As a great lover of football I often wince at suggestions of changes to the existing rules. The game seems perfect as it is. Well, maybe not perfect but pretty damn good. No matter how good or great football is, the competition committee gets together at the annual owner's meetings to discuss and change the rules of the great game of football. They've just finished doing that this week.
The competition committee comes up with the rules changes and the owner's decide whether to implement them. Most rule changes now are made to promote player safety. Most of this year's changes fell in line with that. Teams can no longer overload one side of the formation in an attempt to block field goals and extra points. Teams can now have only six or less players on each side of the snapper at the line of scrimmage. More significantly, peel-black blocks were outlawed anywhere on the field. Previously, they were only illegal inside the tackle box. A player makes a peel-back block when he is moving toward his goal line, approaches an opponent from behind or the side and makes contact below the waist. Those proposed rule changes passed easily. Another to enhance player safety took a little work. Ball carriers can no longer make contact with the crown of the helmet. It only seems fair seeing as the defense is similarly penalized. At some point a line has to be drawn. Instead of throwing more penalty flags, the players have to start playing smart. For far too long football players have been lowering their helmet to make tackles, inflict damage, even to protect themselves. It's never safe, never efficient, never smart to take your eyes off the action. It's an instinctive game but self-preservation has to become a natural act. There are better and more efficient alternatives to protecting yourself and tackling others than using the top of you helmet.
A couple of stupid existing rules were tossed out this week. The first, made famous last Thanksgiving, was the rule penalizing a coach for throwing a red flag to challenge a call that is going to be reviewed anyway. This was one of the most stupid rules ever forced on football. That's saying something. I don't understand why anyone would have thought that there was a need for this rule. I never would have thought that a coach would be so stupid as to challenge a call that everyone knows is going to be reviewed anyway. Then along came Detroit Lions coach Jim Schwartz and his decision on Thanksgiving. It made a mockery of that game and showed the great need to get rid of the rule. Despite what it often seems, the objective is to get the call right on the field. This stupid rule prevented that and was tossed. The other rule tossed was the always stupid "Tuck Rule." As soon as it wrongly impacted the AFC Championship game over a decade ago this rule should have been shitcanned. I have no idea how it lasted this long. Simple common sense usually picks up whether a quarterback has ceased having any intention to throw the ball. Stupid rule. Glad it's gone. It's pretty funny that the New England Patriots were the one team that voted against the tossing of the "Tuck Rule."
Good or bad, football has been constantly evolving since it first stepped away from rugby over 140 years ago. Just the thought of the flood of annual changes scares me. The game seems so right so why change it? Fans of the game in 1906 thought that the game was pretty great. Then the decision makers decided that throwing the ball would be a pretty good thing to do. That was a more drastic change than anything that we've ever seen. Sometimes change is good. Even the most crazy or stupid rule change now may end up being terrific.
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