Redskins Insider: Rule Changes And Points Of Emphasis

[MTK]

Redskins Insider

A group of NFL officials made the annual presentation on rules changes to the media schlubs. I'll tell you what, we rag on these guys all the time, but they know their stuff. It's always kind of fun to spend like 15 minutes thinking of the most esoteric question possible about some crazy, parallel universe football scenario involving illegal contact, two footballs being on the field at the same time, and a field-goal kicking mule, and, dag-gonnit, these dudes will have the answer and all possible penalty variations rattled off in like 5 seconds.


Impressive stuff.


Anyway, here's what you need to do, at least what I could understand of it ('cause this stuff gets pretty complex and unless you have the accompanying video in front of you it's kind of not worth getting into all of it). The finer points:


1) New Replay Booths: And they look like outhouses to boot! Seriously. "You guys are going to have a field day with that," one of the officials commented. They've got High Def this year and a 26-inch LCD screens with 9 area they can touch to pull up different replay angles. Also, they've got 60 seconds to get the thing figured out from time they step in the outhouse, in mean booth.


2) Brandon Lloyd has got some changes to make: There are going to be 5 yard penalties called whenever a player spikes or throws a ball forward after making a catch, or a run, or a first down, whatever. The instant the officials began explaining this rule change, I thought of our guy No. 85. He does that thing where he spins the ball forward after pretty much every reception. And sure enough, what do you know, the video begins where they show clips of all the infractions to go along with the explanation of the rule changes, and, bingo, second clip is Lloyd doing his thing.
So now, if you do that, even if it's like a catch on first down, with a seven-yard gain, and the receiver spikes the ball or flips it in a way that the officials have to chase it, then guess what, next down its second-and-eight folks.


3) Expect More Fumbles. The league has changed to the rule book to better reflect the reality that we see from video replays on TV. The officials anticipate a lot more instances this season where a ruling will be made that a receiver had a "catch and fumble" where in the past the on-field officials would have had to rule it an incomplete pass. That's good news for The Reaper, eh?


4) Strapping Young Men: In the NFL's quest to combat concussions, players are now going to be forced to have their chin straps fully buckled at all times. If they can't get it done in time, they will be sent off the field. About 8 years or so ago the NHL went through similar measures, when it began investigating the rash of concussions in its sport, so I figured it was only a matter of time before it caught on in the NFL. Same theory.

[hooskins]

No ball spike? That is lame. What about after a TD?

[RobH4413]

Originally Posted by hooskins

No ball spike? That is lame. What about after a TD?

I'm pretty sure your still ok to do it after a touchdown.

[ArtMonkDrillz]

Originally Posted by hooskins

No ball spike? That is lame. What about after a TD?

Moss won't be able to do his little first down shimmy either, so that sucks.

[jsarno]

Originally Posted by Mattyk72

1) New Replay Booths: And they look like outhouses to boot! Seriously. "You guys are going to have a field day with that," one of the officials commented. They've got High Def this year and a 26-inch LCD screens with 9 area they can touch to pull up different replay angles. Also, they've got 60 seconds to get the thing figured out from time they step in the outhouse, in mean booth.


2) Brandon Lloyd has got some changes to make: There are going to be 5 yard penalties called whenever a player spikes or throws a ball forward after making a catch, or a run, or a first down, whatever. The instant the officials began explaining this rule change, I thought of our guy No. 85. He does that thing where he spins the ball forward after pretty much every reception. And sure enough, what do you know, the video begins where they show clips of all the infractions to go along with the explanation of the rule changes, and, bingo, second clip is Lloyd doing his thing.
So now, if you do that, even if it's like a catch on first down, with a seven-yard gain, and the receiver spikes the ball or flips it in a way that the officials have to chase it, then guess what, next down its second-and-eight folks.

I LOVE IT!
It is extremely annoying to watch someone (especially on your own team) that has a little dance, and spikes the ball after a first down when his team is down 28-0. They act like they won the super bowl. It's about time the NFL is putting a stop to it.
It's also about time the refs get top merchandise to view these replays. How many times have we seen the obvious call on a replay, but the ref didn't?
Good calls by the NFL!

[Beemnseven]

Of all the rule changes they come up with every year, I can't figure out why the league won't address the ridiculous roster restrictions for players on injured reserve.

Think back to 2005 with David Patten -- he got nicked up pretty bad, wasn't going to be around for like 8 weeks or so, and since they couldn't bring a guy on the roster to replace him for fear of violating the 53 man roster rule, they had to put him on injured reserve (meaning he couldn't play anymore that year no matter what). So later on, Patten's injury heals up, he would otherwise have been ready to go, but thanks to that arcane rule, we can't bring him back, and we're stuck with guys like Jimmy Farris and Taylor Jacobs in the second wideout spot.

With injuries more and more becoming the deciding factor in what makes or breaks a team for the whole season, you'd think the NFL would loosen the restrictions and allow for teams to better prepare for season-ending injuries.

Nope. Instead we get the "spike" rule.

[Mwoody85]

As much as I love Moss, I think it's a bit excessive when he does the ball spin/spike/dance after a 1st down. After a TD, fine, but I look at a 1st down as something he's expected to do. I wasn't really around (born in '84) to watch the 80's skins, but Riggins for example - I've seen a lot of footage of him scoring and simply handing the ball to the ref....very selfless and classy.

[jdlea]

I don't like the whole focus on taunting that the NFL has taken on. I think it's entertaining to see it happen. Who cares what the situation is? I could care less if a guy makes an ass of himself by dancing after scoring a TD when his team is getting destroyed, or dances after a first in that same situation. None of that matters to me. If the other team is offended by it, there's a very simple solution: Don't let it happen! I'm not a fan of all of the rules changes.

As for everyone who wants to say that this is not the way the game used to be played/older players were more classy: they didn't coddle players then either. All of this protection of the "defenseless receiver" and the quarterback also bother me to no end. Mark me down as against the majority of the recent rules changes the NFL has made.

[drew54]

Originally Posted by Beemnseven

Of all the rule changes they come up with every year, I can't figure out why the league won't address the ridiculous roster restrictions for players on injured reserve.

Think back to 2005 with David Patten -- he got nicked up pretty bad, wasn't going to be around for like 8 weeks or so, and since they couldn't bring a guy on the roster to replace him for fear of violating the 53 man roster rule, they had to put him on injured reserve (meaning he couldn't play anymore that year no matter what). So later on, Patten's injury heals up, he would otherwise have been ready to go, but thanks to that arcane rule, we can't bring him back, and we're stuck with guys like Jimmy Farris and Taylor Jacobs in the second wideout spot.

With injuries more and more becoming the deciding factor in what makes or breaks a team for the whole season, you'd think the NFL would loosen the restrictions and allow for teams to better prepare for season-ending injuries.

Nope. Instead we get the "spike" rule.

There should be a DL rule like in Baseball. But a guy on the 15 Day or 60 day DL.

[BDBohnzie]

Yeah, the IR thing doesn't make sense. Oughta be 8 games or full season...and if after 8 games, the player isn't ready, they are automatically shifted to the full season. Roster spot for 8 game IR would be practice squad player (can't sign someone off the street), whereas full season IR, roster spot could go to free agent not on practice squad.

[firstdown]

Originally Posted by jdlea

I don't like the whole focus on taunting that the NFL has taken on. I think it's entertaining to see it happen. Who cares what the situation is? I could care less if a guy makes an ass of himself by dancing after scoring a TD when his team is getting destroyed, or dances after a first in that same situation. None of that matters to me. If the other team is offended by it, there's a very simple solution: Don't let it happen! I'm not a fan of all of the rules changes.

As for everyone who wants to say that this is not the way the game used to be played/older players were more classy: they didn't coddle players then either. All of this protection of the "defenseless receiver" and the quarterback also bother me to no end. Mark me down as against the majority of the recent rules changes the NFL has made.

I understand what you are saying but I think they are doing this more to speed up play than anything else. When a guy makes a first down and spikes the ball or what ever they do it takes time for the Refs to either get that ball or get another one onto the field. Also if was a ref standing next to a guy and instead of him handing me or tossing me the ball they spike it so it goes 15 yards down filed I'd be thinking "you little @&^!%^* now I have to go chasing that ball around when you could have just handed it to me".

[Daseal]

I understand what you are saying but I think they are doing this more to speed up play than anything else. When a guy makes a first down and spikes the ball or what ever they do it takes time for the Refs to either get that ball or get another one onto the field. Also if was a ref standing next to a guy and instead of him handing me or tossing me the ball they spike it so it goes 15 yards down filed I'd be thinking "you little @&^!%^* now I have to go chasing that ball around when you could have just handed it to me".

1) The refs normally have more than enough time to set the ball. With the play clock and the fact that theres a guy on either side with at least 3 balls in tow, it takes no time to get a new ball. I'm fine getting rid of the cell phone type of celebrations, but let the players have some fun. I don't watch football for a bunch of robots, I watch it for entertainment. Players showing some emotion is entertaining to me. Drones, however, are not.

[jdlea]

Originally Posted by firstdown

I understand what you are saying but I think they are doing this more to speed up play than anything else. When a guy makes a first down and spikes the ball or what ever they do it takes time for the Refs to either get that ball or get another one onto the field. Also if was a ref standing next to a guy and instead of him handing me or tossing me the ball they spike it so it goes 15 yards down filed I'd be thinking "you little @&^!%^* now I have to go chasing that ball around when you could have just handed it to me".

That is a good point, but like Daseal said, there are plenty of guys on the sidelines to toss them a ball. There is very rarely a situation where a guy spikes a ball and the ref has to chase it. The only time the ball being spiked would come into play would be if a guy spikes it while his team is trying to run a 2 minute drill/no huddle. Then, the idiot is just hurting his own team.

Finally, if you want to speed up the game, stop taking commercial breaks after an extra point AND after a kickoff. That pisses me off so much. So, we get to see a drive, td and extra point or a field goal, then commercial. Come back, kickoff, commercial. I don't even find kickoffs that interesting...wtf is the reason for the second break? JEEZ!

[Schneed10]

Originally Posted by Daseal

1) The refs normally have more than enough time to set the ball. With the play clock and the fact that theres a guy on either side with at least 3 balls in tow, it takes no time to get a new ball. I'm fine getting rid of the cell phone type of celebrations, but let the players have some fun. I don't watch football for a bunch of robots, I watch it for entertainment. Players showing some emotion is entertaining to me. Drones, however, are not.

Well I think you can celebrate and be emotional and non-robotic without having to spike the ball. The refs just don't want to chase the ball around. They don't care if you showboat or celebrate a lil bit, just do it without spiking the ball. I don't think it's too much to ask.

[FRPLG]

Originally Posted by jdlea

That is a good point, but like Daseal said, there are plenty of guys on the sidelines to toss them a ball. There is very rarely a situation where a guy spikes a ball and the ref has to chase it. The only time the ball being spiked would come into play would be if a guy spikes it while his team is trying to run a 2 minute drill/no huddle. Then, the idiot is just hurting his own team.

Finally, if you want to speed up the game, stop taking commercial breaks after an extra point AND after a kickoff. That pisses me off so much. So, we get to see a drive, td and extra point or a field goal, then commercial. Come back, kickoff, commercial. I don't even find kickoffs that interesting...wtf is the reason for the second break? JEEZ!

Ummm money.