I hope we beat their ***.

 

It's a legitimate complaint, at least to me. You always want to see a team playing it's starters, especially if you're one of the folks who pay for a limited number games a season, or pay for the action via Direct Ticket. It's just bad advertising. Could you imagine, as a Colts fan, going to watch Peyton Manning chase a perfect season and being treated to Curtis Painter and his band of merry men? I know I'd be pissed off.

It also makes things hairy when it comes to competition. Why would, say, a Cincinnati put in a comprehensive game plan when they're likely going to pull their starters and have to play the same team next week?

I'm completely appalled that a team like the Jets will be rewarded on the strength of beating two teams resting their starters. You'll have another team that gets shafted, like the Texans, Steelers, Ravens, or Jaguars, who probably deserve to get in, but they didn't play folks resting down the stretch.

It's a slippery slope too. If teams are resting starters for the playoffs, what's to keep teams from resting starters for next year? Why don't the Chiefs bench Matt Cassell? They may lose a couple of games but at least Cassell will be healthy the following year.

It's getting so bad that I suspect the competition committee may be forced to address it. I'd like to see something done but I don't really have suggestions. In high school and college you play all the way through it - the only time your starters rest is when there's a clear (i.e. 4 touchdown) advantage over the other team.

 

I agree, it is a legitimate complaint. These teams are essentially throwing games. Higher seeded teams are basically in a position to control who comes in in the lower spots. It's a shame. I would have been furious if I was a Colts fan that paid to go to last Sunday night's game. Those tickets are expensive. It's also not fair to the teams you mentioned and even to a team like Miami because they all had to play teams who were trying to win. If the Colts had tried the Jets would already be at eight losses and even a team like our Dolphins would have that much of a better shot.

 

well try not to suck so bad Pittsburgh.

 

i dont think its a legitimate complaint at all. teams that earned the ability to sit their players and still get in the playoffs have earned that right to do so. If the steelers don't get in, it's cause they didn't win enough games in the beginning of the season, not because the bengals and patriots kept them out of the playoffs in week 17.

What a ridiculous quote. Besides, if the steelers really belonged in the playoffs, they would have beaten the bengals this year, but they got swept instead.

 

Not always the case, we swept the Jets and look where they are headed...

 

thats our fault for not taking care of business. just like its the steelers fault for not taking care of business.

im sure everyone knows this, but the team with the most wins gets into the playoffs. A team that doesnt get into the playoffs has no one but themselves to blame. The formulas very simple, win as many games as possible.

 

It s#^@s for teams like us but as bad as i hate to say it we put ourselves in this place. Our year long record not just the last game has made our destiny. Jets started strong and limped in. What a burn on us ugh. Next to last is painfull thinking we can now end the season only ahead of Buffalo.

 

Those teams have earned the right to basically add preseason games to their schedule and put other teams into the playoffs? They've earned the right to not give the customer the product they paid to see? You're going to say it's Miami's fault for not taking care of business when they swept the Jets and came into last week with the exact same record? It's somehow fair they have to play teams that are trying to win and the Jets get to count preseason games toward a playoff berth? It's easy to say, "well they should have beat Houston" but how would the dynamics of the whole playoff picture change if NY would have played a team that was trying? What if the other teams they need to lose happen to lose but the Jets win? Then Indy laying down cost them the playoff spot they otherwise had earned.

 

We can still get 2nd place. Cincy is supposedly going to play to win. We'll see how that goes.

 

so what you are saying you want the competition to tell every team who there starters are and they have to play them - then what you want them to tell them when they can and cannot sub a starter out of a game to get a rest also...
although i dont like the idea of pulling starters either - you cant tell a team who they have to start and when and when not to pull them - teams earn that by having a good record.
also if miami had won the last 2 games like they should have THEY WOULD BE IN THE PLAYOFFS RIGHT NOW.....so teams that get squeezed out of the playoffs its their own fault not someother teams fault!!!!

 

I have no problem with pulling starters. Last I check the people playing are still NFL players. We complain when these athletes don't act like paid professional workers then complain when these very same ones play.

As long as the players on the field play hard, it's not throwing anything.

 

What Caldwell did was absolutely shameful.

 

I think teams owe it to their fans to put out the highest quality team on the field for all games.

 

I agree with you both and up until the 3rd quarter when Peyton and company were pulled I was hoping for the Colts to pull it off and go all the way. I hate to say it but if the Colts now make it to the SB, which I think they won't - the Chargers beat them, I hope they lose badly!

It is a game people play alot of money to enjoy; they deserve the best that a team has to offer at all times! Case in point the first half of our last two games the Miami players, as a group, did not give us our money's worth! Win, lose, or draw we, the fans, deserve the best you've got all the time!

 

Exactly!

This is the point I think people are missing in all the "it's a business" discussion: does the guy who blew a couple hundred bucks to take his family to a game feel cheated?

You bet your *** he does. And justifiably so.

Teams have a responsibility to the fans - at the stadium and at home - to put their best product on the field.

That's all.

No guarantees...just your best effort.

Caldwell ****ed the fans and the game.

 

Bottom line is Football is America's most popular sport. No one gives a **** about you resting your Multi-Million dollar athletes for the playoffs.

This isn't Baseball or Basketball where you have a possible 15-24 more games to play in the playoffs. You'd have 3 games to play if you're the Colts, 4 if you count week 17. Just ****ing play you're starters.

 

You are 100% correct we had two chances and blew them both we do not deserve to be in the playoffs.
I will admit the jets are lucky they are playing teams that are laying down and i hope they get smoked in the first round.

 

As VO mentioned, this has to be addressed.
As pissed as I am about the Jests limping into the playoffs, it is pale in comparison to the loss of integrity this will enevitably cause.
In Basketball you have teams obviously throwing games at the end of the season to help them climb a few notches come draft time.
Well, in no sport is draft order more important than the NFL. This not worrying about games at the end is a cancer and absolutely will have ill-affects on the integrity of the game itself.

 

It's much worse in the NBA, mainly because their is a Rookie Cap. If they abandoned that, you'd see those NBA teams perk up real quick.

In football you have the opposite. The bad teams play hard until the end, whereas the good teams decide to rest players in throw it in the tank the last two games of the year.

Not sure what can be done about it though.

 

The Colts and Bengals need to do whats best for them. I don't think they care about us or the Jets or the Steelers and thats the way it should be. I have no problem with them resting thier starters. As far as the fans go, thats just they way it is. You buy a ticket to see the Colts or Bengals play, not to see Payton or Carson play.

 

You're right, and Dolphins fans never bought tickets to see Dan Marino play... I don't agree with this at all. You want to rest starters? Get a big lead. Otherwise keep your best players in the game. It's a big crock of BS. You play to win in the regular season. Period. No matter what. That's what fans pay for, they pay to go see their teams put forth their best effort towards a victory. That is not what Jim Caldwell did last weekend. It is a shame.

How will all of you defending these guys feel this weekend if the Jags, Ravens, and Texans all lose, the Fins win, and then the Jets win b/c Cincy put in second stringers? 'They should have won more games' is a lame argument. There's no set number of games to get to the playoffs. You just have to win more than your competition. If Baltimore and Jax win and the Jets end up losing for whatever reason nobody will care, none of this will matter. But what if Miami wins and they all lose and the Jets knock them out because they won two games against backups?

 

Any time players play they risk injury, so with all due respect to you, that is imho the most lame excuse I've ever heard to not play a game and any player who would be happy because of that type of thinking I would want thrown off MY team at once!

I could care less about the Jets and their fat loud mouth HC and how they are preceived. And if the Bengals "lay down" then I hope Chris Henry comes back and puts his mojo on them and they never win another post season game as long as the present members of that team are on it!

Maybe you do brother but in that same vernacular do you feel that way about the Eagles and M. Vick being on their roster and being able to play in the SB if they get to that point this year? I bet not.:shifty::wink2:

Sorry guys but if they pull Henne for any reason, other that a play or two to run the WC or WP, then all bets are off as far as I'm concerned!