Miami Dolphins and NFL fans are the winners as off season begins
By Brian Miller
The Super Bowl is over and now, the NFL and the Miami Dolphins are officially in the off season. There is a lot to do in this shortened period.
In years past, the NFL’s biggest game would be played a week earlier in February. The time between the start of the league new year would be a week longer, sometimes two. This year, the winners are the fans of the NFL.
On Sunday night, the NFL’s 2021 season came to and end. Congratulations to the L.A. Rams for taking the championship. Now, the season turns to re-signing impending free agents, free agency, new contracts, more cap space, and the NFL Draft.
What was supposed to be a long wait, isn’t so long anymore. Today is the 14th of February! Happy Valentines Day to you all. The start of the league new year begins on March 16th on March 14th, teams can start talking to impending free agents.
Consider last year. The Super Bowl was held on February 7th and the start of free agency was on the 17th of March. Welcome to the new NFL.
The extra week of football has pushed the leagues finish back a week but the NFL didn’t move the start of the league new year back by a week. In some ways they can’t due to contracts both for the players and with the networks.
The first week of March will serve as a quick bridge to the start of the league new year when the NFL Combine takes place. When it finishes seven days after it starts, fans will have one week to wait for the start of free agency. That is not too shabby.
Overall, the wait time will not seem as long and with nothing else changing, the off season will ramp up before we know it with the draft, mini camps, OTAs, and then before we know it, we will be back in training camp.