For being a sport that is always on the mind of the American public (Just check out the ratings for MNF against the ALCS), you would think that the trade deadline day would at least make some sort of news? Of course not. It’s kind of sad because the three other major sports always seem to have kick ass deadline days. Now, it could be just hype, major and minor deals, or just speculation, but just the excitement in the air for those days is just too cool. Hell, Canadians (And Darcy Regier) take off from work on trade deadline day, so they can watch TSN to see if their team got better. Frankly, I can’t recall a mid-season trade that really propelled a team into contention for that season. I’ve come up with a few reasons why trade deadline day is kind of dead in the NFL.
1) You always hear the word “chemistry” muttered from NFL teams. “Players need to develop chemistry with one another.” I’m not sure what chemistry actually means, but from what I’ve gathered, it kind of means that it’s a team that gels well together. Some guys are finesse players, others do the dirty work, some just lead, and some work within the system. Put them all together and you have chemistry. Chemistry is developed over time, and I’m not talking about 2 or 3 days worth. I think we could easily say that if Albert Pujols got traded to the Yankees during the middle of the season, it would literally take him maybe a game or two to get into the swing of things. Now, if Tom Brady went to the 49ers, it would probably take a little while longer for him to gel with his new team. There are so many factors involved than just swinging a bat, shooting a puck or a basketball. You got new playbooks, which are about the size of the bible. Then you have new teammates, coaches, blocking assignments, wide receivers, running backs and scouting reports. It’s just too much to ask for a new player to make an impact that soon.
2) In years past, the salary cap use to be the major roadblock for a team to acquire talent and additional salary. You would think that without the cap, you would see more deals going down, right? Wrong. With a possible lockout looming next year, most teams are doing some belt tightening with adding salary.
3) The NBA and NHL normally have their trade deadlines about 3/4’s into the season. MLB usually has the deadline about 4 months into their 6 month season. By the time the deadline approaches, most teams know if they are contenders or pretenders. They know that they may be one player away from winning the pennant. As for the NFL, unless your team hails from WNY, Northern Ohio, or Michigan, most of the teams are still in it…to win it. There are almost 10-11 more games left to be played for an NFL team and because of that, how many teams really are going to unload talent and declare the season to be over? Not many. I feel if the NFL moved the deadline to late November, more teams would take initiative in trading off players.
Bottom line: I just wish the NFL found a way to make teams actually make deadline deals. Can you imagine how cool yesterday would have been if it had the making of the NHL trade deadline day? It would have been like the NFL Draft meets Randy Moss getting traded. It would have been awesome.
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