Odious rule changes in the NFL

[Realgeorge]

<BLOCKQUOTE dir=ltr style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px">
The Wretched Wrule Changes that Strangled the NFL</BLOCKQUOTE>


You can remind me which year it was, but we'll say about 1985. Here are the Wretched Wrule changes what wimpified the NFL:


1) Moved the hashmarks inward, practically on top of each other


2) Move the goalposts back to the endline


3) Elimated touching the quarterback


4) Ever-quicker hurry-up clock (25 seconds now)


5) Radios in the helmets (uggh!)


Starting with 1). The hashmark rule has been a disaster. The great coaches, Lomardi, Shula, Halas, Landry, George Allen, the REAL football coaches, grew up when the mantra "Play the Hashmarks" was intelligent football. The wide hashmarks gave a true wideside and shortside of the field. The Power Sweep was possible because there was a wideside. The NFL running game in general was better because the defense truly had to concentrate on the wide side. Now that the hashmarks are practically eliminated, defenses have it easy. No more wide or short side, only "strong" and "weak" depending on the placement of a tight end. The most buffoon-headed moron from a incest-dominated slum can be a linebacker now, because all thinking has been eliminated. Just line up, rush, and kill the first guy headed your way.


Now to 4) The snap-clock is so friggin' fast that any real Quarterback cadence has become obsolete. The swift clock indeed ended the QB-calling-the-plays system, which I preferred. It made the QB a true leader, instead of nine "Offensive Coordinators" and assistants with a whole suite of electronics on the sideline. The new system is dull and artificial. Bart Starr and Sonny Jurgensen were just fine calling the plays, thank you. The quick clock has also eliminated any real advantage to a QB's cadence. Remember Ron Jaworski, he was the cadence master. Would use 3 or 4 "huts" every play to insure a push-off advantage to his offense. He would draw 2 or 3 offsides every game. This was football. It's gone now.


3) is the rule where you can sack the quarterback, violently if you want, but you must perfectly place your strike such that no part of your helmet touches any part of your opponent. What a pile of pittoo! The Quarterback is a football player. You should be able to hit and tackle him when appropriate, just not after he's thrown or handed-off the ball. One can feel the hand of the feminist lobby on this rule!


And there's 4), the goalposts. This was the only one of the four rules that made sense. Admitting that kickers' competence had been steadily increasing, the rule to widen the distance between the kickoff point and the goalposts was a great idea. It preserved the exciting kickoff return play. Since most of us would rather see a fourth down play rather than a Field Goal, the added difficulty of the kick has that positive aspect.


The key word of this discussion is "admitting." The NFL faced a real technical event that it refused and continues to refuse to address. The SIZE of the football field remains unchanged after 70 years, while the football player has DOUBLED in size, and has vastly increased his range and speed. The obvious adjustment, which the NFL flatly refuses to consider, is to adjust the size of the field to accommodate the new giants of the NFL, who cover the field with blinding speed compared to their predecessors. Diet, training, and genetics are all in favor of ever-larger, faster, and maneuverable players. The NFL would do well to lengthen the field by ten yards (add a 55-yard-line), or widen the field by ten yards and spread the hashmarks back to their God-given positions.


The 25 second clock should be restored to 30 seconds, allowing for cadence and huddle-planning. I mentioned #5, the electronics added to players helmets. Come On! What a crock. Calling plays was good enough for Lombardi, and shuttling Tight Ends with play information was good enough for Tom Landy. I detest this artificiality, this insult to the fan. Quarterback play-calling should be restored. I think it was removed mainly to eliminate the possibility of any true leader on the field.


Rule adjustments, anybody?

 

[White Shogun]

I agree with everything you've said except extending the play clock. Unless they also do away with 'TV-timeouts' the game will be even longer and it will be almost impossible to sit and watch an entire game all the way through.

 

[Realgeorge]

Howdy White Shogun ! Thanks for the Reply !


I left something out ... Would love to see halftime reduced to five minutes long. Halftimes are useless commercial breaks. Strategy adjustmentsshould take five minutes, not a second more!Imagine NOT having to sit and hear Howie and Terry and Weenie and Weasel mug for the camera during halftime!


So, if halftime were drastically curtailed, then the longer playclock would be great shakes. Hey, Mate, I'd be all for eliminating TV timeouts as well. If I were king of the networks you would receive a non-interrupted game from start to finish.


But then the BAD guys are in charge of the networks and the rest of the world ... that's why I peck away at a keyboard, longing for the way it was many decades ago.


Happy New Year, White Shogun !


Keep Your Powder Dry ! Stay Frosty !

 

[GWTJ]

I'm not sure that those rule changes were all bad. Let's face it, people were starting to grumble about the kicking game taking on more importance than it deserved. The NFL narrowed the width of the goalposts to make it harder on the kickers. The hashmarks have always been the same width apart as the goalposts so they moved in also. I too enjoy the wider hashmarks but I like the narrower goalposts also. I wish we could have both.

Moving the goalposts to the back of the endzone served 2 purposes. It got the goalposts to a safer distance from the players and forced teams to drive further down the field before attempting a field goal. If the goalposts were still even with the goal line, a team would only have to reach the opposing team's 45 yard line to try a 52 yard field goal. Again, they were trying to make the kicking game less of a factor.

I like the new kickoff rules. Kicking off from the 30 yard line ensures more returns and putting the ball on the 40 yard line if the kicking team kicks it out of bounds helps ensure teams will give the fans the kickoff action they want.

I don't understand why anyone would have a problem with a shorter play clock unless they are Princeton basketball fans. The 25 second clock gives fans more football for their money. It keeps the losing team in the game longer. It hurts the defense just as much as it does the offense since they shuttle players in and out as well. I'm not interested in seeing the QB stand over the center for what seems like forever as he milks the clock late in the game. Besides, the few QB's who have earned their coaches trust do call plays at the line of scrimmage. They audible and try to draw the defense offsides. Elway was a master at this. Jim Kelley ran a sort of no-huddle offense where he called everything and Manning and Brady seem to spend a long time at the line of scrimmage calling audibles. Remember, the play clock doesn't start until the referee spots the ball. If a team hustles back to the huddle and gets the next play in quickly, there is plenty of time at the line of scrimmage for the QB to do all the cadence he wants.

The helmet to helmet rule is a good one. Here's why, the helmet does an excellent job protecting the head inside it. Broken jaws and/or ripped ears, eyes, nose, lips or other head parts getting injured are very rare. The problem is that the helmet is the most dangerous weapon on the field. Because it protects so well it has made players practically fearless when attacking. Football 50-70 years ago was completely devoid of concussions. Players wore leather helmets and tackled with their shoulders and arms. Now it's like watching human torpedos flying across the field. Taking away the helmet as a weapon in certain situations was a major improvement in the NFL.

Only football puts men in such vulnerable positions so often. The QB goes back to pass with all his concentration downfield. Here comes a guy who probably weighs a hundred pounds more than the QB with a 10 yard head start allowed to destroy him while he is off balance and unprepared for the hit. I don't think giving the QB some protection makes him a wimp and I don't think a lineman who intentionally roughs up a QB is a hero. I think the opposite is true. QB's need protection for the same reason kickers, punters and receivers need protection. Do we want to see all the skill players on the IR list?

The defense needs protection as well. Chop blocks, cut blocks and other variations of blocks need to be eliminated to keep players on the field.

Realgeorge, I totally agree with you that Professional Football Players are outgrowing the field. But what can you do? Making the field bigger would be like raising the basket in the NBA. It would basically make it a different sport. Let's say that in the year 2010 they made the field bigger. There would have to be an asterisk alongside every record. A record made before 2010 or a record made after 2010. It is the same reason the NBA will never raise the basket and Major League Baseball will never use the aluminum bat.

Almost all rule changes made in modern sports are to help the offense. It is a fact that defenses will catch up with offenses and the rulemakers will need to compensate to make the game two-sided and exciting. Here are my proposed rule changes for the NFL.

1.) Outlaw zone defense and allow defenders to bump and run with the wide receivers anywhere past the line of scrimmage.

2.) Test all players at least once a week for steroids during the season and once a month in the off season.

3.) Put a weight limit on players. They can only gain a percentage more of what they weighed when they entered the league. If a guy weighed 250 in his last game of college ball and got drafted by a team they would weigh him and only allow, say 20% more weight for his career. He could go up to 300 pounds but that would be it.

4.) Players would also have a body fat percentage that they couldn't go over. I'm not sure what it would be but I know some lineman playing today would be over it.

5.) All NFL games must be played on natural grass. This would extend the career of the player and perhaps make his retirement less arthritic.

6.) Teams would be allowed one timeout per half.

7.) Outlaw all chop blocks by the offense.

8.) Make holding by the offense 10 yards and loss of a down.

9.) Review all fumble recoveries to see who actually recovered the ball first, not who had it last.

10.) This one is too radical to ever happen but I would like to see it. Make any player hit with an unsportmanlike penalty be removed from the game until there is a change of possesion. He could be replaced by someone else so the team would not be shorthanded.



Edited by: GWTJ

 

[Colonel_Reb]

Pretty good ideas there GWTJ!

 

[Kaptain]

I would have to disagree on the not touching the quarterback part. Remember that defenses are even more black than offenses these days. The quarterback position is still white dominated. Pass rushers found out that their biggest weapon was the helmet and they used it. Concussions from repeated helmet to helmet contact cheated us out of watching great quarterbacks like steve young and Troy Aikman complete their careers. Helmet to helmet is a cheap shot on an exposed and defenseless quarterback - most of them were late hits to boot. Now we don't see that as much and quarterbacks are again being able to complete their careers.

 

[Kiwi]

I think thatgetting rid of helmets and padding would help reduce injury and encourage better tackling, as the tackler is forced to used correct technique otherwise he will end up injuring himself more than injuring the guy he is tackling. As for imposing a weight limit on players, why not simply make them work harder. This could be done several ways:


1) Reduce the size of NFL squads. By reducing the size of the squads,players will be forced to perform a more multifunctional role in the team, thus making them do more work and less specialized in one position.


2) Increase the continuity if the game. Either by reducing the number and length of stoppages, or by introducing some sort of second phase play where the play continues after the playerwith the ball is tackled. I have no idea how this would be implemented, but it wouldsoon get thosefat blokes onthe O/D-Lines using their lungs a bit and would shedthe pounds very quickly i would imagine

 

[jaxvid]

I would equip all players with radios and allow about 10 seconds after the ball is set to get off a play.

 

[foreverfree]

3.) Put a weight limit on players. They can only gain a percentage more of what they weighed when they entered the league. If a guy weighed 250 in his last game of college ball and got drafted by a team they would weigh him and only allow, say 20% more weight for his career. He could go up to 300 pounds but that would be it.

4.) Players would also have a body fat percentage that they couldn't go over. I'm not sure what it would be but I know some lineman playing today would be over it.

How many violations would a player be allowed? Three "strikes"? One "strike"? I'm sure Fat!So? and their ilk would be on the NFL's back about this, not that I disagree with 3. & 4. I do agree.

John

 

[Southern Knight]

Great topic, guys.

My least favorite recent rule change is the ridiculous caveat that allows the quarterback to throw the ball away to avoid a sack, as long as he is "outside the tackle box" (whatever the hell that is). This is bass-ackwards. If anything, the quarterback should be MORE vulnerable outside the pocket, and the QB should be flagged for intentional grounding for throwing the ball away to avoid a sack. Instead, this stupid rule cheats the defense out of a great play.

 

[White Shogun]

Great topic, guys.

My least favorite recent rule change is the ridiculous caveat that allows the quarterback to throw the ball away to avoid a sack, as long as he is "outside the tackle box" (whatever the hell that is). This is bass-ackwards. If anything, the quarterback should be MORE vulnerable outside the pocket, and the QB should be flagged for intentional grounding for throwing the ball away to avoid a sack. Instead, this stupid rule cheats the defense out of a great play.

It seems to me the quarterback should be allowed to throw the ball away at any time, not just outside the tackles or inbetween them, either. Throwing the ball away is a heads up play by the quarterback. White quarterbacks are more often using their head and not their feet, unlike black quarterbacks, so they'd be more likely to take advantage of throwing it away and avoiding a sack than a black quarterback.

 

[Southern Knight]

Shogun, do you propose to do away with intentional grounding altogether? If this is the case, how do we handle this situation: The offense runs a sweep and the running back finds himself strung out 5 yards behind the line of scrimmage, near the sideline with nowhere to go, and a host of defenders in pursuit. Can the running back just chuck the ball out of bounds, thus avoiding a sure loss of yardage? I don't see anything that would prevent it, under your proposal.

 

[GWTJ]

If it is a running play at least one of the lineman would have crossed the scrimmage line and the offense would get flagged for an ineligible reciever downfield.