July 31st, 2008
Some rule changes for the upcoming NFL season
The Boston Globe highlights a handful of rule changes for the upcoming NFL season. Their article is largely about how the Patriots will deal with the changes (they’re a Boston paper, after all), but the changes are interesting.
- The “force out” ruling on sidelines catches is gone. In the past referees could rule that a player would have come down inbounds if he hadn’t been forced out of bounds. Now you need two feet on the ground inbounds, period. If the defender forces you out on your way down, too bad.
- The 5-yard incidental facemask penalty is gone. It’s either a 15-yarder or nothing.
- Instant reply on field-goal and extra-point attempts. This is certainly a result of Phil Dawson’s bizarre field goal against the Ravens last year. It cleared the crossbar, then hit the curved part of the support bar, then bounced back over the crossbar. It was initially ruled no good, but then the officials correctly changed that ruling. It was a nice job by the officials, but it was silly that they weren’t allowed to use the replay on it. Now they can.
- Teams can designate two defensive players to have radios in their helmets, but only one of them can be on the field at a time.
All in all, I like the changes. The first two help to remove some arbitrary calls from the refs and make things more cut-and-dried, while the others are just standard steps forward.
The season is getting close!
Filed under: League News
Tags: boston globe, facemask, instant reply, new england patriots, rules
