I miss seeing receivers get their bells rung, it used to take balls to go across the middle; see Steve Smith.

That being said, it is important that the NFL continue to bring an excellent product to the field. Roger Goodell’s rather jingoistic policy of removing contact from the NFL will catch up to him if they continue to make moves ‘in the interest of player safety’ and removing physicality from the game. People watch the NFL for the players and the tough hits almost as much as they want to see touchdowns and see their team win. A watered down product will lead to less viewership and the NFL’s growth in recent years will invert itself and start to decline.

Currently we have a nice happy medium. Great passing teams will make the playoffs every year if they have a good QB, decent receivers, and a good offensive line. However, it is important to monitor these recent rule changes on a year to year basis since the changes are still pretty recent. If the NFL coaches adjust to the rules in such a way to where every team is scoring touchdowns on every possession because the corners and safeties can’t do their job, the NFL will have to change the rules again or risk losing their viewership since the touchdown loses it’s significance. If a team can score on every possession, why cheer when your team scores? It’s par to the course.

If Goodell does something silly like remove the 3 point stance like we heard discussions about last year, it will become a PR disaster that will end the league’s popularity in the twinkling of an eye since it’s easily noticeable. I’m all for player safety and I’m all for a smart man moving the economics of the league along. However, you have to have something to sell for people to buy. That is what worries me most. That by the time Goodell is done with the NFL, he’ll have installed stuffed pillows inside NFL jerseys.

However, when a crappy Bucs home game that wouldn’t avoid blackout can sell over 80,000 tickets in Wembley stadium it’s a hard sell to move it out of London.