Your Unpopular Football Opinions

[CSKreager]

Here are mine:

Troy Aikman was highly overrated as a QB- I think the 1992 Cowboys would have still gone 13-3 and won the Super Bowl if Steve Beurelein started every game that season

The 1980 Raiders were basically Jim Plunkett and the 1970s geezers hanging on for one more hurrah

The 1978-1979 Steelers were very fortunate IMO to not face New England or San Diego in those AFC-CG's as opposed to one-dimensional Houston

[Rupert Patrick]

Despite the post-career fiascos he has been involved in, at his peak OJ Simpson was one of the three or four greatest running backs in pro football history.

[JWL]

The original Cleveland Browns history and records should belong to the Baltimore Ravens.

[JeffreyMiller]

AAFC records should be absorbed by the NFL just as the AFL's were.

OJ Simpson is the greatest player in Buffalo Bills history, and one of the three best RBs I got to see play (the others being Barry Sanders and Gale Sayers).

The NFL existed before ESPN and the NFL Network ...

... and as a side note, MLB should abolish the designated hitter and interleague play.

[ChrisBabcock]

I've shared this one with friends and they look at me like I have two heads...

The NFL should go back to pre-1974 overtime rules. i.e. only for the playoffs! It would create for more interesting end of game scenarios...

In a hypothetical early December game a team with a 7-6 record is down by 7 late in the game against a team with nothing to play for. This team probably needs to win out to have a shot at the playoffs. They just score a TD with seconds left. An XP ties it. But does the coach go for the win by going for 2 and risk losing the game if they don't make it?

Also, extra tie games sprinkled into the standings would create more unique W-L-T records and reduce the need to use tiebreakers to determine final standings. It stinks to have a team miss the playoffs because of "net touchdowns in division games" or some obscure tiebreaker like that.

[rhickok1109]

Interesting ... I agree with all of these unpopular opinions

[SixtiesFan]

Despite the post-career fiascos he has been involved in, at his peak OJ Simpson was one of the three or four greatest running backs in pro football history.

Yes, O.J. Simpson was definitely one of the 3-4 best running backs of all time at his best. An oddity of his career were his three mediocre seasons of 1969-71. I recall a piece by Buffalo writer Larry Felser in a 1972 preview magazine. Felser wrote something like " It's been said one of these years O.J. Simpson is going to explode. If he doesn't, Bills fans are going to explode. Gale Sayers won the NFL rushing title in 1969 and Floyd Little in 1971 with no better offensive lines than O.J. has had."

O.J. went on to have five big years (and super years in 1973 and 1975) from 1972-76. And Felser was one of his biggest boosters.

The "fiascos" were entirely O.J. Simpson's own actions. The NFL Network has given him credit on their Top 10 lists, calling his 1973 season the best a running back ever had.

[Ronfitch]

Not sure if it is unpopular, but it is a little acknowledged fact (especially to the locals here, whom I like to poke with it*) ...

The Minnesota Vikings did win an NFL Championship.

(*Minnesotans seem to have such a need to feel superior that they apply it to feeling inferior; a superior inferiority complex, if you will. They really, really embrace that the Vikings have never won a Super Bowl and get upset at even the hint of truth that the '69 team was the NFL Champion).

[74_75_78_79_]

The '68 Jets & '69 Chiefs were not flukes. The AFL had arrived!

Same with the '81 Niners. Yes, 'came from nowhere' but were every bit the 13-3, best-in-the-league team in which they were. They just played the part in the non-traditional way. Burying Dallas & Cincy in the regular season only to beat them both again does it for me. Much less the 'weaker' link to their respective Dynasty than the '01 Pats were to theirs.

I've shared this one with friends and they look at me like I have two heads...

The NFL should go back to pre-1974 overtime rules. i.e. only for the playoffs! It would create for more interesting end of game scenarios...

In a hypothetical early December game a team with a 7-6 record is down by 7 late in the game against a team with nothing to play for. This team probably needs to win out to have a shot at the playoffs. They just score a TD with seconds left. An XP ties it. But does the coach go for the win by going for 2 and risk losing the game if they don't make it?

Also, extra tie games sprinkled into the standings would create more unique W-L-T records and reduce the need to use tiebreakers to determine final standings. It stinks to have a team miss the playoffs because of "net touchdowns in division games" or some obscure tiebreaker like that.

Nobody likes a tie but I actually wouldn't mind if they went back to it for the reasons you state. The 'texture' of 0, 1, 2, or even 3-tie teams mashed up against each other and all. Look no further than both NFL division races in '63 and the 4th-place Steelers that would have WON the division if they win finale vs Giants. 7-4-3 not as far from 11-3 as you'd think. '72 NFC West comes to mind as well amongst others.

I'd rather college football go back to ties than that, IMO, horrible OT format they have (why can't it be exactly like in the pros, at least?). Ties, in the regular season, that is. Can never understand why they let bowl games end in a tie (can anyone say, Pat Dye?).

[JWL]

Nobody likes a tie but I actually wouldn't mind if they went back to it for the reasons you state.

I actually do like regular season ties in football. I do not think regular season overtime is necessary in the NFL.