With five weeks left in the season we know which teams are heading to the playoffs and which teams are at the bottom of the league.
One of the teams at the bottom of the league, the Tennessee Titans, New Orlean Saints and New York Jets will end up having the number one pick in the upcoming draft.
Fans of these teams are actually hoping to tank the rest of their games for the pick. This is a bad mentality for fans of these teams.
The players on the bad teams are not trying to lose, they take pride in their profession.
They are just trying to win the game, the last thing on their mind is the number one overall pick of the draft next offseason. Fans should respect and admire that.
If teams such as the New Orleans Saints and the New York Jets are consistently bad, showing no improvement whatsoever year after year it means these teams have a bad general manager.
For example, Matt Millen, the general manager of the Detroit Lions from 2001-2008 just couldn’t draft the right players. Wide receiver Charles Rogers only played 15 games with 36 catches for 440 yards and four touchdowns.
Quarterback, Joey Harrington only completed 56.1% of his passes. A good average is just above 70%. Why should fans encourage tanking when their general manager constantly drafts the wrong player year after year?
The penalty for tanking is severe if the NFL catches a franchise trying to lose games on purpose. In 2023 it was discovered that the owner of the Miami Dolphins Stephen Ross attempted to bribe head coach Brian Flores to throw games for better draft position.
As a result of an investigation, the Dolphins had their first round pick taken away. Stephen Ross also had to pay a fine of $1.5 million.
Fans should just want their team to do better when they’re struggling instead of hoping they’ll tank. It’s embarrassing for the bad teams and their fans to end up picking in the top of the draft in consecutive years.
Fans of the bad teams need to stop watching the games and stop watching the NFL product when their team is constantly losing.
When these teams eventually improve and compete for a playoff spot, it’s good for the league to have fresh teams competing for the Super Bowl instead of seeing the same teams year after year.
It’s just isn’t worth it for a bad team to tank, it’s bad for the product.
Players make millions of dollars and also play for the love of the game. Tanking takes that love away from the players and fans of bad teams should always try to win no matter what.
Who knows, they might pull an upset and beat a team like the Kansas City Chiefs.
This is one of the reasons why football is great. On any given Sunday a bad team like the New York Jets might beat a good team such as the Philadelphia Eagles.
Sometimes, a big win like that can turn a bad team’s season around.
