Media Double Standard regarding the NFL

Another effect of the unfairness of NFL divisions and playoff eligibility, which I wrote about yesterday, is to expose the double standard that the sports media applies to the NFL as opposed to other sports.

College football uses a system that is broken to determine its national champion. The entire sports media gets all up in arms every year at this time to go out if their way to tell the public just how messed up the system is. But not a single critical word is uttered in the national media regarding how unfair the NFL divisional format is. In fact, on today’s episode of The Sports Reporters, Howard Bryant’s parting shot was an attempt to justify the NFL’s misguided playoff eligibility. After stating in an earlier segment that “a monkey playing cymbals can make the playoffs in the NFL once every five years. The rules are set up to do this,” Bryant argued that the 11-5 Patriots had no right to complain about not making the playoffs because they had a weak schedule and had only defeated one playoff team. Hello Mr. Bryant, the 8-8 Chargers beat zero playoff teams during the regular season!

This just goes to show that while members of the media are quick to ridicule various aspects of sports, the NFL is treated as some sort of sacred cow that gets a free pass from the media. Steroids in baseball? Outrage is cried by the media. Players are stained for life by the media. Steroids in the NFL? The media reports it then ignores it. When is the media going to wake up from its love affair with the NFL to see that it has just as many flaws as other sports.