Suggested rule changes for the NFL

[the steam]

1. No more Thursday games. Should not have to play on 3 days rest. Exception Thanksgiving let Detroit and Dallas have their games for tradition.

2. In a 7 point game if the trailing team scores a TD they must go for 2. Example if team a is up 7-0 in the 1st Q and team B scores a TD to make it 7-6 they must go for 2. If team A is up 31-24 with 10 seconds left and team B scores they must go for 2.

3. If you line up to go for it on 4th down you must go for it. So sick and tired of "just trying to draw them offsides." You can't call TO and a delay of game is a turnover on downs.

4. Less timeouts. 6 TO's per team is a joke. Especially with the 2 min warnings, stoppage at the end of quarters and countless free TO's for commercials and reviews. Add to that coaches "I will never take a TO to the locker room!!" mentality and the games can be painful to watch. The NHL has this right and the NFL should follow. One TO per team per game. I'll admit redzone with 7 hours of commercial free football has spoiled me and between the TO's, penalties, reviews, and 100 pre snap whistles a game I get really bored watching stand alone games. Let's speed up the games

5.Enforcement of roughing the passer/late hit/unnecessary roughness. NFL should take another cue from the NHL here. NHL rules state you cannot check from behind or drive someone into the boards but this rule is broken about 20x a game. It is usually only called when the impact is hard and it does damage to an opposing player. They don't call soft shoves from behind and the NFL should not call RTP when a hand grazes the QB's helmet. Some RTP calls the QB doesn't even go down it's just a push in the shoulder. I'm talking about you Brady and Rodgers. If the QB is getting right up pumping his fist and celebrating RTP should not be called.

6. Intentional grounding. Rarely called because if the QB takes 2 or 3 steps to the left or right grounding the ball is legal. Just get rid of the penalty for intentional grounding but any pass that doesn't get to the line of scrimmage is a live ball. Would be very exciting and would stop all these check down Charlie QB's from boring us to death with their dink and dunk

What are some rule changes you guys would like to see?

[the steam]

Originally Posted by irafreak

It appears as though the op wants to remove some of the strategy and just have more action.

That is exactly right. I love watching red zone every Sunday 7 hours of commercial free action, but single games bore me. I literally feel like I'm watching commercials with a smattering of plays in between.

Big 3rd and 4 late in the game. "blue 22 hut HUT!! hut HUT HUT!!" timeout just trying to get them to jump. Commercial. Line up again timeout defense just wanted to see how they line up now the defense wants to talk it over. Commercial. After 7 or 8 idle minutes a play is run. Was his knee down before the ball got to line to gain? Was that ball moving when he we rolled over? Gotta have a look at it. Another commercial. Just gets frustrating and tedious to watch.

40-50 years ago 3 TO's per half probably was the right number. Teams ran the ball about 60% of the time and huddled after every play so the clock melted much faster. QB's weren't in constant communication with the coach through their helmet so sometimes they needed to call TO and talk to the coach. Spiking the ball to stop the clock wasn't allowed. There were no free TO's for replay. Just isn't the case today. All these TO's aren't necessary like they were when the 3TO's per half rule was made.

I know this will never change because it is a business and the max stoppages/ commercial time is what the NFL wants but I can dream

[Balto]

Originally Posted by RedinTexas

I really like this idea. I have always hated rules that ask the referees to make a judgement as to whether something happened. For reference, think of the QB "in the grasp" rule, or the rule on whether a receiver "would have landed in bounds if not for the defender." Asking the referees to make judgements like these distract them from officiating penalties like they are supposed to do. Furthermore, if there actually are crooked referees, rules that give them the judgement to determine plays like whether the QB was in the grasp are perfect opportunities to influence the outcome of a game.

Any rule change that takes away judgement calls from the referees and leaves them only with the power to call whether the ball passed the line of scrimmage or not sounds like a great idea to me. This is exactly the kind of rule change that improve the game and reduce the amount of bitching at the refs that occurs in every contest.

ETA - Two really good things are accomplished with that rule change.
1 - The referee is no longer making a determination as to whether there was a receiver in the area. This is highly subjective and can vary wildly depending on who is making the call. The change makes it so the referee is only ruling on whether the ball hit the ground before the line of scrimmage or not and that could be reviewed pretty easily.

2 - We no longer have to sit through determinations of whether the QBs arm was going forward or not. If the ball comes out it's a live ball just as long as it doesn't make it to the line of scrimmage. No more interminable reviews on the QBs arm.

Ok but what about spiking the ball to stop the clock?

[htismaqe]

Originally Posted by Balto

Ok but what about spiking the ball to stop the clock?

Fumble!

[BWillie]

1. Eliminate roughing the kicker. If you make a reasonable attempt to block the kick you should be able to smoke the kicker.

2. Make pass interference a 15 yard penalty. They call is so often. I really dont know why teams just dont go deep everytime.

[htismaqe]

College football does DPI correctly. The NFL should do it that way.

[RedinTexas]

Originally Posted by Balto

Ok but what about spiking the ball to stop the clock?

They should be open to allowing this as a special exception or they could go back to what they used to do before that rule was implemented. The QB used to throw the ball way out of bounds and only a few seconds would run off the clock. I never thought they needed a new rule for spiking the ball, but if people like that aspect of the game, I don't think anyone would have a big problem with allowing that exception.

[Balto]

I’d still love to see the NFL take on college OT rules after let’s say it’s still tied after the first OT

[RunKC]

Originally Posted by htismaqe

College football does DPI correctly. The NFL should do it that way.

I feel like that is accurate but could be take advantage of. What if Mahomes launches a bomb to Hardman and the DB knows he’ll be beat so he just pulls Hardman’s jersey to break up the play?

Bc why not? 50 yard penalty or 15?

[Simply Red]

Originally Posted by Pawnmower

1) Im ok with this


2) no


3) no


4) not sure about this


5) i kind of agree, but might be difficult to enforce properly


6) definitely needs a look at the rule, live ball is a bit extreme though

View on Vocaroo >>

[htismaqe]

Originally Posted by RunKC

I feel like that is accurate but could be take advantage of. What if Mahomes launches a bomb to Hardman and the DB knows he’ll be beat so he just pulls Hardman’s jersey to break up the play?

Bc why not? 50 yard penalty or 15?

15 all day, every day.

I hate the way the NFL does DPI

[Balto]

Originally Posted by RedinTexas

They should be open to allowing this as a special exception or they could go back to what they used to do before that rule was implemented. The QB used to throw the ball way out of bounds and only a few seconds would run off the clock. I never thought they needed a new rule for spiking the ball, but if people like that aspect of the game, I don't think anyone would have a big problem with allowing that exception.

Could be hard to implement the rule and still keep spiking. Refs would have like an imaginary box that the QB could spike it and it not be a fumble. Then again you could have issues of was he spiking it? Did he fumble a snap and then pick it up and spike it before getting sacked? Just saying you’d be putting judgement calls back into the refs.

Maybe something as simple as you can spike the ball only taking the snap from the center and can not take a step before it’s spiked. Could easily look at a review camera IF it ever was questioned.

[Balto]

Originally Posted by RunKC

I feel like that is accurate but could be take advantage of. What if Mahomes launches a bomb to Hardman and the DB knows he’ll be beat so he just pulls Hardman’s jersey to break up the play?

Bc why not? 50 yard penalty or 15?

I agree and I guess that’s where the refs have a judgment call on if the PI was intentional or not.

[RedinTexas]

Originally Posted by Balto

Could be hard to implement the rule and still keep spiking. Refs would have like an imaginary box that the QB could spike it and it not be a fumble. Then again you could have issues of was he spiking it? Did he fumble a snap and then pick it up and spike it before getting sacked? Just saying you’d be putting judgement calls back into the refs.

Maybe something as simple as you can spike the ball only taking the snap from the center and can not take a step before it’s spiked. Could easily look at a review camera IF it ever was questioned.

There are always some growing pains in implementing new rules, but if there are implementation problems that can't be overcome like some of the things you suggested they could always go back to the old way of chucking it out of bounds. It only uses up a few more seconds than spiking the ball.

[the steam]

Originally Posted by RunKC

I feel like that is accurate but could be take advantage of. What if Mahomes launches a bomb to Hardman and the DB knows he’ll be beat so he just pulls Hardman’s jersey to break up the play?

Bc why not? 50 yard penalty or 15?

I don't think I've ever seen that done in college football

[RunKC]

Originally Posted by htismaqe

15 all day, every day.

I hate the way the NFL does DPI

I agree but I think there should be intentional PI and unintentional PI. If it’s not intentional then sure 15 yards, but if that rule gets set they can’t take advantage.

If that’s the rule and a DB gets beat and purposefully trips, pulls or hinders the WR then I think that should be intentional DPI and be a spot penalty