Sitting Starters Should Cost $$$

The past two weeks we've heard a lot about whether or not NFL teams should sit their starters when they have clinched everything there is to be clinched. Now we're seeing the NFL's Competition Committee meet to discuss the issue and come up with possible incentive to playing your starters all season. Quite frankly that's garbage, no one should have to be persuaded to play their best players to win a game, they are paid a ton of money for that purpose alone. Reports are out there that some possible ideas to get teams to play all their starters are giving them a compensation draft pick at the end of the first round or if you play all your starters throughout the season, the league will reward you with a better playoff seeding.

While both of those would provide great incentive to play all your starters, you know what will really keep the stars of the NFL on the field? Money. No, not giving teams money for playing their starters, but taking money from teams who bench their starters. Sports today operate as a business and in business the thing that speaks the loudest is money. By withholding revenue from teams or flat out fining teams, the NFL sends the message to teams that the product they have is expensive entertainment and they want to give the fans the experience equal to the cost.

Now clearly there would be exceptions to this because if a player is hurt or banged up then he has every right to sit out and get healthy to help his team win a championship. But if a player is a regular starter and healthy then he needs to be out there. And if teams lie about who is and isn't hurt and it's later found out that they did lie then the fine would have to be more severe.

Draft picks and playoff seedings might seem like a good idea to some people, but in all reality it makes a mockery out of the NFL. A team shouldn't get anything extra for playing its best players for an entire season. Front office personnel and head coaches are paid to bring in the best talent, coach the best talent, and win football games and when they make moves where the best talent isn't playing they need to be fined for it.