Have to get used to it....
Epsilon said:
The incessant whining that followed Paul Kariya's free agency signing with the Avalanche has convinced me that while hockey fans can talk a good talk about wanting a system like the NFL's, they are not prepared to deal with all the consequences of it. The Kariya situation, deemed so unfair and disloyal by so many, is business as usual in the NFL system.
NFL fans are now used to seeing players come and go. I mean, no matter how good your team is, of your 47 man roster, a good 20 - 25% are turned over each year. You have your 7 draft picks, plus the guys you sign and lose via Free Agency.
It would take NHL fans time to get used to the NFL system if it gets implemented. Also, College players are basically set to go once they arrive in the NFL. In hockey, you have to spend more time developing that player, so that kind of affects the loyalty factor too.
In terms of the topic of why a CAP works in Football, I think there are several factors:
1) Shorter Season - every game matters. Being the 2 top teams in your conference is a huge deal because you get the bye week in the opening round of the playoffs. Then there's home field advantage for the other 2 division winners, plus just making the playoffs for the 2 wildcard teams. In hockey, you play 5 games for each NFL game and there's no benefit for the division winners since playing on the Road in hockey is advantageous to the Underdog since they can play a more conservative, defensive game.
2) Fewer playoff teams - Only 12 teams make it out of 32 in the NFL, 37.5% of teams, versus, 53.3% in Hockey.
These first 2 points are huge because although fans have their favorite player for their team, they ultimately care about winning. You can be an Eagles fan, and a Terrell Owens fan, but you don't care if he only catches 1 pass for 5 yards, so long as the Eagles win the game. If he does that for 2 or 3 games, then it matters.
The NFL players realized during their strike that NFL fans care about the team, not the players. That's where hockey went wrong in the Mid to Late 90's, when the NHL said/bought the line of "People come to see Player X play". That was true when Gretzky, Lemieux, Orr, etc. were doing their thing, but as the league went defensive, elite players went games without doing much. Football fans are a what have you done for me lately mind set, so when the Titans let Eddie George go, fans had no troubling letting him go since his production was dropping for a couple of years and his replacement was ready to go.
A couple of great players in either sport won't take a team over the top. You need everything working. In the NFL, you can have a great QB and WR, but if your O-Line can't block and you have no running game, you won't go far. Same goes for the Defensive side. You can have great corners, but with no pass rush, you'll eventually get burned. In hockey, you need strong PK, and PP and secondary scoring and great goaltending to win.
3) Gambling... NFL doesn't talk about it, but that's a huge part of the attraction of the NFL. Not only do you bet who will win, but you have to be weary if they can cover the point spread, which keeps people interested in following all of the games.
4) NFL teams are owned by single individuals not corporations. John Davidson brought this point up for Sportsnet last week when discussing the differences between the 2 leagues. Therefore, as a single owner, the Revenue for the team will be very clear. In hockey, corporations as owners are prominant, so the numbers sometimes get mixed with other businesses.
5) And without a CAP, Packers probably wouldn't have been able to stay in Green Bay and keep what for a long period of time, was the Best player in football in Bret Favre for a dozen years.
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