Interessante idea di Goodell, ospite al podcast di Peter King, per quanto riguarda la trade deadline. Si sta pensando di spostarla a ridosso della Week 12 invece che della Week 6 (l'NFL è forse l'unico major sport in cui la deadline arriva neanche a metà della stagione e dove, più in generale, le trade sono comunque spesso in secondo piano).
Goodell sounds as if he wants the trade deadline moved, which is a good thing. I did my NFL podcast last week with Roger Goodell, and the most interesting thing I heard was that he's open to pushing the trade deadline back. It currently is the day after the end of Week 6, roughly one-third of the way into the season ... way sooner than baseball's trade deadline, which occurs two-thirds of the way into the season.
My biggest problem with the deadline was perfectly illustrated by what happened with Kyle Orton last week. The Broncos cut him, getting nothing in return when at last one team -- Chicago -- and maybe Kansas City, Houston and Dallas would have traded a draft choice for him. Kansas City's thrilled to get him for nothing except his salary the rest of the year, but Denver's out of luck because they get nothing when they certainly would have gotten a fifth-round pick, minimum, had the trade deadline been after Week 12.
Said Goodell: "I think our game is a little different from other sports in that teams aren't as reliant on trades, they build more through the draft. But it's exciting when you have a trade. It creates controversy; it creates a discussion among fans. I think the trading deadline is important in other sports. And I think the more we can put that kind of focus in football it's good.''
The NFL saw how interesting the concentrated free-agency period was in late July and early August. But whenever free agency is, it's going to create a buzz. The NFL could have had that last week.
The problem with the early deadline is no team (well, maybe one or two would be 0-6 in some years) is out of it by then, so no team wants to trade for the future. Putting it in Week 11 or 12 would create a mini-frenzy in the couple of weeks leading up to the deadline, with the have-nots dealing players for mid- and late-round picks in the next draft.
"Obviously, free agency was modified this year because of our offseason," said Goodell. "We've talked about how do we create that same kind of enthusiasm around free agency. That was great. It created tremendous interest in the game. It, obviously, was terrific for fans to re-engage with the game that way. And the same could be said for trading. Fans love to see the trades.''
And it's not Herculean to push the deadline back. It'd take a three-quarters vote of club owners next March to do it. Goodell should be the one to push it to fruition. "The game evolves, and we have to evolve with it,'' he said. "And we have to drive that evolution ... If the positives outweigh [the negatives], and we think it's going to make the game better or safer, we're going to pursue that. We will look at anything that's going to make the game more exciting. And I think trades are a positive thing.''
