points. It would be fun just to see teams try to attempt those.
- New Pittsburgh Sports Columnists: I have been reading the same columnists in the local papers since I was a kid. Ditto for the TV and radio guys. Some are very good at what they do, but let’s get some new blood in some of these roles. The newspaper industry is dying while blogs are picking up steam. Sports fans prefer fresh perspectives these days.