Thursday Night Football: A Case Study

The NFL has become the most popular sport in the United States. It is watched my millions every weekend. The NFL is only growing in popularity. With new fans joining the fun every day. The NFL has faced its share of problems too. With concussions scaring away many future players, the NFL is hoping to lower the possibility of concussions in the future. Each NFL team plays a total of 16 games over a span of 17 weeks. There are two conferences in the NFL, the AFC and the NFC. There are four divisions in each conference, each with 4 teams. The playoff teams are decided by the division rankings. The winner of each division makes the playoffs, with the two best 2nd place teams making it in as a wild card.

Within sports, pressure is always there; you have to learn to deal with it. H. G. Bissinger’s book, Friday Night Lights, hones in on the football team the Permian Panthers of Odessa. Through this focus on the team, one can see how football is an integral part of the town thriving, maintaining its hopes and dreams. Despite the racial and social divide within the community, those Friday night games become a place where dreams may be made possible. In this way, sports, specifically football, not only have an impact on the players but the community as well.

To begin the game, the Eagles received the ball first and it was a perfect opening drive for Wentz and the offense. On the first drive, Wentz went 4-for-5, finding tight end Zach Ertz for a ridiculous one-handed 14-yard catch on first down and ending it with a 19-yard touchdown pass to wide receiver Jordan Matthews.

The Carolina Panthers had to come out of the locker room after the first half needing to get something going if they were going to come back and beat the Denver Broncos in Super Bowl 50. The first half was dominated by the defense. Whose defense would be able to hold out for the rest of the game would determine who would win the Super Bowl.

Tom Brady's first year in the NFL was not fun. He was only able to play one game due to the fact that the quarterback position was filled. The next season would be a different story due to the fact that Drew Bledsoe the starting quarterback for the New England Patriots went down with an injury. Tom Brady silenced the doubters with 11 wins and 3 losses. That year Tom Brady took the Patriots to the Super Bowl against the St Louis Rams and won.

Tom Brady and the New England Patriots were accused of deflating footballs to give them an advantage in the January 18th AFC Championship game against the Indianapolis Colts. Deflated footballs are easier to grip and throw, giving their team a direct advantage over the Colts. The Indianapolis Colts equipment manager first suspected the balls did not meet the NFL’s minimum standard right before half time and after measuring the balls he notified officials. Most all of the balls the Patriots had were not measuring to the correct standard and they found that Tom Brady knew of the violation and said nothing. Punishment from the NFL was a one million fine, four game suspension without pay and the loss of not only their 1st round draft pick in 2016 but also their 4th round draft pick in 2017. In addition, the two equipment staffers responsible for the incident were also indefinitely suspended. (ESPN.com) However, Tom Brady recently won his court appeal overruling the 4 game suspension and will be a starting player in the upcoming

Julian Edelman had 11 receptions for 97 yards, Rob Gronkowski had five receptions for 94 yards and 3 touchdowns, and Dion Lewis, who clearly looks like he is Shane Vereen's replacement, had four receptions for 51 yards, out of the backfield. Brady ended his night going 25 for 32 with 288 passing yards, four touchdowns, and zero interceptions. Now that is how you come out firing on all cylinders in the opening game against an opponent who is known for having a hard nose defense. At one point, Brady completed 19 consecutive passes, which was a franchise record for completions in a game, as he picked apart the Steelers defense piece by piece.

Tom Brady will serve his 4-game suspension his up coming season, after NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell has upheld the league's decision to suspend the quarterback. Brady was suspended four games in May after footballs used by the New England Patriots in the AFC Championship Game against the Indianapolis Colts were deflated. Playing with either inflated or underinflated footballs is against the NFL guidelines, which state all footballs used during games must be 12 1/2 to 13 1/2 pounds. The footballs the Patriots used during the AFC Championship Game were 2 pounds under the league's requirement. Brady and the Patriots would go on to defeat the Indianapolis Colts 45 to 7, which placed them in the Super Bowl XLIX game. Even though the NFL was

On January 18th, 2015, the Indianapolis Colts visited Foxboro, MA to face the New England Patriots in the American Football Conference Championship Game. The Patriots were driving down the field in the 2nd quarter when Tom Brady

The Eagles defense did not put up much of a fight in the game; now they have lost their last two games, They allowed over 500 yards of total offense, almost three hundred of which came on the ground. The Bucs, have won two straight and have pulled to .500. for the first time since they beat New Orleans in week two.

Matthew Stafford threw two touchdowns, one interception on 242 yards, after 24 completions in the

Well in this case, the almost spectacular season. It all started in the off-season in-between the 2006 and 2007 season. The Patriots acquired three new receivers in Donte Stallworth, Wes Welker, and Randy Moss. During the regular season, Brady and the rest of the team went 16-0 while humiliating most of the teams that played them. Brady went on to throw 50 touchdowns and set multiple single season offensive records like most points scored, biggest point differential, most first downs and the most total touchdowns. The season was almost terrific because of the Super Bowl loss that continues to still make Patriots fans still cringe. This result, however didn't stop people from realizing how terrific of a season, Brady had and he was rewarded with his first of two season most valuable

In 2007 the Patriots were accused of a scandal called Spygate. Spygate is the accusation of the Patriots filming the New York Jets Defensive Coaches’ Signals on their sideline which is illegal. Bill Belichick, the Patriots head coach, thought it wasn’t against the rules if the team did not use the film in the same game. Bill Belichick got fined five hundred thousand dollars and “Goodell ordered league officials to go into the Patriots facility and smash the films” (Tom 2). Later that year the Patriots went on to lose the Super Bowl. In 2014 Tom Brady was accused of deflating footballs in the AFC Championship against the Colts, which is now known as the Deflategate. A day after the Patriots won D’qwell Jackson reported that the Patriots balls felt deflated when he intercepted Brady before the end of the first half. The NFL then initiated an investigation led by Ted Wells which proved nothing because the investigation could not find any hard evidence to blame Brady. Roger Goodell still decided to take Brady to court for a four-game suspension, but the court nullified the suspension and proved Brady’s innocents. Then Goodell took Brady to court again two years later and Brady was found innocent again, but Goodell could suspend him anyways, so he did for no reason at all. Consequently, Goodell also fined Robert Kraft one million dollars and took away a first and a fourth round

The game was jaw dropping for everyone on the New York Giants fans. Julio Jones

Fun Fact the NFL was founded on August 20th 1920 in ohio. First Super Bowl was January 15th 1962 against the Green Bay Packers and the Kansas City Chiefs. NFL stand for National Football League they have 32 teams in the league. My issue is that NFL Playoff should be the same. My claim is i disagree they should not change the NFL Playoffs.