How bad is the NFL? / Coaching Carousel / Pet Peeves

Parity is one thing, but the only thing that is seems to be on par is how many bad teams and how much bad play there is in the NFL. 28 of 32 teams are within 2 games of a playoff spot going into Week 13. That is not a typo. 28! The most at this point in the season since the current playoff format was established in 1990. Teams that have no business even being alive in the playoff hunt can still make a run with 5 games to play. Throw on top of that, the incredible amount of bad officiating and the pro product really has taken a hit. Throw in some lack of administering concussion protocol, off field player issues and the league should be facing a crisis, right? Even with all of that, the NFL is about to get another windfall with the Thursday Night Football package going up for bids which will line up their coffers some more. Roger Goodell comes up short in many areas but somehow seems to fail upwards. We should all be so lucky.

The college coaching carousel is busier this year than most. If you are in the SEC and can't beat Nick Saban, congrats, you are on the hot seat. Mark Richt has been a model coach at Georgia but did not win enough of the BIG games or SEC titles. He will however will get Miami over the hump and back in national championship picture as the ACC will be an easier path and he brings great credibility to the Canes. Les Miles survives at LSU but should never have been in danger. He will need to make some changes in philosophy in order to get the Tigers in contention again. The elite coaches are able to modify so this will be a chance to prove it.

I launched my podcast this past weekend. The theme was my sports pet peeves. Here's a brief synopsis:

1. ESPN game coverage - I am frustrated how throughout a game the game announcers spend so much time giving opinion on the sports issues of the day during the game. ESPN has 20 hours of SportsCenter to do that. Keep it there and let us watch the game!

2. Network Lead Announcers - I find it annoying that networks let their marquee play by play guys do all the big events when often they barely do any games leading up to that. They should rotate those assignments to the other talent that cover the sport more thoroughly. Joe Buck at Fox and Jim Nantz at CBS are the biggest offenders.

3. Phil Simms - He is brutal to listen to during a game. Between his lack of ability to manufacturer his thoughts in speech and plain poor analysis, it's a head scratcher that he is able to broadcast NFL games. 

I'd like to know your sports pet peeves. Please do so in the comments section or hit me  up on Twitter @jeffallen_88

You can hear more in depth on my podcast which I will embed below for your listening pleasure. I hope you enjoy it.

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