There are plenty of things surrounding the game of football that annoy the common fans like you and I. We dream about the things we’d do differently if we were in a position of power, and I’ve written a list of things I’d work on fixing. I realize not everything contained below is under the direct influence of the NFL commish, but a man can dream can’t he?

1. Stadiums wouldn’t be allowed to sell off their naming rights
Football is supposed to be tough, so why are we playing games on “Lincoln Financial Field” or “Lucas Oil Field” or everyones favorite… “University of Phoenix Stadium” in Arizona. Not only do these sound lame, I bet all the corporate stiffs at these companies get great tickets that could be going to real fans.

Would this result in a loss of revenue? Absolutely, but if you truly want to be a fan friendly operation, everything can’t be about the money. Google loses over $100 million dollars a year from their “I’m Feeling Lucky” button, but they haven’t removed it. Sometimes you have to bite the bullet for your customers.

2. Excessive touchdown celebrations would be legal
And when I say “excessive”, I mean referees wouldn’t throw a flag for anything other than spiking the ball like they do now. I don’t believe there should be an “anything goes” atmosphere, because some celebrations are over the line (like Terrell Owens’ infamous Dallas Star run), but in general players aren’t given very much freedom.

Go ahead and let the guys have some fun.

3. John Mellencamp’s “This Is Our Country” Chevrolet commercial NEVER airs during football again
“From the east coast, to the west coast, down the dixie highway…..”

If you’re watching football on Sunday, you’ll see this commercial no fewer than 15 times, it gets annoying….and I haven’t had an urge to buy a Chevy yet.

4. Voluntary offseason workouts would really be voluntary
Every spring, NFL players are invited to attend voluntary team workouts and minicamps to work on their conditioning, learn playbooks, develop chemistry etc. Although players aren’t contractually required to be there, they are usually scrutinized and questioned if they don’t.

It seems like a really simple solution for this problem to me. If you want every player to be required to attend, work it out in the next CBA negotiation or lay off of the players.

5. Get rid of the local TV blackout rule
In case you aren’t familiar how this works……..If your local NFL team doesn’t sell every ticket to their home game, that game gets “blacked out” in their area, preventing hometown fans from seeing it on TV. Therefore, teams with losing records are often blacked out locally because nobody wants to pay for overpriced tickets just to see their teams lose. Also fans/families who don’t have the income to spend $400 bucks on Sunday are left out in the cold.

6. Abolish the tuck rule
Seriously, this BS rule is responsible for one of the greatest injustices in NFL history if you ask me. The Oakland Raiders were super bowl bound that season, and if you examined the current state of their franchise you’d realize winning is NOT something you take for granted.

7. Move the Pro Bowl to the week before the Super Bowl
The NFL Pro Bowl is currently considered to be one of the most pointless sporting events on television by most fans. After the Super Bowl if over, fans arent in the mood to see a half-hearted contest with players who aren’t sure if they even want to be there. Moving the game to the week before the Super Bowl works because fans don’t have to sit around bored for 2 weeks, and ESPN has something new to talk about instead of stretching out “pre game predictions” for 14 days.

Of course this means players who are in the Super Bowl and have also made the Pro Bowl squad won’t get to play, but to be realistic…. most of them don’t play anyways due to fatigue/injuries.

8. Put a football team in L.A. (DUH!!!)
It’s absolutely unacceptable that 13 years have passed since the second largest city in America has had a football team. It’s pretty amazing that a money hungry league is dragging their feet to capitalize on one of the largest television markets available.

9. Give Deion Sanders, Michael Irvin, and Emmitt Smith their own talk show on the NFL Network
Although the Dallas Cowboys are known as the most successful team in the 90s, they’ve produced some of the most entertaining sports analysts this decade. Can you imagine the notable quotables that these three men would produce in an hour of sports talk? Nobody on television mangles the english language like Michael, Emmitt and Deion.

10. Embeddable videos and pictures from NFL.com
This is moreso a bloggers dream than anything else. The league (and TV networks) fiercely hunt down NFL footage on video sites due to copyright infringement, creating a pain in the ass for every sports blogger in the world. Why not provide a real solution to the problem by providing embeddable video and pictures from the league’s official site?

I’m willing to put up with ads on the videos so they get the money they so desperately crave.