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.