Originally Posted by
Craic
If we took a breath and think about it for a moment, the move makes a lot of sense. Instead of sitting in the lockerroom and watching TV, only to learn thirty minutes before gametime that you no longer had a chance of making the playoffs or that you could no longer be eliminated from the playoffs even if you lost, it would drastically affect the game. This way, every team goes into the game thinking it is a must-win. It assures a better game and more-importantly, you don't have one team half-assing it because they just learned they can no longer be eliminated, but by doing so, they lose to a team that then makes the playoffs instead of another team (or by losing, causes another team that should have made now to lose through a tie-breaker or something).
No, outside of the blind Goodell hatred around here, this move actually makes a lot of sense for fairness of the game itself. Is it fair to the fans that bought tickets? Perhaps not. But to the teams themselves and the fairness of standings, it's one of the few good moves the NFL has made.