Older generations may remember the NFL days before the term Wild Card Team became part of our sports vocabulary. Those were the pre-1970 AFL-NFL merger years. If your team was good enough then to be a division champion, you advanced into the NFL playoffs. If you failed to win your division, you went home, celebrated the holidays, and then began working your off-season job.
The NFL owners held a conference call meeting last Tuesday and formally approved a resolution which adds two more Wild Card teams to the playoffs starting this season.
Each conference now will have four division champions and three Wild Card teams. The division champion with the best record In each conference will be the only team to enjoy the benefit of a bye in the first playoff round.
There will be six games played on the opening postseason weekend—three on Saturday and three on Sunday. The new TV revenue from the additional games will —in part—indirectly help pay for some of the pension increases and new benefits for many NFL alumni. The addition of the two Wild Card teams had been anticipated in the new CBA that took effect this week.
The owners on Tuesday’s call also discussed the logistics of this month’s NFL Draft (April 23-25). It originally was scheduled to be held in Las Vegas but now will be conducted through videoconferencing.
Commissioner Goodell on the first night will be in one location and connected to 32 separate club venues. Also, there will be the ability to connect into the homes of 50 top college prospects so that TV can capture the emotion and interviews of those young men and the families. All three days of the Draft will be televised as usual by ABC, ESPN, and NFL Network.
The Draft telecasts may be the only “usual” sports offering thing in many of our lives this month.
We at Texas Sports Monthly continue to hope that you and your families are able to stay safe and healthy during these difficult times. |
