Columnist Sal DeFilippo: NFL still left with a Super problem

Sal DeFilippo

Friday, Sept. 21, 2001 | 11:38 a.m.

Sal DeFilippo's pro football column appears Friday. Reach him at sal@lasvegassun.com or 259-4076.

Commissioner Paul Tagliabue's decision not to play last weekend in the wake of the terrorist attacks was a fairly easy one -- although it should have come sooner than it did. But as the NFL resumes play Sunday, there's still uncertainty about the way the league will handle the makeup games.

The league's competition committee voted unanimously to make up the Sept. 16 schedule on the first weekend in January -- when the wild-card games originally were scheduled.

But despite keeping the schedule to a sweet 16 games, the league hasn't decided whether to push the Super Bowl back, reduce the number of playoff teams, or try to cram in extra games on weeknights.

The league's biggest obstacle in pushing the Super Bowl into February is the National Automobile Dealers Association, whose national convention is scheduled to be held at the New Orleans Superdome one week after the NFL title game.

It's strange that the powerful NFL can't at least haggle with a bunch of car dealers, but the NADA isn't budging.

The league could also find a different site and hold the game in February. An NFL executive told the Los Angeles Times today that the the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, Calif., is being considered as an alternative site. If that doesn't work out, there are a lot of empty XFL stadiums that probably could be used.

The proposal to squeeze three weeks of playoff games into two weeks seems extreme. It often takes players a couple of days just to recover from the physical abuse their bodies absorb on Sundays.

The best answer: Reduce the number of wild-card teams in each conference from three to one and eliminate the wild-card round. Of the eight wild-card teams to reach a Super Bowl, only one was not the top-seeded wild-card club.

One piece of irony -- most of the NFL's scheduling woes stem from not having its usual two-week span between the conference championships and the Super Bowl. The last time the AFC and NFC title games and the Super Bowl were on successive weekends was in January 1991. Do the words Gulf War ring a bell?