Shane's Drivel

Dear NFL, January 31, 2010

Superbowl

Superbowl

Superbowl

Who Dat!

Who Dat!

Who Dat!

2008 NFL rule changes April 2, 2008

The NFL has adopted the following rule changes:

• The force-out rule was eliminated, meaning a player who catches a ball must have both feet (or another body part) in bounds.
• Teams winning the coin toss now can defer a decision until the second half. In college, teams choose to get the ball to start the second half 97 percent of the time, said Mike Pereira, the NFL’s head of officiating. But “after talking to a number of NFL coaches, many prefer to start on offense,” said Titans coach Jeff Fisher, co-chairman of the competition committee.
• Instant replay was expanded to include review of field goals (except those above either upright that don’t touch anything).
• Snaps untouched by a player in position to receive a hand-to-hand snap will no longer be a false start, and either team may recover and advance the ball.
• Muffed illegal forward handoffs will be treated as fumbles, and no longer as incomplete forward passes.
• Incidental grasp and release of the facemask, which was a five-yard penalty, will no longer be penalized. The 15-yard penalty remains intact for twisting, turning or pulling the mask.

I seriously don’t like eliminating the rule that gave a receiver possession if it appeared he would have landed in bounds if not for being pushed out of bounds. The biggest impact here is going to be in the endzone. Say goodbye to the fade patter when the quarterback throws it high towards the out of bounds mark and the receiver out-jumps the DB for the ball. Now the DB is going to stand there, allow the catch to happen, and push the receiver out of bounds before the receiver can land in bounds.

And I wonder how the NFL is going to handle a DB carrying a receiver out of bounds.

I like the other changes, especially getting rid of the incidental facemask penatly. This is the NFL. Players can handle slight pulls of the facemask.