Every year in March the NFL holds the Competition Committee Meeting. The purpose of this meeting is to review the previous year and assess possible changes to the current rules. Some of this is housekeeping to update old language. Other ideas are forged from on-going complaints. Still others stem from something that occurs the previous season. These ideas are submitted to be researched, studied, and bantered about by “the committee” in some dimly lit conference room at the league headquarters. And each year a handful of changes evolve from “bills” to “law.” Here are the highlights of the changes to the 2008 NFL Rule Book.
RULE NO. 2
The force-out has been eliminated to allow both the receiver and defender an equal opportunity to complete the play. Tell me every DB isn’t smiling over that one! And I dare you to find a wide-out who isn’t wrinkling his forehead like he just took a bite of bad cheese.
RULE NO. 4
When a team wins the coin toss, it must choose either a) to receive the kickoff, or b) which goal to defend, or c) defer. This change essentially gives the winner of the coin toss a third option to defer choosing until the second half. College fans are used to this, and we got to see our first use of this last Saturday as Arizona elected to defer to the second half. I like it…strategy never hurt pro sports.
RULE NO. 8
This revision eliminates the foul for “incidental grasp and release of the facemask.” So forget the “Face-masking 5 yards.” They are all 15 yard penalties now – or it’s not a foul at all. I know this is terribly subjective on the part of the referee, but overall I like this change. If it was unintentional, it shouldn’t be a foul. And before you say, but the deterrent is gone…I think it’s even greater now. If a player is willing to risk getting his hands in there, he takes a chance it will cost him 15 yards.
RULE NO 5, Section 3
This is resolution! Don’t ask me the difference between a revision and a resolution, besides $600 an hour attorney fees. But…this resolution is a biggie. One defensive player is now allowed a wireless radio in his helmet similar to the Coach-to-Quarterback. I’ve always considered defense a matter of reacting. So, I think the results of this will be very interesting. If you are not aware, the C-to-Q radio is cut off when the play-clock reaches 15 seconds remaining. This is done by a league official (what a job!). The same rule will govern and apply to the defensive radio. In some ways it will be interesting to see if offenses change habits accordingly.
UMPIRE POSITION
The committee also reviewed moving the umpire (ref standing near the middle linebacker). This has been discussed much, because this official often gets hurt or interferes with the play. However, without saying why, the committee simply stated “After reviewing the comments, the Committee recommends leaving the umpire in his current position.”
OVERTIME RULES
And of course, the college overtime scheme died yet another NFL death. “By a significant majority…!” Their words, not mine. In case you were wondering, the “significant majority” analyzed the 15 overtime games from 2007. The winner of the coin-flip winning the game actually rose to 60%. That seems fair :~ Way to go competition committee!!!. The committee seems completely okay with the reward for two hard fighting teams to be in the hands of gravity and dumb luck. In all deference to Yogi, tails can fail!
Does anyone else think there is a dark shawdowed smoking man in the corner, from the television networks, during these meetings?
