NFL talk? Questions about American football?

Fair point really. Most coaches will tell their players to not over do it as if they get injured then their post-season rest will mainly be spent in the physio room. Plus, they want to draft for players they have needed through watching the entire season, not because a player went in too hard in a meaningless tackle.

Exactly. I'd rather they mixed it up a little bit, did something crazy like a "Loser-Bowl."

The 2 worst teams play a game, with the winner taking the first three draft picks of the loser. Might see an exciting game then.

Yeah that's a fair shout. Though the NFL would never want to 'tarnish' their reputation by admitting that 2 teams were ****.

True.

Call it the "Roulette Bowl" then, and pick random teams that didn't make it to the playoffs.

Actually, I'd prefer that, that'd be bitchin'.

However, they would then have to re-write the rules regarding draft picks. For example, if you got the Chargers vs. Texans, neither of them would actually receive first pick this year, so what would the team who actually had the worst season get?

what a ridiculous idea
so we take two of the worst teams in the NFL
and instead of letting them upgrade their team through the draft, we allow one to upgrade twice as much as any other and one to have a year where they can't upgrade until the 4th round

awesome plan
perhaps a loserbowl where the winner gets a compensatory 1st round pick (ie 33rd overall) would work better, inventing new draft picks for the second worst loser
but to force a team to lose their first 3 picks (presumably if you trade for another teams 1st round pick in the upcoming draft you don't have to give that away, else nobody that looks like the won't make the playoffs will trade for 1st round picks)

No no, it's the first 3 draft picks that team has irrespective of their position.
And it's a Roulette Bowl now, not a Loser Bowl. I think it would work well. (Also, all trading of draft picks would be frozen as soon as a team becomes unable to reach the playoffs, and the draw for the RB made immediately after the Week 17 games have ended.

All teams not in the RB would be permitted to trade picks once the draw is over.

I know, it could wreck plans to improve, but you have a 1:10 chance of being picked to play, shouldn't be much of an issue.

Of course it'd be an issue.

Let's say Detroit had been picked last year along with the Steelers.
Then you have one of the best teams in the NFL playing one of the worst, and let's be honest, only one team's winning that game.
Then this season instead of Detroit picking Suh, Best and Spievey, one of which is almost undoubtably rookie of the year, and the other two making solid rookie seasons to help the team win 4 more games than last year, probably the best team of the last 20 years or so gets to pick 3 times more - 3 picks they clearly don't need anyway as they're going to the superbowl this year.

You could luck out and end up going to the "roulette bowl" 5 years in a row losing all 5, how does the team rebound from that?

The main issue, other than the handicap it puts on the team that loses, is the name, Super Bowl sounds cool, Roulette Bowl sounds shocking.

The odds of going to the RB two years running are 100/1.
The odds of going 5 years in a row are 100,000/1.
(Or, maybe even 7,923,516,800,000/1 depending on how we do it/ if my maths is just awful/ assuming a team is in the bottom 20 five years running.)

Yes, there would be problems, but that's why it's called the Roulette Bowl.

I guess if you wanted to, you could change it so it's only the teams that made the playoffs, but didn't make the Super Bowl who are in the draw. Might make for a better game, but there would be less on the line.

The probability is low, yes, but that doesn't mean it's impossible.
Regardless, just one year without a first, second or third round draft pick is enough to set a franchise back by several years, imagine it happening twice in a 5 year period.
ALL of the best teams are built through the draft, if you made the roulette-bowl opt in, maybe I could see it working, that way you're happily gambling your own picks because you think your team is good enough to win them, but i think you'll find no team is willing to take that risk, losing three draft picks has a much bigger effect on the team that gaining three.

Megabowl.

Nah, the well known bowling complex may sue.

I'm seeing a lot of criticism and not many solutions

I'd be in favour of just calling it "The Gap Game."

(As in, the gap between the Conference Championships and the Super Bowl.)

Hell, we could even get GAP to sponsor it, net us guys some drinking money for Sunday.

Anyone else hitting up a bar to watch it?