I miss the chaos of football. I miss fake punts, double reverses and play-action bombs on first down. Remember watching football in the ’90s? Remember how much better it was? Any given punt could very well be blocked, faked or otherwise botched. Hell, when was the last time you saw someone rough the kicker?

I understand why football got boring. I do. The chaos isn’t practical. Faking a field goal is much less likely to work than just lining up your offense on fourth down and going for it. A double reverse is just as likely to lose 20 yards or result in a turnover than it is to actually end up in the end zone. And short passes certainly are a safer move than airing it out Brett Favre-style constantly. In a world where coaches are often fired before they’ve even had a chance to recruit/draft a decent team, it makes sense to avoid risks and go with the practical move.

But it wasn’t safe and sensible things that made me love football in the first place. Teams today would rather not bring an all-out rush to a punt because if they hit the punter but not the ball, it’s an automatic first down for the kicking team. The tiny chance of blocking the punt doesn’t measure up with the risk of ceding a first down, so teams play it safe and go for punt coverage.

Again, I don’t blame the coaches for making these decisions. They make sense. The Patriots didn’t become a dynasty by doing wild and fun things. They made safe passes, developed a running game and played the odds (and maybe cheated… but not in a fun way). Football is probably a better-played game now that the chaos has more or less disappeared. It’s just not as fun.

On occasion, there’ll be a refreshing game. The Dolphins walloped the Pats last week in a game where they repeatedly snapped the ball to Ronnie Brown, their running back, and let him run the offense. He ran all over New England, and Miami got that rare reward for pushing the envelope of creativity. And of course there was Boise State over Oklahoma in the 2007 Fiesta Bowl. It’s not often David beats Goliath with a combination of hooks and ladders, wide receiver direct snap passes and Statue of Liberty plays.

Obviously, games like that aren’t the norm. But a game doesn’t have to be a classic just to be fun. I just want a little uncertainty in my football. I don’t want to see run-run-pass-punt repeated endlessly over the course of a game. I want to see punters throwing the ball, receivers making laterals, kickers being tackled and defenses blitzing eight men. I want to see some trickeration every once in a while. I want to see crazy new formations (check out the A-11 offense) and plays.

Mostly, I just want football to be interesting again. Seriously.

Daily Nexus Sports Editor John Greely didn’t think the Saints flea-flicker on the Niners was fun. It just hurt.