The NFL Competition Committee reviews new rule proposals every year and this season is looking at five. Some of them look like no-brainers while others look like no brain went into making them.
"The playing rule proposals submitted by the NFL Competition Committee for consideration by clubs at next week’s league meeting," ESPN's Adam Schefter wrote on Tuesday.
Here are the rule proposals, per Schefter.
- Permit the kicking team to declare an onside kick at any time during the game.
- Eliminate the kicking team’s incentive to intentionally kick the ball out of bounds when kicking off from the 50-yard line.
- Modify the kickoff alignment requirements for the receiving team in the setup zone.
- Allow League personnel to consult with on-field officials when considering disqualifications for both flagrant football acts and non-football acts without being called on the field.
- For one year only, allow the NFL Officiating Department to correct clear and obvious misses by on-field officials that impact the game, in the event of a work stoppage involving the game officials represented by the NFL Referees Association.
There's a lot of different issues with each of these rules.
Proposal one is basically just calling to revert to the old system of allowing onsides kicks whenever they want. That one could get passed. Proposals two and third are tougher ones to predict but also refer to kickoffs.
Proposals four and five are basically the NFL mitigating some of the risk that a potential NFL referees strike could incur.
The Fans Weigh in
Naturally, NFL fans want to revert to the old way of doing things as it pertains to kickoffs. As for the officiating rules, fans mostly just rolled their eyes at the league for trying to take more leverage away from the referees.
"How about getting rid of the rule that onside kicks have to be declared at all? Half the damn point of doing them was to surprise the other team. It's gonna be touch football within a decade," one user remarked.
"Declared onside kicks anytime is the biggest one here. That changes 4th quarter strategy completely. Teams will actually be able to compete late instead of praying for a miracle," another wrote.
"They learned their lesson from 2012 - they aren't letting a small-college ref blow a Monday Night game again," wrote a third.
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As much as NFL fans tend to hate the status quo (especially when their favorite teams are affected by bad calls), they often hate rule changes even more.
If any of these rules wind up being implemented, it will be interesting to see if the response is more or less aggressive in the offseason than during the regular season itself.
