Health Care becomes law, NFL tinkering OT rules

Yesterday President Obama signed the health care reform bill. The bill will be a 10 year, $940 billion plan. It will cover 32 million Americans who are uninsured. It will reduce the national deficit by $138 billion. It will improve Medicare benefits, something that has been a major concern for the duration of talks. The whole bill will not be in effect until 2014. On Saturday, Obama wanted to vote for the bill by Sunday and I thought it would never pass because the Republicans hate it and the Democrats care too much about their seat. But once the bill was passed by seven votes on Sunday, I misunderstood the significance of it. The health care reform bill is finished. There is no way to turn back now. Naturally, the Republicans are complaining because they believe that this is socialism and that it is hurting the American people. It shows that people are too selfish to realize that some people around them are in need of help. There are several people that don't have jobs or health care insurance. What happens if an unemployed mother has a son who has a sore throat and he can't afford to go to the doctor's office and get a prescription for him? You have a mother that does not have money to pay for anything that can make her son feel better. Now that 95 per cent of Americans will be guaranteed health care, it takes the pressure off not having a job. Besides, the main thing that people look for when it comes to having job benefits is health care. Please, Republicans, do me a favor, put a cork in it, do your job and shut up. It's done, get over it.
According to nfl.com yesterday, the NFL passed the new playoff overtime rules. Starting next season, if a team wins the coin toss and then kicks a field goal, the other team gets the ball. If the game becomes tied again after that next series, play will continue under the current sudden-death rules. Should the team winning the toss immediately score a touchdown, then the game is over. Team owners voted 28-4 on Tuesday in favor of the proposal at the NFL Annual Meeting. The Minnesota Vikings, Buffalo Bills, Cincinnati Bengals and Baltimore Ravens were against the change. Those statistics showed that since 1994, the team that won the overtime coin toss won the game 34.4 percent of the time on the first possession. Overall, the team that correctly called the coin toss won overtime games 59.8 percent of the time in the last 15 years, or since kickoffs were moved back 5 yards to the 30. This really ticks me off. Why change the rules the way they are? You are already a sports-marketing giant, be a professional sports league, don't be like college football. For many years, people have wanted the NFL to change the overtime rules to the amateur rules, which in high school and in college football, each team has a chance to score. They start at the opponent's 30 yard line and each team has a chance to win the game. If the game is still tied, they keep going until whoever scores the most points. I feel the NFL doesn't want the place kicker to win games anymore. They want the skill players to win the game. It may make the playoff games more exciting, but changing the rules to me doesn't make it better football wise. It just shows that all professional sports care about is stats and not selling tickets. The reason why the NFL changed the rules is because Brett Farve did not have a chance to win in overtime in the NFC Championship game. The NFL was probably furious when Garrett Hartley won the game instead of Drew Brees or Farve. Now that the overtime rules have changed, the NFL will get their wish with Tom Brady or Peyton Manning having a chance to win the big playoff game instead of Robbie Gould or Matt Bryant. Despicable.