This month there will be a meeting of the NFL owners to discuss the state of the league and consider some proposed rules changes that have been talked about for some time now.
While it is true that the NFL Commissioner’s office runs the league, these guys run the commissioner’s office. They pay Roger Goodell over $30,000,000 per year to manage the league so, naturally they get a lot of input as to how he will go about it.
Sports writers and commentators around the country are all anxious to hear just what changes in the current rules structure the owners will make. Of course they will be discussing a whole range of topics including stadium upgrades and league expansion, but it’s the rules changes that everyone is interested in.
One overdue change will be to take illegal downfield cut blocks out of the game. Chop blocks, roll blocks & peel-back blocks are all going to be disallowed for the coming season. This change is aimed at protecting the lower bodies, especially the knees of the defenders.
For years now the rules have evolved more to protect the offensive players that the defensive guys that is changing now. The new set up will also serve to protect the heads of the defensive players from being side swiped by a blocker peeling off a block.
They will also discuss making those little slap shots hands to the face illegal. Head shots have long been outlawed but this change would eliminate the punches into the facemasks thus better protecting receivers and corners.
The NHL has been using a centralized replay review location in Toronto to handle the reviews for all the games on the board from one central location with one team of refs making the calls for all games. The system works well for hockey and is being considered by the NFL as well but, Goodell says that it won’t be coming this next year.
Someone brought up the idea of eliminating the point after touchdown from professional football but the idea has received so much negative press that it seems unlikely to make it into the owner’s discussion.
There has also been a lot of talk about expanding the NFL Playoff scenario to include one more team from each conference in postseason play. Only the number one seeds would get a bye week while the other 12 teams would all play on one big Wild-Card Weekend.
Critics claim that adding more teams to the playoff set up would dilute the process but others say Bull, it would be positively un-American not to want more football!
