NFL proposes 21 rules changes, and 16 of them are actually good
Thirty-two NFL owners are set to meet in Orlando next week, and the league's Competition Committee is forwarding nearly one rule change per owner to be put to a vote.
ProFootballTalk broke them down in a handy fashion, which we've copied with our thoughts to the side.
Rule change proposals:
1. Move the kickoff to the 40-yard line. - College football survived moving kickoffs up, and the NFL will too. People that claim to know these things say kickoff is the most dangerous play in football; I'd gladly sacrifice a few kick returns a year to ensure football's greater future.
2. Expand instant replay to include personal foul penalties. - A key personal foul penalty can affect a game just as much as any call. Yes.
3. Eliminate overtime in the preseason. - Yes. For the love of all that is holy, yes.
4. Extend the goal posts an additional five feet above the cross bar. - Yes. Why leave a field goal up to a referee's guestimation?
5. Move the line of scrimmage for one-point extra point kicks to the defensive team’s 25-yard line. Two-point conversion attempts would still be snapped from the 2-yard line. - No. We like our ideas better.
6. Put six cameras on all boundary lines — sideline, goal line, end line, to guarantee coverage for replay reviews. - Yes. What's the point of space-age technology if you don't use it. This will be a theme here.
7. Permit a coach to challenge any official’s decision, except scoring plays which are automatically reviewed. - No thanks. I don't need a defiant Jim Harbaugh challenging a holding call.
8. Protect players from getting the sides of their legs rolled up on — the rule already says a blocker can’t hit an opponent in the back of the legs, this proposal will add “or side” to the rule. - Yes. Although I shudder to be a defensive player in 2014.
9. Allow the referee to consult with members of the NFL officiating department during replay reviews. The referee would be able to speak with the command center in New York to help in reviewing a play. - Yes. But only if the command center is just a hooded Roger Goodell sitting in a dimly-lit room.
10. Re-organize the rules about what can be reviewed and what cannot be reviewed, including making the recovery of a loose ball in the field of play reviewable. (This is referred to as the NaVorro Bowman rule, after a controversial call in the NFC Championship Game.) - Yes. This should've already been in the rule book.
11. Don’t stop the clock on a sack. - Who proposed this? I say no. And the TV networks will side with me.
12. Modify pass interference so that it can be called within one yard of the line of scrimmage. - No. It's already tough enough to play defensive back in the NFL.
13. Enforce defensive fouls behind the line of scrimmage from the previous spot, rather than from the end of the run or from the spot of the foul. - Seems sensible enough. Yes.
Bylaw proposals:
1. Raise the number of active players on game day from 46 to 49 for regular-season games played on a day other than Sunday or Monday, excluding Week One. - Yes. In fact, I don't think this rule goes far enough. Heck, my high school played close to 45 guys each week, and most of us play both ways. I can't believe the NFL expects 45 guys to stay healthy for 16 brutal weeks. Raise it to 60 for all I care.
2. Raise the practice squad limit from eight players to 10 players. - Yes. Why not 15?
3. Permit clubs to trade players prior to the start of the league year. - I have no opinion on this whatsoever, but I can't recall anyone complaining about this before today.
4. Eliminate the cut-down to 75 players during training camp and instead just have one cut-down from 90 players to 53 players. - Yes. Although firing 37 people on one day seems brutal.
5. Permit more than one player to return to the active list from injured reserve so that any player on injured reserve could return after six weeks. - Sure, why not.
6. Permit each club to time and test up to 10 draft-eligible players at its facility, and allow any club that wishes to attend timing and testing at another team’s facility. - Yes. The NBA manages just fine hosting prospects on their own turf, and the NFL will too.
7. Adjust the time of the roster reduction from 53 after the fourth preseason game from 6 p.m. Eastern to 4 p.m. Eastern. All teams would have to have their list of final cuts in by 4 p.m. - Who proposed this? Why is this an issue?
Resolution proposal:
1. Permit a home team with a retractable roof to open or close its roof at halftime, instead of having to determine at the start of the game whether it is open or closed. - Yes. Again, if you have the technology, why not use it? The NFL needs a dash of home-field advantage in the luxury box age.
That's how I see them, what about you?
