Home field "advantage"

In my last post, I picked 3 of 4 road teams a reinforcement of the Sports Guy's contention that home field advantage is dead.

Revelation No. 1: "Home-field advantage" just isn't as much of an advantage anymore.

I tackled this subject 14 months ago, mentioning smaller advantages for road teams (QB/coach headsets, charter planes, better grass and turf, giant heaters for cold games, giant spray machines for humid games) and settling on one sizable disadvantage for home teams: an influx of state-of-the-art, suite-heavy stadiums that cater to wealthier fans but disenfranchise die-hards and, on top of that, usually don't sound as loud. And fans just aren't as blindly committed as we once were. Teams rip us off with parking, restrict tailgating hours, overcharge for concessions and make us endure an endless array of TV timeouts; if the weather or the home team sucks, we're even less excited to be there....

Anyway, "home-field" advantage is morphing into "home field." Check out the home regular-season records:

1990-99: 1,387-939-2 (.596)
2000-09: 1,442-1,084-2 (.571)

Check out the home playoff records from 1990-2002, then 2003-08:

1990-2002: 96-34 (.739)
2003-08: 34-26 (.567)

In the old days, you rode the home playoff teams -- especially with smaller lines -- unless you were steadfastly convinced the road team could win. Now? Only a few home venues can definitely swing a playoff game: any older dome, Qwest Field in Seattle, Lambeau in Green Bay, Ralph Wilson Stadium in Buffalo, Omar Little Stadium in Baltimore, and that's about it. You think the Ravens are scared to play in Gillette this Sunday? You think Philly is afraid of Dallas' goofy stadium this weekend? You think I've watched too many Dan Dierdorf-called games and it's making me start sentences with the non-argumentative argument "You think"? Please. As Dan might say, I'm not so sure that the death of home-field advantage wasn't the biggest NFL story of the past decade. Or at least in the top 200.