No flex scheduling here

The National Football League adopted flex scheduling a few seasons ago so football fans could enjoy great matchups down the stretch. That’s why we’ll all be able to sit down and watch the Bengals and Jets battling on Sunday night as New York fights for a playoff spot.

While the NFL has utilized flex scheduling, you’ll notice that Profootballhof.com has not. If you’ve been a regular visitor to our site during the season, you probably know that each Thursday we profile a “Throwback Game of the Week.”

Our website staff sat down at the beginning of the season and charted out the programming schedule for the entire season. The goal was to include all, or nearly all, of the 32 NFL teams in the Throwback series during the season. That’s why our season finale is Indianapolis at Buffalo. Okay, maybe it’s not the most intriguing game in Week 17 as the Colts’ chance at going undefeated is out the door and the Bills have long been eliminated from the postseason. But, that doesn’t affect the fact that both of these teams have interesting histories and we’ve pulled those to the forefront in this feature.
 

A look back at our 2009 Throwback Series>>>>

That brings me to the bigger point of this blog today. The Pro Football Hall of Fame is a 501 (c)(3) not-for-profit institution. We are not owned by the NFL (but they sure are extremely supportive of all of our efforts). Our mission statement is very direct as to why we exist.

Our website allows us to “honor, preserve, educate, and promote” to a large audience of NFL and sports fans. We hope that you’ve taken time to dig deep into our site and you’ll notice there are thousands and thousands of pages of football history.

Last summer, we relaunched our website. That was part of an ongoing strategy to engage more with the football fans from around the world. We’ve continued to add features to our website and in fact just last week implemented the ability for readers to comment on stories on our site.

You can always join us on Twitter and Facebook. We thank all of our followers and fans who’ve joined us since we launched our presence on those sites earlier in the year.

But we also want you to join us at Profootballhof.com. You can sign up for our free enewsletter and be the first to hear about breaking news, events, and even special deals in our Hall of Fame store.

We also want to make sure that we’re giving you what you want. Give us some feedback by commenting on this blog. What have you liked on our site this season? Do you read the Throwback Games of the Week? Have you seen our AFL online exhibit called 50 Years After that includes new features weekly? What about our guest blog as Hall of Famers have picked the games each week? Go ahead and let us know what you want to see on Profootballhof.com!

Playoffs? Playoffs?
Yes, playoffs!

I should also let you know that our research staff is combing through the world’s largest collection on football that resides at the museum in Canton. We’ll pull materials to bring you a unique perspective and extensive coverage on the postseason, past and present.

We’re also getting close to announcing the Class of 2010. The finalists will be named next Friday (Jan. 8) and the Class of 2010 will be selected on the day before Super Bowl XLIV.

Mixed in there, we’ll learn who our Selection Committee has named to the NFL’s All-Decade Teams of the 2000s. That’s coming Pro Bowl week. But, before we find out about that team, we’ll go back and profile the previous eight All-Decade Teams.

New Year’s Resolution
Football and more football is always our New Year’s Resolution. We hope we make it easy and entertaining for you to join us regularly on Profootballhof.com during the coming year.

In the meantime, from all of us at the Pro Football Hall of Fame, we wish you a Happy and Safe New Year!