That "Parity" They Keep Talking About
The NFL aims for "parity", which they hope will keep all teams somewhat competitive occasionally. To this end, they have revenue sharing and salary capping and a very slight adjustment-one-eighth of the games-to the schedule of each team based on the previous year's performance. Sometimes, parity looks like a joke, like 2007, when the league featured the 16-0 Patriots and the 1-15 Dolphins. Today, there were some flashes. For a stretch during the four-o'clock games today, all three games (Jets @ Saints, Cowboys @ Broncos, Bills @ Dolphins) had scores of 10-0. Later, I noticed that the Jets and Bills were both trailing 17-3 at the same time. At the end of the game, the Bills and the Dolphins are now both at 1-3. If you squint your eyes hard enough to ignore the comparison of within-division records and the recent history of the two teams, you could almost call it parity!