Dolphins make me wish the NFL believed in relegation

After week one of the NFL season, it's clear that the Miami Dolphins are the heavy favorites to finish with the league's worst record.

With several players reported to be asking for a trade following a 59-10 loss to the Baltimore Ravens, according to Pro Football Talk's Mike Florio, it looks like the Dolphins are tanking, contrary to denials from head coach Brian Flores, via an ESPN article by Cameron Wolfe on Sept. 1.

"I think that's disrespectful to even say that," Flores said.

The Dolphins traded away left tackle Laremy Tunsil, receiver Kenny Still and linebacker Kiko Alonso for future draft picks and role players the weekend prior to week one.

Tanking or not, we have too many teams like the Dolphins not only in the NFL, but in professional sports in general, and Sunday's annihilation proved that something needs to be done about such mediocre teams. Heck, they made Lamar Jackson look like a real quarterback, as he finished 17-of-20 for 324 yards and five touchdowns.

"Not bad for a running back," Jackson said via Yahoo! Sports.

Unlike other sports, football has provided, and will soon provide, other options in terms of professional leagues.

While the Alliance of American Football failed to finish its inaugural season last spring, the XFL is coming in the winter and spring months after 2020, after Super Bowl LIV.

Of course, it is a successor to the previous XFL, which ran for a single season in 2001.

Should either the XFL be unable to succeed on its own, or the AAF want to try again, I have an idea for a possible merger with the NFL.

My idea goes like this: The NFL absorbs one of those leagues -- or possibly a mixture of both -- as a second league.

The NFL and the absorbed league would run similar to the Premier League's system of promotion and relegation with the English Football League.

As many fans of European football -- or soccer -- know, there are leagues in which the top teams of a lower-level league can get promoted to the higher league while the lower-tier teams of the highest league can be relegated to the lower league.

Well, I think it's time to consider a way for the NFL, and other major sports leagues in the United States, to demote some of their lower-level teams to lower leagues.

In my view, somewhere down the line if the XFL fails again, or the AAF is looking to get back into the game, the NFL can use one of those two leagues for its own system of promotion and relegation.

For instance, the NFL could promote the XFL or AAF champion to its league and send the NFL's worst team -- I'm looking at you this year, Dolphins -- to the XFL or AAF.

Then we'll see who's really tanking.