Another intersting aspect of parity is the seemingly weird regularity with which teams that lose the Super Bowl fall apart. Quite a high correlation coefficient for that one. Makes you appreciate Marv Levy and the Buffalo Bills acheivements that much more when you think about it. It will be very interesting to see if the now no longer cheating New England Patriots (nudge, nudge, wink, wink say no more) manage to avoid this fate.

Unleash the schadenfreude!

That the Saints could go from the #2 draft pick, to the NFC Championship in less than a year - and that any other team could do something similar - keeps fans in the stands and in front of the TV ads and sells merchandise. The system is part of what makes that possible and it'd be a shame to blow it up for short term $$.

I think it was Bear Bryant who someone once complemented by saying something like, "He'll beat your'n with his'n or his'n with your'n."

Rewarding good management and coaching is something that is a good thing. Allowing Dan Snyder to cover his mistakes and decimate other teams with bad decisions and more money like, oh, George Steinbrenner, would not be good for the league, IMHO.

Manchester United just won its tenth Premiership title in sixteen years. This is what Jerry Jones and Daniel Snyder aspire to. Leveling the playing field when it comes to money is what made the league the competitive money-making machine it is. Somewhere Pete Rozelle is turning in his grave.

Please note, there's nothing wrong with wanting to be the best team year after year after year, but if the NFL gets divided into a few have's and a bunch of have-nots, perhaps they want to look at how well MLB is doing when it comes to the younger demographics.

As a total aside, I can only assume the Rams will be headed back to Los Angeles very soon.