If You Were Ruler of the Football Rule Book, Which Rules Would You Change

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Please correct me if my understanding of present rules are incorrect- Allow extra time between plays if the play gains more than 30 yards and does not end in a TD. It seems easy to get a delay penalty in such situations.
 

Great thread! My radical rule change: Get rid of the holding call on offensive lineman. Make the lineman wear mitts. Allow them to clutch and grab/wrap with their arms all they want. The defense will have their hands to move the lineman out of their way. May the best man win. Holding occurs now on EVERY play, and is the most randomly called penalty in football. It often seems like they choose to call it when the best play was just run by the offense. It ruins games. The NFL rulebook is WAY too thick. Half of the rules should be eliminated to allow for a more fluid game. The refs have far to great of an influence.


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Ski U Master said:
This is a terrible rule that the NFL should change to be like college.
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For NFL
I'd be happy with a 15 yard penalty or half the distance on the deep balls.
Line of scrimmage is the 50.
Interference occurs at the 10.
Give the ball to them at the 30.

For as ticky-tack as NFL PI calls are getting, it's too much to have a questionable call, then have it be a 45 yard penalty.

I guess you could still have a "Intentional Pass Interference" for if the player tackles the guy, but you get the idea.
 

Bordergopher said:
Great thread! My radical rule change: Get rid of the holding call on offensive lineman. Make the lineman wear mitts. Allow them to clutch and grab/wrap with their arms all they want. The defense will have their hands to move the lineman out of their way. May the best man win. Holding occurs now on EVERY play, and is the most randomly called penalty in football. It often seems like they choose to call it when the best play was just run by the offense. It ruins games. The NFL rulebook is WAY too thick. Half of the rules should be eliminated to allow for a more fluid game. The refs have far to great of an influence.


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Have them all wear something like soccer goalie gloves. They can grab, but not good enough where the defender can't pull loose.
 



GophersInIowa said:
I'm also glad college does not adopt the spot of the foul rule for pass interference. I hate in the NFL that a very questionable PI call can be a 50 yard penalty.
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Agree, hate the NFL rule on PI
 

If they wore mitts or the offensive holding rules were (strictly and consistently) enforced as written how likely is it that scoring would grind to a near-halt? 0-0 or 3-0, 6-3 type games might become the norm and the Wisconsin-style play action pass would never have time to develop, their hold em and tackle em run game would be DOA. For those of us that love defense that might be the cat’s pajamas...interesting to think about changes it would necessarily bring to an offense.
 

Two feet in-bounds for a catch. And no clock stoppages for first downs.
 




Pete smith said:
Eliminate the guessing on where to spot the ball. Spot the ball where it is located when the whistle blows to stop the play. Don't guess, place it where the ball carrier is located when the whistle stops the play. QB sliding is one example that the ball is not spotted any where near when the whistle stops the play. Biggest guess work in the game. When the QB is touched, spot the ball at that point, not 3 yards back. The biggest disappointment to a defensive tackle is to sack the QB 5 yards deep to have the official spot the ball 3 yards deep because thst's where the QB was first touched. Spot the ball at the point where the whistle stopped the play.
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You know that in college the player is down without contact, right? Kind of throws your entire argument out the window.
 

GophersInIowa said:
I hate anything that is an automatic first down unless it is a personal foul. The worst is in the NFL with the 5 yard illegal contact rule. It gives the offense an automatic first down for something that usually can be called just about every pass play.

I'm also glad college does not adopt the spot of the foul rule for pass interference. I hate in the NFL that a very questionable PI call can be a 50 yard penalty.
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I have mixed feelings on that. I hate in college that if you're out of position and going to get burned that you can just tackle a guy and the worst case is 15 yards. A classic example would have been Sunday's Vikings game. The Saints defender would have had no reason to duck his head to avoid PI (my assumption as to why he "whiffed" - he definitely didn't time it well and would have made contact early). With college rules, if he interferes the Vikings get the ball at the 50 (or so) with 5 seconds left, no opportunity for a field goal and counting on a Hail Mary to win. With the NFL rule, Vikings at worst would have gotten the ball on the Saints 35 (or so) and at least had a chance at a long field goal.

Like someone else mentioned, it could be two types - incidental and obvious, but that seems like it'd be worse because it wouldn't be consistently called.
 

In the NFL, when a team scores on the final play of the game, and the extra point can't affect the outcome, I'd allow the extra point to be waived if both teams agree. Or waive it automatically in the playoffs. In the regular season, points could affect tiebreakers.
 



Ski U Master said:
This is a terrible rule that the NFL should change to be like college.
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I'd rather see it be 20 yards for NFL for any PI over 20 yards. I think 15 isn't harsh enough.

Maybe tier it based on distance.
 

MaxyJR1 said:
I'd rather see it be 20 yards for NFL for any PI over 20 yards. I think 15 isn't harsh enough.

Maybe tier it based on distance.
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Why not add a rule that if the D commits a penalty in the last minute, then 10 seconds are added, just like when the Off does 10 seconds are run off.
 

GFBfan said:
Why not add a rule that if the D commits a penalty in the last minute, then 10 seconds are added, just like when the Off does 10 seconds are run off.
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I personally don't like the 10 second run off rule. But if it stays, this is a good counterpart to even things out.
 

The subjective nature for game-changing offensive holding and defensive pass interference calls hurts the game in my opinion. They are called way too inconsistently and (it seems like) often tilted towards home teams or "helmet school" teams. I would love to see coaches have the ability to challenge these penalties. I know it wouldn't help the lower college football divisions with no TV cameras, but I think it would add credibility to FBS games.
 

Panthadad2 said:
The subjective nature for game-changing offensive holding and defensive pass interference calls hurts the game in my opinion. They are called way too inconsistently and (it seems like) often tilted towards home teams or "helmet school" teams. I would love to see coaches have the ability to challenge these penalties. I know it wouldn't help the lower college football divisions with no TV cameras, but I think it would add credibility to FBS games.
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Often by the letter of the rule, they are holding. The question is whether it's egregious or has an affect on the play. That would be tough to rule with replay.

I think a better solution is that you can't grab an opponent. They didn't teach using your hands 25 years ago. That has been an evolution of the game. I wish I could have used today's technique 25 years ago.
 

GFBfan said:
Why not add a rule that if the D commits a penalty in the last minute, then 10 seconds are added, just like when the Off does 10 seconds are run off.
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Let's say the other team is in position to take the lead and score either with a field goal or TD.

The clock has 10 seconds left.

I'm on defense .... I want more time on the clock for my shot later. Couldn't I just commit a bunch of penalties if I assume the other team is likely to score?
 

A_Slab_of_Bacon said:
Let's say the other team is in position to take the lead and score either with a field goal or TD.

The clock has 10 seconds left.

I'm on defense .... I want more time on the clock for my shot later. Couldn't I just commit a bunch of penalties if I assume the other team is likely to score?
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There is that. Give the offense the option to add 10 or not. Should also be the option for defense to take the 10 off or not when O commits a penalty.


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