OPINION - What's Going on in the NFL

At the end of November, it is now approximately halfway through the season in the NFL. Soon, on January 8th, the playoffs will start, and there are 17 weeks in a season. In the NFL, there are two groups: the AFC (American Football Conference) and the NFC (National Football Conference), both with 16 teams, making 32 teams in total. At this time, all the teams are competing with each other to get a good ranking and earn a spot in the playoffs. To go to the playoffs, the team needs to have the best ranking in their division, or “Wild Cards,” which are the ones that have a really good record.

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As we know, the NFL is divided into two parts: the AFC and the NFC. In the AFC, there are four divisions: the AFC north, the AFC south, the AFC west and the AFC east.

• Currently, in the AFC north division, the Pittsburgh Steelers are in the lead, one point above the Baltimore Ravens. It is really close, so it means that they are both still in the running. 

• In the AFC south, the Indianapolis Colts are in the lead, and are pretty far away from the second place Jacksonville Jaguars. To the west, the Denver Broncos have the highest ranking of the whole AFC and also are pretty much tied with the New England Patriots, who come from the AFC east. 

• In the AFC west, the Denver Broncos have an awesome ranking and come up against the Chargers, who are also in the game and could go to the playoffs.

A lot of teams have almost the same rankings, so it depends whether any of those teams fall apart or lose their spirit. This also allows people to have very strong opinions on the fairness of the NFL. Personally, I think that there was a lot of cheating involved, though there is no official evidence. What’s interesting about the AFC is that the Chiefs, who were Super Bowl champions two times in a row, not only used skill but, in my opinion, also cheated. The NFL may have been on their side because of how famous they were, until the Eagles beat them in last year’s Super Bowl. But, now that they’ve been defeated, the NFL is on the Eagles side, possibly giving them the privilege to cheat. However, I don’t think they cheat as much as the Chiefs did in their past days of fame. Again, these are my opinions.

The NFC also has four divisions: the north, the south, the east, and the west. 

• In the NFC north, the leaders are the Chicago Bears, who were surprisingly the worst team in their division last year. But, everything can change in one game, because the Green Bay Packers and the Detroit Lions are coming in with good rankings too. People say that their division is one of the toughest because they are all good teams and their skill is practically the same. 

• In the south, the rankings of the two leading teams, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and the Carolina Panthers, are equal, but we still don’t know who is going to go to the playoffs.

•  The NFC east is obvious, because the Philadelphia Eagles are the only team that has a passing ranking in their whole group.

• Finally, in the west group, our local team, the LA Rams, are leading the group with a very high ranking, but are still very close with others. 

This season is going to be very exciting and it is interesting to see who is going to make it in the playoffs or not. All I can say is Go Packers!