NFL Competition Committee Proposes Rule Change In Response To Patriots’ ‘Trick’ Formations

Remember when the Patriots fooled and infuriated John Harbaugh and Baltimore Ravens with a variety of exotic formations during the 2015 NFL playoffs?

Hopefully you didn’t get too attached to any of those plays.

The NFL’s competition committee unveiled a proposed rule change that would outlaw the tactics used by the Patriots involving eligible and ineligible receivers. In a list of proposed rule changes obtained by ESPN, the competition committee outlined a suggested change that would make it illegal for any offensive player with an eligible number to report as ineligible and then line up outside the tackle box.

“It’s a substitution type of a trick type of a thing,” Harbaugh said of the Patriots’ tactics after his team’s loss in an AFC divisional playoff game, via The Sporting News. “So they don’t give you the opportunity, they don’t give you the chance to make the proper substitutions and things like that. It’s not something that anybody’s ever done before. The league will look at that type of thing and I’m sure that they’ll make some adjustments.”

The proposed rule change will be discussed at next week’s league meetings, which will take place in Arizona. If the rule change is enacted, teams will be penalized five yards for an illegal substitution should they fail to adhere.