Sports Betting: How to Fix an NFL Game

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(Newswire.net — August 12, 2020) — Wagering has now become one of the most popular sports activities in the USA, and among all the major American sports, the NFL is the most popular bet. 

With fans now able to place regulated bets on professional football games across the nation, the NFL is taking steps to ensure it is at the forefront of the market. 

NFL Game Fixing?

NFL teams are welcoming deals with sports betting companies. They are also promoting their prediction contests that are based on sports betting principles.

The NFL positions itself legally as a “sports entertainment” business, not a genuinely contested sport. It is done to ensure that the home team stays in the game as long as possible and also to create storylines in the big city teams. 

However, nobody wants to watch a boring, poorly officiated, and injury-riddled contests league. Therefore, the NFL should try to keep maintaining greatness instead of fading into irrelevance. 

How to Fix an NFL Game?

The NFL has created systems that give their executive more control of the game remotely. For example, part-time referees, the catch rule, the definition of pass interference, and the calls or non-calls. 

However, it is not impossible to fix the broken NFL.

Let’s have a look into how to fix an NFL game. 

1- Full-Time Refs

The full-time referee program was approved from 2017 to 2018. However, it has now been revoked. NFL referees are again part-time employees only. 

However, converting officials to full-time improves their performance in games. The full-time officiating program allows referees to retain their outside employment, but their priority should be NFL. 

The NFL is the only league that has officials who have primary other jobs. Referees jobs would be different if they were full time. They could be sent to team practice sites for additional “reps” mid-week. They could also spend more time together as a group in the NFL office to study rules and discuss issues.  

2- Get Rid of Thursday Night Football

The NFL is a business that makes a lot of money from its Thursday Night Football. 

However, the NFL is also a physical sport. With the constant pushing, shoving, and tackling the sport entails, there are bound to be injuries. Thus, making it difficult for players to recover faster between games. If the players get off the field on Sundays, they have just three days to prepare, practice, and get ready for the week ahead. These short weeks dilute the product. There should be no more Thursday games, except the Thanksgiving games. 

3- Goal Line Technology on the Ball

The NFL should use goal-line technology to know when the ball crosses the plane. The technology already exists and is in place in sports like tennis, cricket, and soccer. 

Goal-line technology is a system that assists the referee with crucial goal-line decisions. When the ball completely crosses the goal-line, the signal is transmitted to a watch worn by the referee, which notifies the official within one second with a color-coded symbol.

4- Simplify the Rule Book

Over time, the NFL has twisted, expanded, and drawn out so many different rules that the fans are losing track of the game.

Firstly, the NFL needs to standardize what constitutes a catch and make it easier to call. The tuck rule can be eliminated. It is just a provision of what constitutes a forward pass.

The NFL should make the rulings more consistently as nobody wants to see these arbitrary rulings affect the outcomes of games. 

5- Time the Review

Reviews slowed the game too much!

The replay review is a method of reviewing a play using cameras at various angles to know the accuracy of the initial call of the referee, the team’s head, or the officials. 

In 2005, the NFL lowered the time limit for replay reviews from 90 seconds to 60 seconds. This decision immediately shortened the game length. But the number of reviews increased from an average of 0.79 per game in 1999 to 1.70 in 2013. Even the 60-second reviews were long enough to push the average length of games to their early-decade rates. 

6- Illegal Hands to the Face Is Just a 5-yard Penalty

In the NFL, the penalty for illegal use of hands depends on who committed the penalty, in which the violating player touches another player’s face mask with his hands. 

If an offensive player is charged with illegal use of hands to the face, then their team is given a 10-yard penalty. However, a 5-yard penalty is charged if a defensive player commits the penalty, and the offense is given an automatic first down.

The NFL has misconduct personal fouls such as flagrant face mask, late hit, spearing, and hitting a defenseless WR with a helmet. These are all 15 yards penalty and get an automatic first down. However, a 5-yard penalty for hands to the face and then a first down doesn’t make sense. It should be a “free-play” for the offence and then 5-yards to make this penalty consistent with other penalties.

Final Thought

No doubt, the NFL has a high viewership! It is a sport where a mass majority of the fans are not only willing to watch any NFL game, but make bets. Thus, it has never lost the magic that has made it the king of sports in the United States.

However, the rules such as part-time referees, the catch rule, the definition of pass interference, and the calls or non-calls have changed over the years, sometimes for better and sometimes for worse. Thus, it is blatant that the NFL should try to fix its broken game to remain where it is today.