NFL Rule Changes

NFL team owners made some changes to their game at the Spring League Meetings in Chicago.

1. Shortening overtime in preseason and regular season games from 10 to 15 minutes.

2. "Relaxing" rules on player celebrations.

3. There will now only be one roster cut-down deadline. Teams will have to trim their rosters from 90 to 53 players in one swift slice.

4. Two players are now allowed to return off injured reserve.

The owners tabled discussion on whether coaches can reach agreements in principle with new teams while their current team is still alive in the playoffs.

I'll handle the overtime change last.

Celebrations
Players will once again be able to celebrate their great deeds on the football field. In a letter to fans, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell wrote that the league is "relaxing rules on celebrations to allow players more room to have fun after they make big plays." I always preferred a Barry Sanders-like reaction to a big play. Sanders had a lot of big plays to celebrate but he always let the plays be his celebration. That being said I always felt that it was silly that there was a long list of things that a player couldn't do after doing something great. There are still some things that players can't do such as taunting or simulating weaponry. I do think that it should be illegal for players to break into an elaborate performance for doing something routine.

Roster Cut Down
Until this roster-cut down rule change teams had to trim their rosters from 90 to 75 players before the fourth preseason game. The final cut down to 53 players followed that game. With this rule change the players at the bottom of the roster will have one final game to show teams what they can do. It makes for a very busy roster-rimming day but it can benefit the players and the teams.

Injured Reserve Return
Each team will be able to activate two players from injured reserve during the season. Prior to the rule change one player could return to the active roster. Injured players can return to practice if they had been on IR for at least six weeks. They can return to games eight weeks after being put on injured reserve. This gives teams greater roster flexibility late in the season.

Overtime
The new overtime rule. This is one of the most ridiculous moves that the league has made in recent years. And this is from a league that pays Roger Goodell about a quarter of a team's salary cap and gives him the power to punish randomly and inconsistently. According to NFL research, there have been 83 overtime games over the last five seasons. 22 of those games have lasted at least 10 minutes into overtime. There have been five games that ended in a tie during those five years. If overtime had ended at 10 minutes, there would have been 16 tie games. Over three times as many. That's too many ties. The league says that they made this move in the name of player safety. Or, at least they made it to show that safety is a concern. It's been stated that the league was concerned with the additional plays that teams undergo when playing a full 15-minute overtime period, especially when one of the teams might be playing its next game on a short week. Seriously? Only 3% of games have gone to overtime over the last five seasons. 0.6% of games have gone past 10 minutes of overtime. The percentage of games with that overtime criteria that also included a team that was about to play on a short week? Who knows? It's small. It's so small that it's just sad that the NFL decision-makers thought enough of it to actually discuss it and vote on it. How can these people be so concerned about a handful of plays in overtime and so unconcerned about the risks of adding two games to the NFL schedule?

The NFL's decision-makers never sit idle. They are always tinkering with their game. They made three decent changes and one that makes little sense. If I was a betting fella I'd like the odds that the new overtime rule doesn't impact a single game next season.