Five NFL Rules that Should be Changed
The “Calvin Johnson Rule’’ cost the Cowboys their season, and NFL officials and rules makers are having a rough postseason so far.
Rules have been changed or removed entirely in the past, notably in 2013 when the “Tuck Rule’’ was overturned. The Calvin Johnson Rule may very well be next to go, but here are 5 other rules we’d like to see changed for the betterment of the NFL.
1. Make everything reviewable.
This idea comes right out of Bill Belichick’s playbook. The Patriots’ head coach has been advocating for making everything reviewable for a couple of years, and there really isn’t any logic behind not doing it.
Detractors complain that this will make the games too long, but Belichick didn’t propose affording coaches more challenges, so that won’t happen. All Belichick wants is for coaches to have more freedom to challenge any call or play that he feels the officials got wrong on the field.
We’ve seen the impact judgment calls and controversial rulings have had in this postseason. Why not try to get as many calls right as possible?
2. Get rid of kickoffs.
This idea was first proposed by Greg Schiano when he was the head coach of the Buccaneers, and it’s far and away the best thing he ever contributed to the NFL.
Schiano proposed getting rid of kickoffs entirely, because statistics show they’re among the most dangerous plays in football. Instead, teams will get a 4th and 15 from the spot of the kickoff (in this case, the 35 yard line) and they can opt to either punt or “go for it’’ in lieu of an onside kick.
This idea makes the game safer, and it upholds the integrity of the game as well. The odds of converting a 4th and 15 are 13.9%. NFL teams have successfully recovered 16% of onside kicks over the past 3 seasons. The plays are virtually equals and one is far safer than the other. It’s a no-brainer.
3. Illegal contact and defensive holding should not be an automatic first down.
The NFL rules make penalties in the secondary a huge part of the game. A key subplot to the Patriots/Ravens game was Joe Flacco and Torrey Smith’s mastery of drawing flags on deep passes, as well as Brandon Browner’s playing style drawing a lot of flags.
There’s nothing wrong with calling a tight game in the secondary as long as the referees are consistent about it. The problem is that too often on 3rd down and a mile, teams can try to bait the defense into a ticky-tack illegal contact penalty, which results in a 5-yard penalty an automatic first down.
As a viewer, I don’t want teams using penalties as a strategy. That’s like flopping in soccer or basketball to try and draw a foul. No thanks.
If the penalties are going to be called as frequently as they are, then they shouldn’t result in an automatic first down. 5 yards for illegal contact, 10 yards for defensive holding, and keeping the down the same (unless the penalty yardage results in a first down) would alleviate a lot of the complaints about all the flags.
4. Move the PAT back to the 10 yard line.
In 2014, NFL teams converted 99.3% of extra points and 47.5% of 2 point conversions. There’s an argument to be made that a strong offensive team would be statistically better off going for 2 after every touchdown.
The 2-point conversion should be a little harder than 2 measly yards. Teams only use it for situational scoring positioning (such as when a team is down 11 and scores a touchdown and tries the 2-point conversion to cut the deficit to a field goal). If it’s only a situational tool, it shouldn’t be as easy as a 47% success rate.
I propose moving the PAT line back 8 yards from the 2 to the 10. If 10 yards is an appropriate distance for a first down, it would work for the 2-point conversion. The extra point would be 27 yards, so the conversion rate would still be about 99%. The two point conversion rate would drop, however, and if the statistics fell in line with the probability of converting a 4th down and 10 yards to go (a reasonable estimate), it’d be sliced in half to 24%. Sign me up.
5. No ties.
Ties are stupid.
Sure, soccer has ties. Hockey should have ties instead of having a skills competition decide points in the standings. The NFL should not have ties.
Ties are necessary in soccer and hockey because those sports tend to be low-scoring and the injuries that would result from playing for an obscene amount of time would be harmful to the sport. Hockey players also lace up their skates 82 games a season (plus playoffs).
In the NFL, teams play 16 games. The rules against defensive contact have made it easier to score points than ever. There’s only a game or two every few years that actually results in a tie, and every time that happens it’s a black eye for the league.
Football is a sport that needs to crown a winner. There aren’t enough games in the season to simply say, “Oh, we’re out of time, we’ve got no commercial inventory left for CBS or Fox, so it’s a tie.’’
How do you fix the problem? Just shut the game clock off in overtime. The play clock would still apply, and the NFL could keep its new scoring rules in place, but the game doesn’t end until someone wins.
For a look at how NFL rules are made, click here.
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