ccf@cbosgd.UUCP (12/01/83)
Despite his personality, I am forced to agree with David Bryant's (cbosgd!djb) observations on the arbitrary nature of first down measurements. However, I disagree with his contention that first downs should be based on a vote of the game officials. As we are all well aware, whenever there is voting there is politics. And wherever there is politics there are politicians. And wherever there are politicians there is bribery and graft. Clearly the result of the "vote for a first down rule" would be the awarding of an inordinate number of first downs to the richest teams. League balance would inevitably suffer and fan interest would wane as the wealthiest organizations purchased league championships. In short, I applaud David's bold suggestion, but consider it unworkable. I think that it is about time that something was done to eliminate the bad aspects of football and reward clean, intelligent play. The introduction of a penalty box would certainly cut down on the growing number of penalties. The awarding of extra points based on the ability of a randomly selected player to answer a quiz question would surely encourage teams to draft clever athletes who have at least the equivalent of an 8th grade education. And finally, I think that the NFL should candidly admit that its "drug treatment program" is a sham and require that each team spot the opponents a point spread proportional to the number of convicted fog-brains on its roster. Imagine calling the Dallas Cowboys "America's Team"! I think "South America's Team" is closer to the truth! *<--- chuck --->* cbosgd!ccf BTL Columbu