The Detroit Lions did something on Wednesday that has been talked about for a long time.
The Lions proposed a major change to the National Football League’s playoff format, being how the league seeds its playoff teams.
The Lions would like to see teams seeded in the postseason based on their record, instead of whether or not they won division championships.
The proposal submitted by the franchise still calls for the two teams with the best overall records in the league – the NFC’s best record and the AFC’s best record – to get the No. 1 seeds in the playoffs, which mean earning first-round byes and home field advantage throughout.
But after those top seeds, the other teams would be seeded based on their season record, not based on whether they won their respective divisions or were a wild-card team.
Ironically, the Lions actually WON the NFC North last season, with a 15-2 record, and were also the NFC’s No. 1 seed.
Home field advantage in the NFL playoffs has long been looked at as a major factor in getting to the Super Bowl. And there have been years, such as early in Pete Carroll’s tenure as coach of the Seattle Seahawks, when a division was so putrid that a 7-9 team won that division – getting to host a first-round playoff game, while a wild-card team in a stronger division, that might have won 10 games or more, had to go on the road.
Last year, Minnesota won 14 games, but was a wild-card in the playoffs because they were in the same division as Detroit.
The Lions aren’t re-inventing the wheel with their proposal. The Chargers made a similar proposal two years ago, but it didn’t gain traction.
NFL owners meet late this month in West Palm Beach, Florida. At least 24 of the league’s 32 owners would have to approve the proposal for it to be adopted.
Also on the table that week, by the way: a proposal by the Green Bay Packers to ban a short-yardage play the Philadelphia Eagles use regularly that they call the “Brotherly Shove,” a play in which the Eagles almost always succeed in getting the yards needed for a first down, or a touchdown, but that many teams declare is unsafe.
The Packers want the league to outlaw other players being able to line up behind the quarterback and push him forward.
