2013 Sports Wishes

Happy New Year everyone! The Mayans were wrong as the world still exists.  Looking forward to what 2013 has in store for us, I have compiled a list of ten Sports Wishes below (Not including my yearly wish that every Boston sports team wins a championship). Enjoy and feel free to comment below!

10.  NBA officials learn how to properly ref a game and not blow the whistle on every trip down the floor

9.  NFL refs only call pass interference when it is truly pass interference. No more free 40 yard penalties on third and long, bailing out the offensive team.

8.  NFL realizes that the Pro Bowl is a joke and does away with it. Players can still be selected to the "Pro Bowl" so they can have those accolades.  However, there is no need to have the Pro Bowl when it isn't a real football game and the best players who are playing in the Superbowl cannot play in the game.  Perhaps they can have some type of  All-Star weekend like the NHL and NBA have.  Skills competition involving throwing accuracy, longest throw, punting, kicking, receiving drills, running speed, etc.

7.  NCAAF adopts playoff system now, not 2014.  Also, how can you have football teams not play for over a month?  In the NFL, there are always talks about the teams with a bye losing their "mojo" and losing their momentum in the playoffs. Sure both Notre Dame and Alabama experience a similar layoff but they haven't played a real football game in over a month. Practice can only do so much. Adopt a playoff system at the end of the regular season with at least eight teams. Can't believe NCAAF does not do this.

6.  Mayweather fights Pacquiao to finally get it over with and help revitalize the dying sport of boxing. I know Pacquiao just lost in stunning fashion, insert Chris Tucker line from Friday here, but this is the fight that everyone has been waiting for and neither boxer is getting any younger. Now or Never. 

5.  NFL rethinks some of its rules, including the infamous Jim Schwartz baffle when he threw a red challenge flag after a TD on Thanksgiving. Scoring plays are automatically reviewed and his red flag negated any potential review. The replay clearly showed the Texans player knee touch the ground and the TD should have been overruled.  Perhaps the "ball don't lie" as the Texans ended up losing three of their last four games and rightfully missed out on a first round bye.

4.  MLB incorporates some new rules to speed up the pace of the game. Each team is allowed a certain amount of time outs, or mound visits, as these baseball games are taking far too long.  Back in the day, games were much shorter.  In Boston on Marathon Monday, you used to be able to watch the Red Sox game, then run over to the end of the Boston Marathon to see the winner.  Now you're lucky if you catch the end of the race. Watching a baseball game from beginning to end takes three to four hours of your day, never mind Yankees-Sox games.  The chart below shows the average length of game in minutes each decade. MLB needs to do something to shorten the length of games.

3.  NBA lowers the number of time outs each team has as there are too many stoppages, especially at the end of games where each team fouls one another, then calls a timeout.  Do these players really have to be told exactly what to do on every important possession? Whatever happened to playing the game on the fly without calling a timeout and let the best team win.  Too many timeouts, too many whistles, not enough end to end action.

2.  ESPN stops talking about Tim Tebow.  I think he should have a starting QB job somewhere, perhaps Jacksonville, but enough trying to incorporate Tim Tebow into the conversation when it isn't relevant.  He is a nice guy but he is not a great QB. There are much better quarterbacks throughout the league who don't get any attention from the "Worldwide Leader in Sports."

1.  NHL and NHLPA come to an agreement and they have a shortened season. This needs to happen ASAP and they need to make sure the CBA lasts for at least 10 years so we don't have to worry about another lockout within a few years. Get a season started already! Today should have been the Winter Classic at "The Big House" in Michigan.