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Committee proposes replay change

Associated Press

NEW YORK -- The NFL will look into changing instant replay rules in hopes of avoiding a repeat of the blown call by referee Ed Hochuli that helped cost San Diego a game last season.


The competition committee will propose at the league meetings next week that when the ball comes loose when a quarterback is throwing, replay can be used to determine if it is a fumble or an incomplete pass. Such a change would resemble the rules alteration made for down-by-contact plays two years ago.

In the final minute of a game at Denver in Week 2, Hochuli ruled a ball that slipped from Broncos quarterback Jay Cutler's grasp was an incomplete pass instead of a fumble. The ball was recovered by the Chargers and Hochuli later acknowledged his decision was wrong.

Under league rules, the play was not reviewable. The competition committee believes it is an area that should fall under instant replay reviews.

"We thought when we watched the plays happen, basically it happened the same as the down-by-contact, and it should be reviewable in the same context," Rich McKay, co-chairman of the committee, said Wednesday.

Hochuli's mistake could have cost the Chargers a playoff spot. The Broncos went on to win that September game with a touchdown and a 2-point conversion, and they built a three-game lead in the AFC West.

But San Diego rallied to win the division.

McKay said replay reviews for loose balls that are out of bounds when they are recovered also will be proposed.

The main rules emphasis will be on player safety at the meetings. The committee will suggest eliminating the bunch formation on onside kicks. During discussions with players and coaches, it became clear that bunching up players on such kicks "are creating matchups that we don't like," McKay admitted.

The committee also wants to eliminate the wedge of three men or more blocking on kick returns.

"Plenty of teams have done it with two-man wedges, some do it with no wedge at all," McKay said.

Any hits to the helmet of defenseless receivers also are being targeted for elimination. Previously, only helmet-to-helmet hits have been outlawed.

"One of things we really focused on this year was player safety rules to eliminate techniques such as helmet-to helmet hits," NFL vice president of operations Ray Anderson said. "What we certainly noticed toward the second half of the season in particular, our violations for helmet-to-helmet hits started to decline. Players were adapting their play..."

Helmet-to-helmet contact on blindside hits also would be eliminated or heavily penalized.

McKay said officials will be encouraged to continue making low hits on quarterbacks and horse-collar tackles points of emphasis.

Another proposal is to eliminate the re-kick of an onside kick when there is a violation by the kicking team, with the receiving team taking the ball where it was recovered.

A bylaw change to the order in which teams draft will be discussed by the 32 owners. The competition committee proposes the order remaining the same for non-playoff teams, based on record, with weakness of schedule serving as the tiebreaker. But for playoff teams, they would be seeded according to when they are knocked out in the postseason.

"A team can win a playoff game and yet get to pick [in the draft] before the team it beat," McKay said.

That situation will occur next month when the Colts, who lost to the Chargers in the playoffs, choose 27th, and San Diego goes 16th. Such a change would not apply to this year's draft.


Copyright 2009 by The Associated Press

Rooney not sold on rule change

By Scott Brown
TRIBUNE-REVIEW

Sunday, March 22, 2009



If the Steelers are going to support a rule that may rein in wide receiver Hines Ward, it will take some convincing from those in favor of it.

Ward broke the jaw of Keith Rivers last October with a crack-back block that flattened the Cincinnati Bengals' linebacker and ended his season. Such a play could become illegal if 24 of the 32 owners vote for the change that was recommended by the NFL's competition committee and would make helmet-to-helmet contact on blindside blocks a penalty.

The owners meetings start today in Dana Point, Calif., and run through Wednesday.

"As we stand here today, we say it's a good football play," Steelers president Art Rooney II said of Ward's block. "Too bad the guy got hurt, but it's a good football play. It's been in the game forever. We want to see how they present it."

Rich McKay, a co-chair of the competition committee, said the proposed change came about after numerous plays, including Ward's block on Rivers, were reviewed. Ward was not penalized for the block, and Ray Anderson, the NFL's executive vice president of field operations, said the play was "perfectly legal" under the current rules.

Even after the NFL extensively looked at the play, there was not agreement on whether Ward, a fierce downfield blocker, had led with his body or his head when he hit Rivers.

"Some of our guys may have seen helmet-to-helmet (contact)," Anderson said, referring to his officials, "some may have seen shoulder-to-helmet."

One issue the Steelers have with the new rule is it would make it too much of a judgment call for referees.

"In general, you want to see player safety, but when it comes down to, how are they going to officiate these individual plays, it does make us nervous," Rooney said. "The helmet-to-helmet contact thing, that's usually not that difficult to officiate that, you can see that. But not when you start to say it's a blindside block, what does that mean? So you start to get into these things, how are they going to officiate it? We're not really for a real dramatic change on those kinds of things."

One change Rooney supports that won't go before the owners for a vote involves overtime.

"We'd like to see each team get one possession," Rooney said, "not make it anything that has to be a dramatic change, but really just have each team get one possession before we have to get into our sudden-death situation."

McKay and Anderson said there was a strong sentiment, especially among players that were surveyed, to stick with the current sudden-death format.

Rooney, however, said the fact that Super Bowl XLIII almost went into overtime — Santonio Holmes' 6-yard touchdown catch with less than a minute to play propelled the Steelers past the Arizona Cardinals — reinforced his belief that both teams should get one possession if there is a tie at the end of regulation.

"If we don't score the touchdown and kick the field goal and go into overtime, maybe you kick off to them and they hit one pass to Larry Fitzgerald and kick a field goal, it's over," Rooney II said. "To me it shouldn't be that way. We should at least get one shot at it, particularly in a game like that."

Scott Brown can be reached at sbrown@tribweb.com or 412-481-5432.

Rather interesting that the only 2 Browns "untouchables" are reported to be Joe Thomas and D'Qwell Jackson.

http://www.cleveland.com/browns/index.ssf/2009/03/nfl_meetings_offer_cleveland_b.html

NFL meetings offer Cleveland Browns' new regime another chance to ponder roster changes
by Tony Grossi/Plain Dealer Reporter
Sunday March 22, 2009, 10:44 PM

DANA POINT, Calif. -- If the Browns intend to pursue further roster upheaval, then seeds of potential trades will be planted here this week at the annual NFL owners meetings.
Because of a confluence of a couple situations, seldom in recent memory has the NFL landscape been so rife with trade conversation and rumor.

One factor is the uncertainty of the current league labor agreement. With one year remaining before the league system changes drastically, teams are more apt to move players and contracts they ordinarily wouldn't consider.

Another factor is the shakeup in coaches and front offices. More than 33 percent of the NFL teams -- 11 of 32 -- have new coaches or general managers in place since this time a year ago.

New men in charge always result in a higher than normal rate of player movement. That's been the case already in Cleveland, Detroit, Kansas City, Denver, and elsewhere.


The Browns have been the subject of several publicized trade rumors. Some may be sloughed off as Internet chatter. But there is a prevalent perception within the league that the Browns' management team of coach Eric Mangini and General Manager George Kokinis is intent on making more moves beyond the trade of Kellen Winslow to Tampa Bay.

Sources have said the Browns are willing to part with any player except left tackle Joe Thomas and linebacker D'Qwell Jackson. They also would like to move down from the No. 5 spot in the draft.

The names of Brady Quinn, Derek Anderson, Braylon Edwards and Shaun Rogers have surfaced in trade rumors. The Browns haven't addressed the rumors -- they won't even confirm visits from free agents -- but Mangini and Kokinis consistently have said they would consider anything to improve the team.

Where there's smoke, there's fire.

On league issues, owners will discuss, but may not act, on the following:

Overtime: Commissioner Roger Goodell said at the Super Bowl that changes in the league's unique sudden death overtime rules would be considered. The league competition committee reviewed potential changes and decided not to change a thing.

The first team to score in overtime wins in the NFL system. In 2008, teams that won the coin toss beginning overtime won the game 63.3 percent of the time, and 43.4 percent of the time they won on the first possession. Since the advent of overtime in 1974, those figures were 53.7 and 30.1, respectively.

Critics say the coin toss has become too important because kickers have become stronger and more accurate. They want a system that gives both teams at least one possession.

The Pittsburgh Steelers are in favor of the latter change. They very well could have forced the first overtime in Super Bowl history had not Santonio Holmes made an acrobatic catch with 35 seconds left to beat Arizona on Feb. 1.

But Rich McKay, co-chair of the rules committee, and Ray Anderson, executive vice president of football operations, said team officials and players are in favor of keeping the current system. Players like the excitement and not exposing themselves to more playing time over the course of 20 or more games in a season.

"I was a little surprised that they were as strong about it as they are," said Anderson, the NFL executive vice president of football development. "But the stats are of a concern. But right now we just had no consensus whatsoever."

Player safety: Most of the major proposed rule changes involve player safety.

One would disallow the so-called "bunch formation" on kickoffs, where a group of players band together in the middle of kickoff return team to pulverize oncoming tacklers. Another would forbid a blocking "wedge" of more than two players on kickoffs. The league feels these techniques increasingly have caused a lot of injuries.

Another proposal would prohibit helmet-to-helmet contact on a blindside block by an offensive player on a defensive player. Pittsburgh receiver Hines Ward has a few of those hits on his ledger.

The league also wants to expand its crackdown on hitting a defenseless receiver in the air. Helmet-to-helmet hits were eliminated in 1995. The new rule would forbid any hits to the head with the shoulder or forearm while the receiver is in the air.

Expanded schedule: An increase in the regular season from the current 16 games to 17 or 18 is inevitable, but any changes are tied to ongoing labor negotiations and can't be enacted until that mess is resolved.

The rules committee has worked on two plans. According to a league source, there will be no transition from 17 games to 18. It will either be a permanent move to 17 regular games and three exhibitions or 18 regular and two exhibitions.

If it's 17 games, AFC teams would have nine home games one year and NFC teams would have nine in alternate years. Preseason home games would be alternated within in a division formula; e.g., Cleveland and Pittsburgh each hosting two one season, and one the next. If the league expands to 18 games, each team would have two bye weeks, not one.

Both plans would also be tied to the creation of some sort of feeder development program involving players and game officials.

Draft order reseeding: Under a bylaw proposal, the league draft order would be reseeded so that all playoff teams draft last.

Currently, only the Super Bowl teams are reseeded to draft 31st and 32nd. The rest of the order is based solely on regular-season record.

Under the new format, the top 20 draft spots would be seeded on the records of the non-playoff teams. Spots 21 through 32 would be reserved for the playoff teams and would be seeded according to how they go out in the playoff rounds. This would take effect for the 2010 draft.

these next 33 days are going to be very interesting.. so many rumors... no reports from Mangini and Koki.. It's crazy...

Don't know what team is going to man the field this year.... But i have a feeling that a lot of our "stars" won't be here...

webbage

More stuff from the meetings area..

Sweeping changes

Owners might consider moving NFL draft to late February

By Mike Holbrook
March 22, 2009

Indications are strong that the annual NFL owners meeting to be held March 22-25 in Dana Point, Calif., could be one of the most compelling gatherings in many years.

And the country’s economic woes appear to be a big reason why.

Not only will the owners be hearing from the NFL’s Competition Committee on a number of rules changes to impact games during the season, but whispers are growing louder that the league may be ready to consider making dramatic changes to the offseason schedule, including changing the dates for the postseason all-star games, the Scouting Combine, the draft and veteran free agency.

Multiple inside sources throughout the league have told PFW that the economic climate, coupled with the uncertainty of the next Collective Bargaining Agreement with the players in addition to the potential for an uncapped year in 2010 and a potential lockout in ’11, have made cost-cutting measures a top priority.

The decision by commissioner Roger Goodell to take a 20 percent pay cut in annual salary and to eliminate 169 league jobs back in February might have been the prelude to bigger and bolder budgetary decisions, though nothing has been decided yet.

For instance, the draft has been held in late April or early May since 1977. However, there are a number of movers and shakers in the league who believe that veteran free agency should follow the draft, and with the CBA still to be agreed upon for the next contract, this issue could be a bargaining chip for owners.

Those same league insiders would like to see the draft moved to late February, with free agency to commence following rookie minicamps, most likely in mid-to-late March.

"They need to get the draft put ahead of free agency," one veteran talent evaluator told PFW.

If the draft were to be held two months earlier, it obviously would compress the time allowed to evaluate talent. All-star games for college seniors would be affected, as would the Scouting Combine.

The Senior Bowl, the most popular all-star game for player evaluation in the league and a traditional gathering spot for NFL coaches, GMs and scouts in the week before the Super Bowl, has been held in Mobile, Ala., for years. However, Senior Bowl organizers are looking for an NFL venue to move their event to and have given Tampa, Fla., exclusive negotiating rights to become the long-term home of the game.

The East-West Shrine Game, an all-star bowl game for college seniors that began in 1925 and spent 80 years in the San Francisco area before moving to Texas in 2006, is also seriously considering moving to Tampa.

By having both big senior showcases in the same city, the games could work in unison to attract the best talent and give prospects an opportunity to practice for two weeks in front of NFL decision makers, plus play games on back-to-back weekends.

The Combine would be held in early February following the Super Bowl. With little time for players to work out on their own and hold pro days at their school, the Combine would become even more important for prospects to show NFL scouts what they can do. It wouldn’t be a surprise if the number of invitees to the Combine was increased to accommodate more prospects.

The biggest upside for the league and its 32 teams in combining the Senior Bowl and East-West Shrine Game in the same city along with an expanded Combine is tremendous travel savings. Expenses have grown exponentially over the years, with teams sending scouts across the country from all-star game to all-star game and from pro day to pro day. By making travel more efficient for scouts and personnel men, the league believes each team could save millions of dollars.

One other key factor in holding the draft earlier is that it is likely to limit the amount of input from the head coach and his assistants. It will force teams to rely more on their scouting staffs and personnel departments. The earlier draft will reward well-organized and talented scouting departments and expose less-talented, less-informed scouts.

With the league streamlining the draft in recent years and moving in the direction of making the first two rounds a prime-time event, the timing of a late-February draft would be excellent in terms of taking place during one of TV’s key sweeps months. It also would be at a relatively dead time in the sports calendar — before college basketball’s March Madness or baseball’s spring training and well before the NBA or NHL playoffs begin.

The earlier draft would allow teams to select for need with younger players first, then see what they’ve got in minicamps before deciding whom to pursue in free agency. The system currently encourages teams to fill roster needs with veteran free agents before the draft.

Pro days won’t go away. In fact, less-heralded draft-eligible players who aren’t drafted could still hold pro days to showcase their skills when working out with juniors who are being evaluated in anticipation of the following year’s draft. As a result, teams would be encouraged to start collecting information for the next draft as soon as possible and have their scouting departments be prepared to hit the ground running in the fall.

Finally, pushing up the draft would naturally create a lengthy break from league business — allowing for ample downtime in May and June — something that many league insiders believe is desperately needed to prevent burnout and the feeling of being on a treadmill that they can’t get off.

"Some way, somehow, the NFL needs to find a way to give the league more of a break," a top executive told PFW. "It's like a treadmill that keeps getting faster and faster. They need to have a bigger window between the draft and free agency, regardless of which one comes first."

I like the offseason schedule as is...

The draft is in the perfect spot.. It's in between the super bowl and training camp... Kind of makes football a year long sport for the die hard fans..

NFL owners meetings notebook: Draft date change not on the agenda

BY HOWARD BALZER • Special to the Green Bay Press-Gazette • March 22, 2009



DANA POINT, Calif. — If there is a movement afoot to shift the NFL draft from late April to late February, it’s news to Atlanta Falcons club president Rich McKay, co-chair of the league’s competition committee.

Asked about a report by Pro Football Weekly that such a change is being contemplated, McKay told The Sports Xchange: “We’ve never discussed it. We’ve discussed the offseason calendar a lot, but there has been no discussion of moving the draft up.

“We had that discussion eight years ago, but I don’t think we’ve had it since then. We’ve discussed the calendar, but that wasn’t any of the things we discussed.”

Said St. Louis Rams General Manager Billy Devaney: “This is the first I’ve heard of anything like that.”

McKay’s reference to the offseason calendar is related to ongoing discussion within the league concerning how things would be affected should the league decide to increase the regular-season schedule to 17 or 18 games. More talk about that topic will take place at the meetings this week, but McKay reiterated there has been no talk of moving up the draft.

The draft was moved from February to early May in 1977 and subsequently to April when a new system of draft-choice compensation was implemented for free agency. That enabled teams to receive selections in that year’s draft if a free agent was lost. A similar system is in place for restricted free agents and franchise players. Moving the draft earlier would eliminate that ability to be compensated with draft choices in the same year, and would be considered just one impediment to making such a major change.

An earlier draft, which means the scouting combine would have to be held earlier, would also create added stress on teams in the playoffs, especially those in the Super Bowl. In addition, the number of coaching changes in January, even for teams that don’t change head coaches, would affect the focus on scouting and preparing for the combine and draft.

This year’s seven-round draft is scheduled for April 25-26. It has been seven rounds since 1994. The draft was changed from 17 rounds to 12 in 1978 and to eight rounds for one year in 1993.
Speaking of the draft

One item on the agenda for the league meeting is a proposal to change the draft order to reflect the results in the playoffs.

In the proposal, all nonplayoff teams would select from 1-20, with the remaining 12 spots decided by when the teams exit the postseason. Currently, the only choices affected by the postseason are the two Super Bowl teams, which select 31st and 32nd.

In this year’s draft, San Diego, which finished with an 8-8 record but won its division, is picking 16th. If the proposed system were in place this year, the Chargers would be picking 25th because they won one playoff game. Philadelphia would be at 29 instead of 21 after winning two playoff games.

As for the postseason, Jacksonville proposed a change in playoff seeding for the opening round. Teams would be seeded by record, so a division winner such as San Diego would not be guaranteed a home game. Last season, the 8-8 Chargers hosted the 12-4 Colts in a first-round game. That also occurred in the NFC, where the 9-7 Cardinals were home against the 11-5 Falcons.

Other rules being considered with the emphasis on player safety would eliminate wedges on kickoff returns of more than two players; eliminate “bunch” formations on kickoffs; penalize any helmet-to-helmet hits from the blind side of players coming back to a play; and protect defenseless receivers from being hit initially with forearms or elbows.

At N.F.L. Meeting, Money Issues Hover


By JUDY BATTISTA NY Times
Published: March 23, 2009

DANA POINT, Calif. — When the N.F.L. holds its annual meeting of owners, general managers and coaches each spring, it resembles little more than a very large — and very luxurious — water-cooler conversation. There is plenty of gossip and company business. And this year, as in almost every other workplace, a lot of fretting about the economy.

This year’s meeting opens Monday, and money will be the common thread in many of the sessions, particularly among the 32 team owners.

¶How much is the league making, and how much will revenue diminish if the economy continues its slide?

¶How much will the players union, with DeMaurice Smith as its new executive director, want when negotiations open soon for a new collective bargaining agreement?

¶And how much is at stake if the owners lock out players when the current deal expires in two years, as many agents and players suspect owners are already preparing to do?

The discussion will include consideration of expanding the regular season to 17 or 18 games, one method to increase revenue that would have to be negotiated with players as part of the new labor deal. (There will not be a vote, though.)

But that is for the long-range thinkers. For everyone else, this meeting will focus on rules adjustments — relatively minor ones — many of them designed to enhance player safety. They include the elimination of the bunch formation on onside kicks and the wedge formation using three or more players on kickoff returns, in an attempt to reduce the risk of injuries. Hits to the helmet of a defenseless receiver made with a forearm or shoulder could also be prohibited, adding to the helmet-to-helmet ban that the N.F.L. cracked down on last year. And officials will be told to make horse-collar tackles and low hits on quarterbacks a point of emphasis.

Also part of the discussion is whether to be able to review a play in which a quarterback drops the ball in the act of throwing. The competition committee wants to allow referees to use replay to determine if it is a fumble or an incomplete pass, a call Referee Ed Hochuli got wrong in Week 2 last season, almost certainly costing the San Diego Chargers a victory.

If the teams approve the change, the play would be reviewable, just as the down-by-contact decision became reviewable two years ago.

“We’ve had some high-profile plays this year,” said Rich McKay, the competition committee co-chairman. “We think we would propose that would be reviewable and think that is a play in which people play right through the fumble recovery, so we would like to treat it like down by contact.”

The Chargers are also at the center of a potential change to the draft order. It would mean that playoff teams would pick according to when they were eliminated from the postseason. In the 2009 draft, the Chargers, with a worse record, will draft ahead of the Indianapolis Colts, whom they defeated in the first round. The change would not take place until the 2010 draft.

Perhaps the biggest rules conversation will be about one that will not be changed. Overtime — the bane of Donovan McNabb’s existence — will remain the same after a survey of players showed strong support for the current sudden-death format, even though the team that won the overtime coin toss won the game 63.3 percent of the time, 43.4 percent of the time on the first possession. Those figures are so lopsided that fans and members of the news media discussed changes during the 2008 season, and even McKay and Ray Anderson, the N.F.L.’s executive vice president for football operations, called them troubling. Players, though, had a different view.

“Myself, I was a little surprised at how adamant the players were about not wanting to change the current overtime system and agreeing with Rich’s assessment that they say, Look, the excitement is there, everyone has got an opportunity to win this thing in regulation,” Anderson said. “They were pretty adamant that extended play time, when you’re playing 20 games, exposes you to injury risk, and they’d just as soon say, Let’s battle it out during regulation, and if you can’t win it in regulation, you take your chances in overtime.”

EXTRA POINTS

New England Coach Bill Belichick was the dominant figure at last year’s meetings, answering questions for the first time about the Patriots’ illicit videotaping follies and even explaining himself to owners and coaches behind closed doors. This year, Belichick is not expected at the meetings at all, staying behind to work on draft preparation. With Belichick absent, the most in-demand coach will probably be Denver’s Josh McDaniels, who left Belichick’s staff to take over the Broncos and promptly angered quarterback Jay Cutler by entertaining trade offers for him because McDaniels hoped to acquire Matt Cassel. The N.F.L. meetings rarely produce big trades the way baseball’s winter meetings do, but the Cutler standoff will keep McDaniels’s table full when coaches meet with reporters this week.

I have a real problem with moving the draft up to February.. Take the case of the Browns for instance..

We hired Mangini pretty quick at the end of the season, but with building his staff and reviewing our own FA's and the FA's that are about to hit the market, that's a hell of a lot of work.

Rush the Draft into that schedule and you are pretty much making it impossible I would think.

But now look back at when we hired Romeo or even Chris Palmer, we had to wait for the playoffs to end for Palmer and we had to wait until after the Superbowl for RAC..

THat gives the new HC virtually no time to build a staff and start things moving.

I don't like moving the Draft up.. not one bit. as for FA signing after the draft, I actually think that's better for the FA's. What a team doesn't get in the draft, they gotta go out and get in Free Agency and it could spark higher numbers for some players... Which begs the question, why would the league do that?

yeah the move up of the draft is a stupid idea and I see they have dropped it from their agenda.

Any team making a GM/HC change would be grossly at a disadvantage. What would they do...let the Lame duck people stay on an conduct the draft and then fire them like that will produce the best results.

Ytown...2 untouchables...I would have made the same choice.
But all that means is that we are going to "LISTEN" to offers - I don't think there is a player that we are "SHOPPING". If somebody ends up offering us something Silly we would jump on it.

JMHO...but if I had to pick two or who...those would be them. I mean obviously there are a whole lot we want on this team and like. But those are two that fit the character...the smarts...the will to get better...the youth and the talent!

I could see moving it up to mid-late March, but not February, that would be too quick.

I think it should be moved up to April 1st. Just seems to appropriate with some of our picks to not move it.

What the ......? Wow ... Break out the skirts for the QBs .......

A defender who is knocked to the ground can no longer ......defend? I understnad trying to keep players as safe as possible ..... but if I'm an O Coordinator, I'm having my guys chop everyone rushing the passer because once they're on the ground, they're now unable to do their jobs.

http://www.cbssports.com/nfl/story/11543343

Brady rule? Owners pass four player safety rules.

DANA POINT, Calif. -- NFL owners passed four player safety rules for next season on Tuesday and adjusted the calls on the kind of tackle that injured Patriots quarterback Tom Brady in the 2008 opener.

Defenders who are knocked to the ground no longer can lunge into quarterbacks if the play is still going on. Kansas City safety Bernard Pollard did just that on the hit that ended Brady's season almost before it began, and NFL officiating director Mike Pereira placed such plays in the player safety category.

"We're trying to make the game safer for the guy getting hit and the guy doing the hitting," said Pereira, who plans to retire this year.

That adjustment was not a rule change and did not require an owners vote. But four other rules were adopted by the 32 teams:

• The initial force of a blindside block can't be delivered by a helmet, forearm or shoulder to an opponent's head or neck. An illegal blindside block will bring a 15-yard penalty.

• Initial contact to the head of a defenseless receiver also will draw a 15-yard penalty.

"Our clear movement is to getting out of the striking in the head area," Pereira said. "We're reading about injuries that say spinal and vertebrae. We've got to try something."

• On kickoffs, no blocking wedge of more than two players will be allowed.

• Also on kickoffs, the kicking team can't have more than five players bunched together pursuing an onside kick.

Pereira, commissioner Roger Goodell and the two heads of the competition committee -- Atlanta Falcons president Rich McKay and Tennessee Titans coach Jeff Fisher -- repeatedly have emphasized that the players themselves sought many of these alterations.

"There were no changes in the injury numbers, but when it comes to player safety, we try to stay proactive," McKay said.

Players also tend to police themselves once the league starts fining or suspending them for illegal hits. Last season, there were two suspensions (Jets safety Eric Smith for hitting Arizona receiver Anquan Boldin, and Tampa Bay cornerback Elbert Mack for a tackle of Falcons quarterback Matt Ryan) and a $25,000 fine (Cardinals safety Adrian Wilson for a hit on Buffalo quarterback Trent Edwards) in the first five weeks of the schedule.

After that? None.

Quote:

---

Pereira, commissioner Roger Goodell and the two heads of the competition committee -- Atlanta Falcons president Rich McKay and Tennessee Titans coach Jeff Fisher -- repeatedly have emphasized that the players themselves sought many of these alterations.

---

These folks don't even want their names associated with the changes and rules they were seeking. Trying to lay this "stuff" off on the players is such a bunch of bull...a cop out by the owners and management for ridiculous demands they are attempting to place on the players.

Why don't the owners and NFL management just say, "don't hurt my players"?

IMO, they are going too far with this "don't hurt my player" agenda. They are over-regulating the game.

Here's an idea...don't like the head injuries caused by helmet to helmet contact?....change the material you make the helmets out of.

We still make helmets with a rock hard material that does not absorb the impact. Try making helmets with a softer outer shell or place a shock absorbing material under the hard outer shell...jmho

The new rule is a defender can't tackle a qn below the knees if the defender is on the ground.

http://www.boston.com/sports/football/pa...tect_qbs_knees/


Seems like another wussification of the NFL if you ask me.

Why not put a flag on the QB's belt? No touching the oh-so-fragile quarterback. Issue solved.

Wussy rule in my book.

Although maybe we don't need to look for a pass rusher anymore. Because offenses will exploit this.

They should just remove the QB from the game and put a ball machine there, take away the oline and dlines, and just have WRs and DBs go out on routes. but no bump and runs, no contact before the ball is caught and tucked away, and no "tackling", you have to grab the ball carrier and stop his momentum while keeping him upright.

While I'd rather them not put this rule in, I think it's going to help teams keep their QB of the IR. Let's face it, the rule is weak and lame....until it happens to your favorite QB during a winning season.

I saw the Tom Brady injury a little different. The defender did get blocked to the ground....but he did lunge from the ground into Tom's knee that was planted while throwing. With all the weight and pressure on that leg, the knee had to go in another direction to absorb that energy......and SNAP went his knee. While not "dirty" it's a dangerous play. The QB is very vulnerable below the waste in that situation and I think it's good to protect them. Come on, this is a QB driven league.

The NFL has enacted rules to prevent chop-blocking, hits on defenseless WR's, hitting the long snapper after a snap, horse collaring, grabbing the face mask and most helmet-to-helmet collisions....and all of those people are ok with but when they try protecting the QB then the rule is "wussy" and people have to start up with the "put a skirt on them" comments. Why aren't O/D-linemen wearing skirts to protect them from head slaps and getting their knees broken by illegal blocks? It seems a little hypocritical to me.

It will be so much more fun watching a 300+ lb DL pick himself up off the ground before he can hit a QB. I guess a palmer in cincy wasn't good enough to get a rule.

BS

I've always looked at football as a violent sport. Maybe I need to change my outlook.

Looking back at all the injuries that have ever happened in football, is this really the one we want to worry about? Think about how many times an OL is hurt because someone rolls up on his leg. Should we eliminate people getting pushed around because he might fall on someone?

Think about how often guys get hurt when there is a completely legal hit over the middle. Should we make it illegal to send guys over the middle? Or should we make it illegal to hit the guy? You have to let him catch it, take a couple steps, get his bearings, and then gently tackle him?

I don't want anyone to get hurt. But for God's sake, football is a violent game. Protect people from the really cheap stuff like blindside hits in the back and stuff, or intentional head-to-head, but don't take away one of the very reasons I love to watch football: to see guys get creamed.

JMHO

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Think about how many times an OL is hurt because someone rolls up on his leg.

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This is clearly because the lazy and dirty playing defensive players refuse to just go around the offensive guys. The offensive guys shouldn't have to make contact in order to block them, the defenders should just respect the offensive players personal space and stay out of it. It's only polite.

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how often guys get hurt when there is a completely legal hit over the middle.

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Again with this hitting and violating of personal space thing... are we savages?!?

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You have to let him catch it, take a couple steps, get his bearings, and then gently tackle him?

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I would suggest that you could also calmy ask the offensive player to surrender first! There is just no reason to be jumping so quickly to the violent solution!

....If the rule is to ensure that a defender who is on the ground is penalized for taking a shot at the QB's knees , than I think it is a Good rule....

Maybe also what they should do is have the QBs be decked out in some sort of material that when you touch it, the color comes off on your hand. So, then we know if anyone ever touches the QB and can fine and imprison them accordingly.

That's a good idea... and they should color it all pink, to umm, ensure that it is readily noticeable - that it didn't come from a real, I mean, regular player's uniform.

I would kick him in the junk if it meant one more sack and a 3 n out....

dumb rule

Bad. If you're on the field, expect to get hit. If they are going to keep making rules to prevent the QB from getting hurt, then they should lower their salaries accordingly.

From the article:

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"It's not good for the league. What makes it special is special players. It's like going to see a great movie and the star isn't in the movie. It's the same principle."

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This shows right here it's all about money. If this happened to a no name qb, we wouldn't have this rule.

J/C...

All I'm reading is "boohoo...this is a man's game" and "now the QB can't be touched" type of posts. I don't see the rule wussifying the game at all. Like I mentioned in my previous post, is it "wussy" to protect a defenseless WR from a helmet-to-helmet hit, protect a D-linemen from getting his legs taken out while being blocked high at the same time, having a guy yank a person's head 180 degrees by the face mask, an O-linemen from getting his head slapped by a D-linemen or preventing a RB from being horse-collared? If the Brady Rule is wussy for protecting the QB....then all those other rules are "wussy" too. For the most part, people agree with those other rules to prevent injures. So why do most people start complaining about sissy QB's when rules are created for them?

The rule says nothing about not being to touched, tackle, hit, chased or placing a skirt on the QB. It's goal it to prevent a defensive player from lunging his shoulder into a QB's knee and bending it backwards. I'm not sure what's "sissy" about that.

Ok, maybe we'll see a few times where a defensive player swipes his arm at a QB while on the ground and it barely hits the QB's shin...and a flag is thrown (most likely it will be against the Browns playing Pittsburgh). If that happens then the rule needs to be changed. Until that time, the NFL is trying to a position player from injury. And it makes "sense" for them to do so. The QB is the most important player on the field and the most important personality to sell on TV. Like it or not, it's the way the NFL is built. So I don't see why it's wrong to have a few extra rules designed to protect the QB (and it's not like there aren't rules for every other player too - not as many of course).

I think the "Contact with the QB's Helmet" rule is decent rule (notice I didn't say good or great)....but the refs call it wrong far too often. If a defensive player comes by and intentionally whacks the QB in the side of the head with full force...sure, throw the flag. If someone if going to tip a thrown pass and grazes the helmet or face, swallow the whistle. It's too bad the ref's don't have a 5-yard Running into the QB and 15-yard Roughing the QB option.

Yes, but like I said, wait until Shaun Rogers bumps Big Ben's ankle with his ring finger on a 3rd and 20 where Ben eventually throws an incompletion. This is what Shaun will see while looking up from the ground....



Meaning, some ref's won't call the penatly correctly and it will cause a big stink. But with that being said, I think it's a decent rule.

It's not a good rule. The typical DL, which is usually a 300+ lb monster is usually battling a typical OL, also a 300+ lb monster, to get to the QB. Their job is simple; get to the QB. They don't consider the fact that they are on the ground, or on their feet, or flying through the air. Should they also make diving LBs illegal due to LT's hit on Theisman? As I recall from playing, you didn't care how you got there, as long as you got there. I punched, crawled, got stepped on, stepped on, kicked, rolled, grabbed, and got crushed chasing QBs. I didn't care as long as I got there. I assume that most DL share that same sentiment. I'm also sure very few of them try to take out a QB's knees. They just want him on the ground.

To answer your question Punch, at least from my perspective, QBs are already the unquestioned head of the team. They are paid more than any other position, and they have the least amount of risk. There are more rules in place now to protect the QB than any other position.

Hit a QB in a hard way and you will more than likely receive a flag as well as a fine. And if there isn't a rule against the way you hit the QB, they will make one. There are very few hard nosed QBs anymore because they don't have to be. The NFL has pretty much neutered the defenses ability to really rattle a QB.

How many times have to you seen a flag because the QB got shoved a split second after he releases the ball? I see it as another way to make the QBs more untouchable. And yes, I'm using hyperbole here, but it's not too far of a stretch to see QB's eventually wearing the same red jerseys that they do in training camp where they won't be allowed to be touched at all.

If Brady was such a good QB and saw the guy at his feet why did he step into the guy like that? Carson Palmer's seemed more like a cheap shot but that is because it was the Steelers. I did see Von Ohoffen motion to the sidelines like oh crap this guy is hurt. so i'll let that pass.

If they pass this rule can they make one that says a QB can't run past the line of scrimmage or something. Because that makes about as much sense. People are NOT trying to take out other teams QBs. If they were you would see way more cheapshots. Laying a good clean hit on someone is one thing but if you spear anyones knee you know if it is cheap or not. Look at McGahee against OSU. people get hurt. It is football.

Good point on Willis,...I still say to this day it might have cost the 'Canes that game. Glad he was out, but not glad he got hurt.