Are NFL Teams Playing for Results or Fans?

Caldwell is called an idiot, yadda yadda..He probably would have been fine, and they still might have lost….I think he did the right thing yesterday. This is the NFL and they were playing the NFL’s best D. The best. The Jets desperately needed a win last night to make the playoffs….it was the perfect stom for something to go terribly wrong. Once again if Manning (or any of their blue chip players) would have gotten hurt, and then lost their first playoff game….Everyone would agree he should have benched his starters.

Are NFL team playing for results or for the fans? I think they go hand in hand. Putting his team in, what was his opinion, the best position to win the Super Bowl is playing for both results and the fans.

PS I hate Indy for even having this “problem.” How terrible it must be for thoes “poor” fans to have to sit through a loss. Give me a break they have home field throughout the playoffs….get over it.

I have always thought the fans should get what they pay for and that is the best the team has to offer every Sunday.

those two opposing views are not mutually exclusive imo. I fall on the side of the goal being the SuperBowl no matter what it takes. (Within Reason of course) Long term gains outweigh short term disappointments. However, I am of the opinion that the Colts hurt their SB chances by resting their starters. Manning played most of 3 QTRs. He could have gotten hurt in that time just as he could have gotten hurt in the 4th….or in practice…or in a snowball fight during a familly outing.

Injury is part of football. If Manning gets hurt…thems tha breaks. You can never look into a crystal ball and deny destiny. The only thing the Colts accomplished was teaching a team of players who only knew how to win, exactly how you go about losing a game. They have faced adversity many times this year and overcome it every time. Now they know that they may not be able to do it under the right circumstances.

How will they react when they face adversity in the playoffs. Past performance is the greatest indicator of future performance. The next time they stare a loss in teh face, their most recent memory will be of failure.

They may go on to win the SB. But, yesterday will not help in any way.

The Jets hold the tie breaker over the Donkeys. Knowing that we had the last game against them, Clark paid off the Colts to throw the game so that we wouldn’t have to try so hard to beat the Donkeys the following week.

if they had already lost then ok rest him but to not go for a perfect season is a slap in the face to the fans who coulda had the greatest team ever.

It takes the pressure to go unbeaten in a season off of the entire team.

The starters no matter how healthy they look will have extra time to heal all those bumps and bruises.

and I think they are one in the same. If the fan’s expectations are to just be entertained by the best players available, but that’s not the case. Fan’s want superbowls, that’s the ultimate bragging right. If the Colts win the superbowl, nobody will even talk about this loss (other than the perfect season talk).

because of the ticket prices. If the ticket prices were lower, then fans would be less angry for dumb antics such as what the Colts did and at least one team does every year, by resting their players. With ticket prices being where they are at, the NFL should heed to the fans every wish and desire. I know the NFL is a business, but it seems to forget that it is labeled as entertainment, and I do not remember when entertainment that was not high class (theater, symphony, art showing, etc), was worthy of being so costly.

is whether pro football is entertainment or sport. And of course… it is both.

Fans want (and expect) their money’s worth when they come to the stadium, but also want a championship. This case is a perfect example of how those two ideas can come into conflict with each other. And it happens with at least a few teams during the closing weeks of every season – whether a perfect season is on the line or not.

But we’re hardly a stranger to the concept in Kansas City.

For many years, Carl Peterson’s detractors said that he only cared about “putting butts in the seats” in order to increase profits for the Hunts – at the expense of fielding a championship team. Personally… I don’t agree with that view. Peterson wanted a championship as much as the next guy; I don’t believe for one second that his failure to do so was deliberate on any level.

That said, however, I think you can make a case that in the last few years of his Kansas City tenure, Peterson believed that tearing the team down in order to rebuild it from the ground up – as Edwards (and very likely Clark Hunt) wanted to do – would have been too much of a shock to the system, and would alienate the fan base he had worked so hard to build. So this, too, is an example of how difficult it is to balance the short term entertainment value of a franchise against the long term goal of winning championships.

While this is a very interesting subject – hats off to Matt for bringing it up – I think it’s one of those things for which there is no real answer.

Oh, how horrible it must be for these fans to pay money to watch a team lose ONE game this year. I’m pretty sure that no one will remember this. The Colts will go on to play in the play offs (with home field advantage) and will likely win at least their first game. We’ll see how entertained they are when the Colts are playing in the AFC championship game.

For the Organization/Coaches – This move was about minimizing risk. This is a game that meant nothing to the Colts as far as their season is concerned. The fact that Peyton and the other “key” starters played more than a series may be considered a gift to the fans that shelled out all those bucks to see the game. Not only this, but you are opening the playoff window for a team that you might see again as your first playoff game. Wouldn’t you rather see the Jets again than say… Pittsburgh?

For the Players – I can’t imagine a scenario where they did not want to go undefeated. They are competitors and professionals. You could see on the sidelines that none of them were happy with the performance. A Super Bowl happens every year – an undefeated season hasn’t happened in almost 40. None of them want to quit – but in this situation many of them are forced to.

For the Fans – They paid good money to go cheer their undefeated team to another victory. For many of them these were Christmas gifts. It may be the only game you get to go to this year… or next… or ever. It is your opportunity to witness and participate in a potential historic season. What an opportunity! How unfortunate that you didn’t get to see the starters all game. Even more unfortunate that all the energy you brought was flushed when the coaches threw in the towel and all you could do is watch the ship go down in flames. There would be no complaint if the 2nd team players came in and sealed the win. The loss adds salt to the wound. Don’t worry – your team will be back next year and will be white hot as usual. At least you have a team to cheer for after the New Year.

if they had an offensive line like ours then yes take them out and save them. But how many times has Manning been sacked this year maybe 3, do they really have to worry about him getting hurt. And with the way he will always be compared with Brady if I were a Colts fan i would be pissed too. Brady has 3 rings and a 16-0 season, its not like every year you have a chance to go 16-0. He could have 1 upped Brady with 19-0 season.

how far in was it when Manning was pulled?

I’m a little pissed, but he didn’t lose that game for me alone :p

I see the points of both sides of the arguments, and having a perfect season should be secondary to winning the superbowl. However, I think there’s a lot to be said about staying in the groove and keeping your momentum going into the playoffs, and we’ve seen the Colts get knocked out in their first games quite often after resting the starters.