What would you change about the NFL?

NFL viewership is down.

You may be aware that Nielsen recently reported that total viewership is down 7.5% from this time last year and it has gotten the attention of the commissioner and the owners.

There are several suggestions as to why, consider these:

• National anthem protest
• Lack of toughness on domestic abuse
• Roger Goodell's handling of Ray Rice and Zeke Elliott
• Quality of play (too many penalties and length of games)

Whatever the reason might be, the stats are clear.

Local television markets and national viewership are down for the NFL when comparing to last season or even since 2013.

It is true that ratings are down across the board but this is primarily due to cord cutting and other options available to customers.

But make no mistake, NFL owners and Goodell are concerned about this and have already met to try and figure out what they can do about it.

It made me think, what would I change about the game to make me come back to watch every game available to me?

What would you change to make you want to come back to the NFL?

Here is what it would take for me...

1. Remove the weekly Thursday night game and reinstate the afternoon doubleheader on Fox and CBS.  One of the best things about college football is having so many games to choose from at any given time and able to switch to watch whichever game is the most interesting.  There is also a competitive impact to teams playing on a short week or another having more days to rest and prepare.
   
2. Reduce the NFL preseason by two and add them to the regular season.  The players are going to demand this when the current labor deal expires in 2021.  Currently, owners do not have to share preseason revenue with players nor other owners. Adding them to the regular season is a benefit to players as potentially more money for the same risk they had been facing anyway.
   
3. Injury reports must be filed with the league office by 8am EST every Sunday during the regular season including the Monday night game.  Coaches should be able to keep this information private during the week for game planning and preparation.  There are obvious gambling and fantasy impacts so that is the reason for a uniform deadline to submit all injury reports.
   
4. Allow players who participate in less than 10% of offensive or defensive snaps to have unlimited access to the team facility during the offseason.  The players union demanded less offseason work and practice time during the last CBA but this has negatively impacted the quality of play. It has also hurt the ability for bottom of the roster players to develop from one season to another without any development leagues for them to improve.
   
5. Eliminate the 45 man game day roster. This rule was obsolete 30 years ago and has survived for no good reason. If you are on the 53 man roster, you are eligible to play.
   
6. Reduce replay challenges to 1 per half and any successful challenge allows to team to retain their challenge. In addition, all reviews should be conducted in the booth and the results communicated to the head referee. It is inefficient to require the referee to review a monitor on the field when the booth is already set up to do this.
   
7. Simplify what is a catch. The NFL has lost their way in determining what is a catch and seem to have allowed lawyers to write the rule book using the most confusing language possible. A catch is a receiver who gets 2 feet down in the field of play with possession. No more what happens if he goes to the ground, no more what is a football move or did he maintain control.
   
8. Reduce penalties across the board.  


• Any non-personal fouls committed by the receiving team on a special teams play are automatically dismissed if the receiving team elects a touchback or fair catch.
  
• Eliminate the illegal contact penalty.  Peyton Manning and Tony Dungy are out of the league and the penalty they pushed to create needs to go as well.  This has dramatically shifted advantage to the offense and the passing game allowing QBs to dice up defenses with relative ease. There needs to be competitive balance in games and defenses need this one back.  The rule designed by Manning and Dungy to beat the Patriots got them one championship but it didn't stop Brady and Belichek. It did open the floodgates for every other QB in the league though.
  
• Eliminate the tuck rule.  Speaking of those Patriots, we all know that is a stupid rule and should of been removed following that season.

What would you change to make you want to come back to the NFL?