NFL 2008 Rule Changes
The NFL made some rule changes for the upcoming season.
Most good, one bad.
The Good:
They got rid of the 5 yard incidental facemask penalty. Great idea. The problem with this penalty was it never affected the play. It only gave the offense some free yards.
The NFL will now review field goals and extra points to see if they really went through the uprights. Seems obvious. Why wouldn't they have done this anyway?
A snap from center that goes backwards is ruled a fumble now rather than a false start. This also seems obvious.
Now at the coin toss, a team can defer to the second half like college football. This is good because it adds a layer of strategy. Before, if you elected to kick off at the start of the game you also had to kick off at the start of the third quarter. Now you can elect to defer which means you get first choice at the start of the second half.
Defenders get helmet earphones now for play and signal transmissions. Let's call this the Patriots rule.
The Bad:
The force out rule. It used to be that when a receiver caught the ball near the sideline or back edge of the endzone, if, after being pushed, they would have come down inbounds, it was ruled a catch. The problem was there was too much interpretation by the refs.
Now if you don't have two feet in... you're out.
This is bad because this rule basically makes the field four feet smaller all the way around. I mean if Randy Moss is going up for a catch on my side of the field, all I have to do is start pushing him when he's up in the air and make sure one at least one of his feet comes down out of bounds. If he's not real open or planted on the ground, there aren't going to be any sideline catches. And forget the high fade in the endzone. That play is dead.
What rule should they have changed?
Holding calls should be more clearly defined. There needs to be some straight forward language on what is a hold and what isn’t. This gives the refs too much power.
The celebration rule. If it gets out of hand you have the delay of game rule to rely on. No need to specifically rule on celebrations. Joe Horn on the cell and TO with the Sharpie are classic now. This one's just a mistake.