Roger Goodell has taken an active role in shaping the game of football for the present and the future since being named NFL commissioner in 2006.
Goodell has taken a hard line on player safety and concussions and has seemed to step back from the idea of an 18-game schedule that was floated during the NFL lockout last year.
On Wednesday, Goodell took another step towards the future, saying at the NFL's owners meetings that the league would look into the idea of expanding the playoffs over the next few months.
"Of course, something that we discussed in the past is expanded playoffs. That is something that we teed up (at the meeting Wednesday)," Goodell said, according to ESPN.com. "We will probably be looking at it with the committee over the next several months. Right now, we are at 12 teams, obviously. We will look at probably 14 or 16. The committee will be looking at that."
According to Jeff Darlington on Twitter, the league will look at adding one or two teams to the playoff picture in each league.
Currently, the NFL playoff field has 12 teams: each of the four division winners in the AFC and NFC, along with two Wild Card teams from each conference.
This format was adopted in 2002 when the league added the Houston Texans to the AFC. Each conference split into four divisions with four teams, with six in each conference making the playoffs. The NFL previously expanded the playoffs in 1990, adding two clubs to the teams that previously made it, with three division winners and three Wild Card spots.
Under a new format, which has not been formally discussed yet, the league would likely add more Wild Card teams to each conference and have the two top seeds in each conference play a game the first week rather than have a first-round bye, which is what they receive now.
The addition of more teams would make it technically harder for teams to make it to the Super Bowl, since there would be more clubs in the overall pool, but it would also allow for lesser teams with mediocre records into the playoffs and a chance at winning a championship.
Sports Illustrated NFL writer Peter King, who is one of the foremost football writers in the country, took to Twitter to offer his opinion of the idea, saying that it would cheapen the playoffs.
The current format is as close to perfect as you can get. Only 12 teams make the playoffs, ensuring that all division winners and only the best of the rest make it. With expansion, it will become a common thing to see losing records and mediocre teams in the playoffs.
Sure, The Seattle Seahawks made the playoffs two years ago with a 7-9 record, but they still won the NFC West fair and square didn't they? The Giants were only 9-7 and won the Super Bowl last season, but they too won the NFC East fair and square.
The NHL and NBA playoffs have become a pseudo-regular season due to their length and with a crop of mediocre teams getting in each year, it lessens the overall pool. The MLB expanded their playoffs last season and it was a success, but is a completely different sport and doesn't really factor into the argument.
One thing that does compare though with baseball, by adding playoff teams to the overall mix, the league lessens the importance of winning a division and rewards mediocre teams for playing just well enough to get in the playoffs.
The reason the NFL playoff are so great is that they are so simple: Four division winners and two Wild Cards in each conference.
It's neat, it's clean and it also awards teams for winning their division, something that baseball has lessened with its expansion and is something that really doesn't even matter in the NBA and NHL anymore because there are so many teams.
How many people can name off the top of their head who won the NHL's Southeastern division last season? Not many, because it doesn't matter anymore.
The NFL keeps the integrity of winning the division by having just 12 teams in the playoffs and truly rewards the best teams by giving them a bye and home field advantage.
Greg Rosenthal at NFL.com echoed a similar sentiment when writing about the new idea.
"Make the NFL playoffs feel like a true accomplishment. Only the best of the best get in, and even with 12 teams, a mediocre squad or two usually makes it through (2010 Seattle Seahawks, anyone?). Allowing half the NFL to make the postseason would erode some of the special feeling of the NFL playoffs and reduce the importance of the regular season."
So do more team really need to make the playoffs? Let's look at last year's standings and see who would have made it in under the proposed idea.
The NFC last season is a good example of why an expanded playoff format could work, but also another mark against it. The Chicago Bears, Dallas Cowboys, Philadelphia Eagles and Arizona Cardinals all finished with 8-8 records last season and out of the playoffs.
These teams were good enough to finish 8-8, but were they really worthy of making the playoffs? The Cowboys ended up just 8-8, were the Giants really "that" much better at 9-7? The answer to that question is yes, proven by the fact that New York won both games against them last season.
On top of that, should teams be rewarded for just finishing at .500? The Eagles won four games to finish the year, meaning they were 4-8 at one point. Should a team that was 4-8 at any point in a season make the playoffs? The answer most likely is no.
On the good side of the idea though, many around the league feel that having a first-round bye is burden rather than benefit and that the top teams could use to play that first week in the playoffs.
The New York Giants looked like the best team in the NFL in 2008 and had a chance to repeat as Super Bowl champions, but lost to the Philadelphia Eagles after having a first-round bye. Last season the Green Bay Packers suffered a similar fate, losing to the 9-7 Giants after going 15-1 in the regular season and earning a first-round playoff bye.
Conversely some argue, if the team has a bye the first week, it is one less game it can lose, therefore it is one game "closer" to the Super Bowl.
What's next, a playoff format with half the league going for the Super Bowl?
We can see it now: "And here are your Super Bowl champion Buffalo Bills, who won the NFL title with a 6-12 record!" (Oh yeah, by the time this happens, Goodell will have instituted an 18-game schedule as well. Good luck with all that.)
Goodell also spoke at the owners meetings with players' union boss DeMaurice Smith about the issues regarding drunk driving and player violence, relating to the cases of Kansas City Chiefs linebacker Jevon Belcher and Dallas Cowboys defensive tackle Josh Brent.
"It's a constant dialogue," Goodell said, according to ESPN.com.
The commissioner said that he would like to increase the penalties for drunk driving cases in the NFL. Another topic that came up was the safe-ride program provided by the league. Some players, including Jacksonville's Rashean Mathis, said the program isn't used often by players because it is not confidential.
"If somebody has a better idea, they need to tell us," Jaguars owner Shahid Khan said, according to ESPN.com.
Goodell also spoke about the Saints bounty scandal, which has enveloped the team and the league for most of the year. Former commissioner Paul Tagliabue recently vacated the suspensions of the players involved in the scandal.
"Anything that brings a negative light, whether it's bounties or whether it's the tragic circumstances we've seen over the last two weeks, that's not good stuff for the league," Goodell said. "We have to work hard to make sure we avoid those situations and represent the NFL the way our fans expect us to do it."
Kickoffs were also a hot topic after Goodell made comments in a Time magazine interview about possibly eliminating them all together. Atlanta Falcons president Rich McKay said the NFL's competition committee will look at all the options during the offseason and will come to a conclusion about eliminating the kickoff.
"We just moved the kickoff 5 yards to reduce kickoff returns, but it was because we really couldn't come up with a better way where we knew we could move the needle on the injury number and on the concussion number," said McKay, the committee's chairman. "That doesn't mean somebody won't have a more creative way to deal with it in the evolution of it."
