As we close one more Sunday of regular season football with an huge win for the Cowboys to take control of the NFC East, here are a few NFL stories that could have an impact going forward:
- Vikings running back Adrian Peterson plans to file a lawsuit on Monday beckoning the NFL to reinstate him in time for the beginning of the league offseason, reports Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk. Peterson’s suspension calls for him to be considered for reinstatement on – or after – April 15, but the All-Pro runner is hoping to be reinstated earlier in order to provide maximum flexibility for his offseason, whether he remains the the Vikings or enters into unrestricted free agency.
- The league votes on rule changes every offseason, but a more notable vote could come this March, when league owners will make a decision on whether to expand the current playoff format, reports Chris Mortenson of ESPN. The plan to be put up to vote should include two additional Wild Card teams making the playoffs, one in each division. In addition to the extra postseason teams, owners will also look into reseeding playoff clubs, so that a division title wouldn’t necessarily guarantee a home playoff game — that’s likely a reaction to this year’s NFC South, which could potentially have a six win champion.
- In one of the stranger and more interesting stories this Sunday, there may be a scenario in which the Super Bowl is canceled this season. According to Howard Kunreuther and Erwann Michel-Kerjan of BusinessWeek.com, the Terrorism Risk Insurance Act is set to expire, and Congress will have to make a decision on renewing it by December 31. The bill was put into effect in 2002, following the attack on September 11. Under this bill, insurance companies that off terrorism insurance are backed by government money in case of a large scale attack. Without this backing, insurance companies may be reluctant to sell insurance to high-risk events at a reasonable price. This came to play before during the 2006 FIFA World Cup, and although the matter was resolved, it took several months to work out an agreeable deal.