Why the NFL offseason beats the Premiership HANDS DOWN!
The break between NFL seasons is a whopping SEVEN months, but fortunately the good folks in charge of the National Football League have enforced a system which gives us more than enough entertainment to fill the void.
While the English Premiership transfer season is full of unsourced rumours, major deals which never come to fruition and your club not having enough money to buy that international superstar, the NFL system ensures ACTION!
For a start, every team has the same spending allocation, meaning essentially the American equivalent of Norwich could sign the American equivalent of Cristiano Ronaldo.
There are no transfer fees, simply a salary cap which every team adheres to.
Everton fan? Fed up of relying on loan signings? Well herald the beginning of an NFL-like system and as long as you can match Messi's wages - and draw him away from Catalonia – he could be yours as soon as his contract is over.
Teams often cut their best players for reasons such as them not fitting in with the system, or they are demanding exceedingly high wages.
The same goes with extending contracts, if a 30 year old player is looking for a five-year deal which the team doesn't believe to be good value, guess what, he's out of there!
For this reason, when FREE AGENCY comes around every year, when all the available players go onto the open market, there is a complete frenzy in the first 48 hours where teams bid for some of the league's best talent.
The salary cap system also ensures the best teams can't simply sweep every superstar up during the period.
When it comes to rumours in the NFL, the reporters are far more accurate than in the Premiership.
If a journo says it's so, then there is more than likely an element of truth in it.
A tight-knit group of reporters often gain inside access to team rumours, and next thing you know, that gossip you didn't even want to believe was true has happened, and your team has that guy who you are always trying to be on the Madden Playstation game.
Many of the top players go to their new teams within the first week of free agency, but the market continues for months.
With such a merry-go-round of a free agency market, your team will ALWAYS end up buying players.
None of this 'we didn't have enough money' or 'we're sticking with the team we have' mentality, there will always be someone new on the roster for the next season.
And let's take the worst case scenario. The players your team picked up are uninspiring guys, the football equivalent of stocking fillers at Christmas.
Well here's some more good news, the annual draft is approaching where the WORST teams have the opportunity to pick the BEST players straight out of college.
The league is actively trying to make the NFL's Fulhams into the likes of Real Madrid.
And if all goes badly again next year, you can start over again...with the first pick in the draft, again. Eventually you will get it right.
So a mix of fair competition, signings frenzy and superstars shootout, without the dead-end speculation and big money nonsense, makes the NFL offseason FAR more interesting than in the English Premiership. Period (Full Stop).
Eagles' star receiver Desean Jackson signed with division rivals the Washington Redskins
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