Unpopular Sports Opinions

[JerseyJimmy]

Was kind of surprised there isn't a thread like this for sports in general, so... here.

 

I don't think division champions should get an automatic playoff berth. In any sport. In baseball, for instance, it should be the five best teams in each league no matter what.

[OnWis97]

• Football:
  • I don't think there should be an intentional grounding penalty.  I've seen it called when a QB is trying to hit a receiver who ran a bad route.  Plus intentional grounding is allowed if the ball goes to a certain place and the QB is out of the pocket.  The QB would still intentionally ground at his own risk...sometimes they'd be intercepted.
  • I like college pass interference better than NFL.  Spot fouls 40 yards down field allow for bad or ticky-tack calls to be very important and pass interference becomes a huge part of the game. 
  • I don't like any neutral-site college games (aside from bowl games).  Florida/Georgia and Texas/Oklahoma should be played on campus; not somewhere in between.  I recall when Wisconsin played LSU at Lambeau. It would have been awesome for LSU to come to Camp Randall. 
• Baseball:
  • I don't like the automatic intentional walk.
  • I hate the DH.
  • I don't like the frequency of the contrived interleague rivalry matchups (NY/NY, SF/OAK, MIN/MIL, etc.) and wish the interleague schedule was handled more like the NFC/AFC schedule, so the "rivalries" became more special and rare and the schedule had more integrity.
• Hockey:
  • I don't really like the idea of "the players policing themselves." 
• Basketball:
  • I'm not sure I'm all-in on the little half-circle under the hoop. 

[mcj882000]

I miss the cavernous, symmetrical, cookie-cutter, AstroTurf baseball stadiums of the 70s, 80s and 90s. 

Not even just due to the nostalgia of growing up when those parks were falling out of fashion and being replaced, either; I think they're genuinely underappreciated for how they shaped the way the game was played. Traditionalists who prefer small-ball to home runs always mocked and continue to mock those old parks, yet the very attributes that earned their derision - the massive outfields, the smooth turf - lent themselves very well to the style of baseball said traditionalists liked - just ask Whitey Herzog. I don't think it's a coincidence that the AstroTurf-era coincided with the revival of the stolen base, including most of the career of the best base-stealer baseball has ever seen.

Of course, I don't think football should've ever been played on that stuff, that sport's far too dangerous for such a hard playing surface; and I do get that those stadiums weren't the most visually appealing (though again, that never bothered me - their cavernousness always reminded me of the Roman Coliseum). I think if there was to be an AstroTurf revival of sorts, I'd rather see it in the form of a fancy, modern baseball-only stadium like PNC Park, but with a symmetrical, deep-outfield AstroTurf playing surface.

It's a long shot, but hey, dare to dream.

[Ferdinand Cesarano]

GENERAL
• Playoffs should include only division-winning teams. The regular season ought to be considered the "first round" of the championship competition. Win that round by coming in first, or go home.

• PEDs, blood doping, and all other such methods should be allowed.

• Women's softball and ultimate frisbee are amongst the best spectator sports, better than basketball and football, and far better than hockey.

• Franchise lineages should be protected by federal law. The Browns situation and especially the Hornets/Bobcats/Pelicans fiasco should not have been permitted. (This should be a Canadian law, too. I'm looking at you, Montreal Alouettes, who are the same franchise as the Baltimore Stallions.)

• Single-entity leagues should be illegal.


BASEBALL
• Interleague play should be scrapped.

• The A.L. should never give up the DH, and the N.L. should never adopt it. To have the DH as a distinguishing feature of the leagues is the ideal state of affairs.

• Pete Rose should be welcomed back.

• A double play that brings in a run should count as an RBI, just as a groundout does.

SOCCER

• International competitions should be contested by league all-star teams rather than by national teams.

• The original NASL-style shootout should replace penalties to decide a knockout match.

 

FOOTBALL
• There should be no such thing as "offensive pass interference".


BASKETBALL
• Offensive goaltending should be allowed.

• Intentional fouling to stop the clock should be prohibited. The final two minutes of the game should not take a half an hour. Basketball is the only sport in which a close game provides the least exciting finish.

 

[Olmec]

Baseball:

• PEDs should be legal
• Pete Rose should be allowed in the HOF
• DH in both leagues
• Stadiums should have set dimensions regarding their outfield walls, I've never liked how a ball hit in one stadium could not be a HR in another.

 

Hockey:

• Bring back the glowing puck
• Checking should be banned, I've honestly never understood that brutal aspect of the game. I know it makes for "exciting" hits but its barbaric and serves no purpose. Players already equipped with sticks for taking the puck away from their opposition, why you need to also potentially end your opponent's career in addition to stealing the puck is beyond me. We've seen numerous players have exciting careers cut short because of this (Paul Kariya especially comes to mind) 

 

Football:

• An NFL catch should be one foot inbounds

[DG_ThenNowForever]

This is a fun topic!

 

- Multi-use stadiums are good. Ugly, but good because they are an efficient use of public resources. We never should have gone away from them. And if a stadium can't host more than 10 events per year (looking at you FedEx Field), it shouldn't exist. If you can't fill your stadium at least twice a month, you shouldn't have one.

 

- Professional sports leagues should redraft all players at certain intervals; whether every five or ten years.

 

- NCAA football and basketball shouldn't exist.

 

- The Cleveland Browns deal and similar franchise history swaps are fine. It's just sports.

 

- Professional sports should allow marijuana use.

 

- Baseball managers shouldn't have to wear baseball uniforms.

 

- Soccer is the most TV-friendly and the most in-person friendly sport there is.

[IceCap]

5 hours ago, Ferdinand Cesarano said:

BASEBALL
• Interleague play should be scrapped.

• The A.L. should never give up the DH, and the N.L. should never adopt it. To have the DH as a distinguishing feature of the leagues is the ideal state of affairs.

Agreed. I’ll add that the AL and NL need their distinct umpires back. As well as separate league offices. 

[Ferdinand Cesarano]

9 minutes ago, Ice_Cap said:

5 hours ago, Ferdinand Cesarano said:

BASEBALL
• Interleague play should be scrapped.

• The A.L. should never give up the DH, and the N.L. should never adopt it. To have the DH as a distinguishing feature of the leagues is the ideal state of affairs.

 

Agreed. I’ll add that the AL and NL need their distinct umpires back. As well as separate league offices. 

 

 

Right!

Bring back the balloon chest protector for the A.L. umps...

 

...and also the maroon jackets and the cool cap logo.

 

 

[Crabcake]

Fighting in hockey is dumb. It takes away from the significant skill and strategy needed to play and makes people think it’s a much more enforcer-centric sport than it actually is. 

[OnWis97]

2 hours ago, DG_Now said:

This is a fun topic!

 

1. - Multi-use stadiums are good. Ugly, but good because they are an efficient use of public resources. We never should have gone away from them. And if a stadium can't host more than 10 events per year (looking at you FedEx Field), it shouldn't exist. If you can't fill your stadium at least twice a month, you shouldn't have one.
2. - Professional sports leagues should redraft all players at certain intervals; whether every five or ten years.
3. - NCAA football and basketball shouldn't exist.
4. - The Cleveland Browns deal and similar franchise history swaps are fine. It's just sports.
5. - Professional sports should allow marijuana use.
6. - Baseball managers shouldn't have to wear baseball uniforms.
7. - Soccer is the most TV-friendly and the most in-person friendly sport there is.

A lot of interesting stuff here. I've numbered the list for easy reference.  I think the two bold ones may actually be popular opinions.  

 

1. I don't think the stadiums themselves are "good" but I agree with your premise that if we're going to spend public money (a whole other topic) than we absolutely should find ways to save money.  Also, when's the last time a football/baseball stadium was built?  I'd bet now they could be a lot better than the ones we know and kinda love.
2. Wow.  Bold.  As pro-player as you are, this surprises me.  I'd think it would drive some salaries down and would certainly disrupt players' lives and take choice away from them.  As a small-market fan, this would intrigue me, but the unintended consequences would be significant.
3. I don't think this is quite a popular opinion, but it's growing.  We're not too far away.
4. Again; I think this is popular.  The Browns seem to be an even split on this board, with the Charlotte/NOLA fiasco just a bit below 50% approval.  Depending on how you define "fan" (i.e., how casual that gets) I'd bet the general fan population prefers the history swaps.
5. Fine by me.  They simply should not test for it.  Particularly now that it's legal in a couple of states that have teams.  Again, I'm not certain that this is that unpopular either.
6. I love that they wear uniforms (though most managers don't really display the jersey any more).  Again, I think you have the popular opinion because "old guys want to feel like players" or something. I think one difference in baseball is the degree to which coaches get onto the field of play.  I think it would be odd to see a guy in a suit, or khakis and a team polo (complete with UnderArmor logo) trot out to the mound.  I think it would be even stranger to see that on a first- or third-base coach (particularly now that they are wearing batting helmets).  I think it's something unique to baseball that, while no long necessary, hearkens back to its history (which is the only thing MLB has on other sports these days).
7. I don't like soccer enough to think of it as "in-person friendly" but it's definitely TV-friendly.  I hope the growing popularity of soccer leads to other sports finding ways to make their games flow better and be less choppy.

[Olmec]

10 hours ago, DG_Now said:

NCAA football and basketball shouldn't exist

This times infinity, and I'd love to hear opinions from all fronts as to why it should/shouldn't 

[DG_ThenNowForever]

8 hours ago, OnWis97 said:

 

1. Wow.  Bold.  As pro-player as you are, this surprises me.  I'd think it would drive some salaries down and would certainly disrupt players' lives and take choice away from them.  As a small-market fan, this would intrigue me, but the unintended consequences would be significant.

 

I was thinking the other day that what used to make football exciting was socialism. There were strict incentives in the league to share the wealth, so that all teams generally rotated in and out of contention. Now, rule changes have served to entrench long-standing power structures in the league. I.e., if you have a good quarterback, the rules are such that you will always be competitive. The Patriots are the best example of this; the Packers have shown that you can have a terrible coach but remain a strong team on the basis of a transcendent QB and rules that favor the passing game.

 

So if you're a team like the Bills or Browns or other and consistently whiff on QB choices, what are you supposed to do? The owners make billions no matter what, but the incentive to be a fan gets lower and lower.

 

If you do a 7-round draft of the entire league's rosters every decade or so, you move a guy like Tom Brady to Jacksonville or Detroit. And Von Miller to Buffalo. And Aaron Rodgers to Tampa. Or whatever. Yes, it disincentivizes winning in that ninth year, but it also helps to build excitement among the low end of the league.

 

This would clearly require a complete financial restructuring of the league and would be problematic for free agency. It's clearly a pipe dream.

 

But the broader goal is how do you do a better job of spreading talent around in leagues that have financial and rules in place that overly reward winners and overly punish losers? I get that the Spurs should reap the benefits of a strong scouting structure. But Orlando Magic fans shouldn't be punish indefinitely because their last great draft pick was Shaq.

[Discrim]

Football:

Tom Brady's NFL career is basically a figurative monument to the marriage of overachievement, luck, and Bill Belichick.

The NFL should consider holding one of the international games in Nigeria.

Of all the sports that use a clock, football is the one that's most poorly suited for it, IMO.  A fixed amount of drives, akin to baseball innings, would be an improvement.

 

Basketball and Hockey: both the NBA and NHL could stand to hold an in-season knockout cup, or a concurrent mini-league competition of some kind (maybe a BIG3 kind of thing for the NBA), which would necessarily trim the regular season.  I'd also do away with best of 7 series in both leagues. 

 

As far as @DG_Now's question about NBA parity...honestly, you'll never see it.  The short supply of tall people, as Dave Berri would put it, kinda thwarts any attempts at parity (for quick reference, how many people do you personally know, who are 6'2" or taller?  Probably not too many.  7-footers?  Unless you happen to be related to @LMU , that number's probably a big fat goose egg.)

[DS729]

In General: 

-Teams should pay for their own stadiums. No more threatening cities into using taxpayer money for their personal gain. 

 

NFL: 

-I’d like to stop seeing non-stop promotion of Fantasy Football. It is sad and pathetic to have programming dedicated to fantasy football. 

-An additional bye week should be added to the NFL season to allow for additional rest for players. 

-Thursday Night Football should be cut back. It should be allowed on opening night, Thanksgiving, and in December and only then. Teams should also get a bye week before playing a Thursday night game. 

-Any team playing a game in Europe should get a bye week before they travel. 

-West Coast teams shouldn’t be forced to play 1 PM games on the East Coast and vice versa. 

-Pass interference should not be a spot foul. 

-Calls by the referee should be made reviewable. 

-Intentional grounding should be re-worked. The QB shouldn’t be allowed to throw the ball out of bounds or incomplete just to avoid a sack. 

 

NBA: 

-Regular season should be cut to 66 games. 

 

NCAA Football: 

-No conference should have more than 12 teams. 

-Color vs. Color matchups should be allowed as long as colors don’t conflict. 

 

-NCAA Basketball: 

-Players should be required to either play college basketball for 3 years or declare for the draft after high school. 

-Conference tournaments should be abolished. Regular season champs would recieve automatic bids instead of conference tournament champs. 

-NCAA Tournament should expand to 72 teams. 

-Automatic qualifiers shouldn’t be allowed to play play-in games. 

 

Soccer: 

-International breaks should be scrapped, International teams should play matches from June to August uninterrupted. 

-There should be a 2 week winter break in all major european leagues, and additional 2 week breaks between the end of club season and the start of international season (May) and the end of International season and the start of club season (August). 

-Leagues should establish salary caps and limits on transfer spending to help the leagues become more competitive. 

 

I’ll probably think of more later. 

 

[DG_ThenNowForever]

5 minutes ago, DScruggy729 said:

-NCAA Basketball: 

-Players should be required to either play college basketball for 3 years or declare for the draft after high school.  

 

Soccer: 

-International breaks should be scrapped, International teams should play matches from June to August uninterrupted. 

 

 

 

Your football takes are less unpopular and more very popular ideas that should be implemented.

 

The two I highlighted are kind of nuts.

 

1. What if a player grows six inches between high school and sophomore year of college? He's screwed? What if he just quits college? Do you put him in jail? Forcing a three year commitment is awful.

 

2. Wouldn't having a two-month summer break every year for international games change the appeal of the World Cup? And other confederation tournaments?

[Dynasty]

Get rid of overtime losses in hockey and just label them as losses.

[Crabcake]

3 hours ago, DScruggy729 said:

-Color vs. Color matchups should be allowed as long as colors don’t conflict. 

This needs to be implemented immediately across all sports.  The soccer uniform system is perfect, other than the whole releasing a new uniform every year thing.  Have teams have a "primary" jersey that they wear whenever they can, and have a secondary and third uniforms for when the primary clashes with the home team's primary.

[DS729]

6 hours ago, DG_Now said:

 

Your football takes are less unpopular and more very popular ideas that should be implemented.

 

The two I highlighted are kind of nuts.

 

1. What if a player grows six inches between high school and sophomore year of college? He's screwed? What if he just quits college? Do you put him in jail? Forcing a three year commitment is awful.

 

2. Wouldn't having a two-month summer break every year for international games change the appeal of the World Cup? And other confederation tournaments?

Players who can't make it in school can go play in an Europe, China, and then go to the NBA. Doing this would allow for one-and-dones to become a thing of the past, and make college basketball a lot more competitive. Football players seem to be able to handle it well enough, basketball players should be fine. 

 

Playing international games in the summer allows for national team coaches to have a consistent squad together for extended periods of time, helping the team grow and play better together. Most major international tournaments are played in the summer, so it would fit just fine, plus players would be better rested since most domestic seasons could be able to close by the end of April with no international breaks. 

[The Six]

The draft in every sport should be eliminated. All eligible players should just be free agents. Let workers choose where they want to work. 

[NoE38_Concepts]

Football:

I like the Rouge in Canadian football. It's one of those unique things every sport has to make it different.

 

Basketball:

Shots from beyond half court should be for 4 points.