With as many wild-card teams now as division champions (six) in the playoffs, the National Football League managed to improve its pocketbook and its product without compromising its basic format or playoff integrity.
Also, by henceforth taking 17 weeks to play its 16-game regular-season schedule, the league managed to extract more TV money and bite off a wider chunk of the sports calendar without making teams play more games.
The previous two-game wild-card weekend was seen as a loser`s weekend, an undercard for the ”real” division playoffs the following week.
Now, with the No. 3 division champion forced to play the No. 3 wild-card team and the other two wild-card teams facing off the same weekend, the importance is enhanced.
Last season, the Green Bay Packers would have made the playoffs as the third NFC wild-card team and would have played the Minnesota Vikings the same weekend the wild-card Philadelphia Eagles and Los Angeles Rams played. The Kansas City Chiefs would have made the playoffs as the third AFC wild card and would have played the Buffalo Bills the same weekend the wild-card Pittsburgh Steelers and Houston Oilers played. Two of the league`s best offensive players of 1989-Green Bay`s Don Majkowski and Kansas City`s Christian Okoye-would have had playoff exposure.
This Saturday-Sunday setup gives the league a shot at duplicating the Saturday-Sunday division playoffs that have traditionally provided the best games in NFL history, better than Super Bowls.
The NFL would prefer to avoid intradivision faceoffs, but that will not always be possible. It might not always be advisable, either. A rubber match between the Packers and the Vikings, both 10-6 last year, would have been more exciting than reading the fine print of the tiebreaker rules that determined the Vikings were in with a 6-2 Central Division record and the Packers were out with their 5-3 record.
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Since 1978, when the league went to the 16-game schedule, 10 teams with 10 or more wins have been left out of the playoffs. Under the new formula, the league might have been embarrassed only twice-in 1981, when a .500 team would have qualified, and in 1987, when a 7-8 team would have qualified. Since that was during the 15-game strike year, the league could argue it never would have included a sub-.500 team in its new system during a normal season.
Even with 12 playoff teams, the NFL argues it is the league with the most teams (28) and second fewest playoff teams. The NBA has 16 of 27, the NHL 16 of 21 and baseball 4 of 26. The NFL still will have the fewest playoff games with 11. The NBA has a minimum 52, maximum 89. The NHL a minimum 60 and maximum 105. Baseball has a minimum 12 and maximum 21.
The 17-week schedule will mark the first time since 1966 the league has played with byes. That was the year the Atlanta Falcons joined to make it a 15-team league, the year before the New Orleans Saints were born.
In 1960, there also were byes when the Dallas Cowboys made it a 13-team league, the year before the Minnesota Vikings joined.
In both years, teams complained when contenders had byes late in the season.
Next year, the league hopes to avoid that by squeezing all the byes between Weeks 6 and 12. Although problems of stadium access could alter the details, the plan is to give the top four teams from each of the six divisions a week off at a time. The seventh week off would include the four fifth-place teams.
Eliminating the dead week before the Super Bowl to accommodate the 17th week means the regular season will end Monday night, New Year`s Eve. But the league said there will be no Monday night game on Christmas Eve. Instead, there will be Saturday and Sunday night games Dec. 22 and 23, with ESPN televising one and ABC the other.
In 1991, the regular season will begin Labor Day weekend, Sunday, Sept. 1, a week earlier than the 1990 season. The dead week before the Super Bowl will be restored.
In 1992, the 16-game schedule will be stretched over 18 weeks. The date of that Super Bowl has not yet been set.
By 1994, after the TV contract currently being negotiated expires, the league expects to have 30 or 32 teams and a new playoff formula to sell to the tube.
– Eddie DeBartolo Jr. will fly his world champion San Francisco 49ers to Hawaii this spring for their Super Bowl ring ceremony and unveiling of their highlight film. Last year, DeBartolo flew the team to his hometown, Youngstown, Ohio.