Eight Things I’d Fix as NFL Commissioner
The NFL is the most popular league in America, and it still gets plenty wrong. Some of it is small stuff that annoys fans on Sundays. Some of it shapes who makes the playoffs.
So here’s the premise: hand me the commissioner’s office for one offseason. These are the eight things I’d fix, starting with the one that bugs me most.
1. Eliminate ties
Ties are un-American. We are a culture that celebrates winning and losing, and a tie gives fans neither. The fan experience during a tie is terrible: three-plus hours invested, and everyone goes home with a shrug.
The problem got worse when the league cut regular-season overtime from 15 minutes to 10 in 2017. Between 1974 and 2011, 17 of 494 overtime games ended in a tie, or 3.4%. From 2017 through Week 10 of 2021, five of 62 did, or 8.1%. That’s more than double the rate of the sudden-death era.
The fix is simple: take the clock out of overtime. Both teams get a possession to score. If the game is still tied after both possessions, it goes to sudden death. Next score wins.
The NHL figured out ties. So can the NFL. Even league executive Troy Vincent has said it’s time to rethink the overtime rule.
2. Fix the bye weeks
All byes would fall between Weeks 5 and 12. That’s eight weeks for eight divisions, so each division gets one bye week, and all four teams in a division share it.
The schedule rotates every season, so no division is stuck with an early or late bye year after year. That’s equity: every team in a division gets the same rest at the same point, and nobody gains an edge on a rival with a better-timed week off.
It also makes better sense for fantasy football. Teams have recently had players on bye in the first week of the fantasy playoffs, which is a brutal way to end a season. Capping byes at Week 12 takes care of that.
3. Realign the divisions
I’d redraw the divisions to ease the travel burden on players. The Dallas Cowboys have no business playing three East Coast teams twice a year. Miami sits more than 1,000 miles from the rest of the AFC East.
I made a conscious decision to keep both conferences intact. That limits how far this can go, but it keeps the change realistic. Here’s my map, with moved teams in bold:
| Division | Teams |
|---|---|
| AFC East | Bills, Patriots, Jets, Ravens |
| AFC North | Steelers, Bengals, Browns, Colts |
| AFC South | Dolphins, Jaguars, Titans, Texans |
| AFC West | Broncos, Chiefs, Raiders, Chargers |
| NFC East | Giants, Eagles, Commanders, Panthers |
| NFC North | Bears, Lions, Packers, Vikings |
| NFC South | Cowboys, Falcons, Saints, Buccaneers |
| NFC West | Seahawks, 49ers, Rams, Cardinals |
Yes, this breaks up some long-standing rivalries, including Ravens-Steelers and Cowboys-Eagles. But rivalries come and go, and they can always be reestablished. The travel balance is better for the league.
In an ideal world, I’d go further. I’d build a true West Coast division of the Seahawks, 49ers, Raiders and Broncos, and keep the Rams and Chargers together rather than splitting Los Angeles. That would mean crossing conference lines, which is a bigger fight than this column needs.
4. Make the 17th game a rivalry game
The 17th game should mean something. I’d turn it into a fixed, annual cross-conference rivalry game, built on in-state bragging rights wherever possible.
Some of these write themselves. The Texans and Cowboys should play every year. So should the Giants and Jets, and the Rams and Chargers.
Others take a little more thought. The Dolphins pair better with the Buccaneers than the Jaguars, simply because the Bucs have been around longer. That frees the Jaguars for the Panthers. Both teams debuted in 1995, and they share a big-cat theme.
| AFC | NFC | The connection |
|---|---|---|
| Texans | Cowboys | Texas |
| Jets | Giants | New York |
| Chargers | Rams | Los Angeles |
| Dolphins | Buccaneers | Florida |
| Jaguars | Panthers | 1995 expansion teams |
| Steelers | Eagles | Pennsylvania |
| Ravens | Commanders | Beltway |
| Browns | Lions | Neighboring states |
| Colts | Bears | Neighboring states |
| Broncos | Seahawks | Former AFC West foes |
| Bills | Vikings | Cold weather, 0-4 in Super Bowls each |
| Raiders | 49ers | Former Bay Area rivals |
| Chiefs | Cardinals | |
| Titans | Saints | |
| Bengals | Packers | |
| Patriots | Falcons |
Some of these are stronger than others. Where a natural rival exists, it’s an easy call. Where one doesn’t, these games give two franchises a chance to build one.
5. Let coaches keep challenging until they’re wrong
Right now, coaches get two challenges. If they win both, they get a third.
That cap makes no sense. If a coach keeps proving the officials wrong, why take the flag out of his hand? I’d let a coach keep challenging until he loses one. The incentive stays the same: challenge only when you’re sure. But a game won’t be decided by a bad call just because a coach ran out of flags.
6. Make every called penalty reviewable
Any penalty that’s called on the field should be subject to review. A phantom pass interference flag can swing a game as much as a bad spot or a missed fumble.
Non-calls are a different story. There’s holding or contact somewhere on the field on nearly every down, and reviewing what wasn’t called would turn every game into a four-hour film session. Limiting review to flags that were actually thrown keeps the game moving.
The league has been reluctant here. Troy Vincent said there was “no appetite” on the competition committee for using replay to throw flags. My proposal doesn’t ask for that. It only asks that the flags already on the field get it right.
7. Bring back the surprise onside kick
One of the most iconic Super Bowl moments came when the Saints opened the second half of Super Bowl XLIV with an onside kick that caught the Colts completely off guard. That play could never happen in today’s NFL.
Under the dynamic kickoff, teams must declare an onside kick before they attempt it. The league loosened the rule this year, so a team can now try one at any point in the game, whether it’s leading, trailing or tied. But it still has to announce it in advance (SI).
That requirement kills the surprise, and the results show it. Only five of 52 onside kicks were recovered in 2025.
Teams shouldn’t have to declare. The catch is that the onside kick uses the traditional formation, while the dynamic kickoff lines most players up near the receiving team’s 30- and 35-yard lines. Bringing back the surprise means designing a kickoff alignment that allows for both.
8. Stop penalizing marijuana use
Marijuana is legal in many states, and it doesn’t offer a competitive advantage. So why is the league still punishing players for it?
The NFL has come a long way. The 2020 collective bargaining agreement ended suspensions for marijuana, much to the chagrin of Josh Gordon and Ricky Williams, who both lost time to marijuana suspensions. This season, the league raised the THC threshold for a positive test from 150 to 350 ng/ml and cut the fine for a first violation from half a game check to $15,000.
But a smaller fine is still a fine. If the league is already this lenient, it’s admitting marijuana isn’t a real problem. Drop the penalties entirely.
The bottom line
None of these fixes would change the heart of the game. They’d make it fairer, more fun to watch and a little more logical. No more ties, smarter byes, saner travel, a 17th game worth circling on the calendar and officiating that gets the big calls right.
The commissioner’s office hasn’t called yet. I’ll keep the phone close.
