Thread: Rules the NFL should 'Tuck' away

Sitting in a dimly lit booth at a suburban Indianapolis steakhouse in mid-February, breaking bread and drinking wine with the co-chair of the NFL's competition committee, I gathered my courage and made my move.

"I hate the forceout rule," I said to Tennessee Titans coach Jeff Fisher. "It asks the officials to play God and determine what would have happened if a guy hadn't been pushed by a defensive back. You guys should get rid of that. Then if a DB pushes a receiver out before the guy can get his feet inbounds, it would be known as 'making a play.' "

Fisher, a former Chicago Bears safety, put down his fork and smiled.

"As a matter of fact," he said, "we talked about that at our meeting today."

On Wednesday, at the NFL owners meetings in Palm Beach, Fla., the forceout rule was scrapped by a unanimous vote. Now, with that longtime pet peeve taken care of, I'm here to answer the follow-up question you're all asking: The next time Fisher and I have dinner, what will I throw at him?


[size=11pt]Here are five more rule changes I'd like to see:

4. Rewriting the end-zone possession rules

I've always had a problem with this. I remember seeing Butch Johnson of the Cowboys catch a ball, roll into the end zone, and the ball ends up laying there on the ground...it was ruled a TD. Still can't see it after all these years.

I always thought the touchback rule was kind of stupid really.

Same with fair catching, get rid of that p*ssy stuff and force people to return it (with a 5 yard cushion) like they do in the CFL.

"ItalianStallion" wrote:

I always thought the touchback rule was kind of stupid really.

Same with fair catching, get rid of that p*ssy stuff and force people to return it (with a 5 yard cushion) like they do in the CFL.

is this the XFL?

"dcboardr41" wrote:

"ItalianStallion" wrote:

I always thought the touchback rule was kind of stupid really.

Same with fair catching, get rid of that p*ssy stuff and force people to return it (with a 5 yard cushion) like they do in the CFL.

is this the XFL?

having the fair catch is better than a five yard cushion imo... its your special teams job to give your return man position to make a return.
If the opposing special teams has a better coverage unit or a good kick and force you into a fair catch, good.
Why should they change the rule to make people return it for extra yards, when field position is so important.
If they pin you in, you don't deserve a cushion to return it

no, its quite simple.
A punt returner is given a 5 yard cushion to catch the ball.
Any defender who breakes a 5 yard radius of the player while he's catching will get flagged.
That way every punt is returned.
HOwever, this takes away the ability for the kicking team to down the ball, as in order to down the ball, they would need to be within 5 yards of the ball.

THey do this in the CFL, as well as Canadian HS and University ball.

Another rule they have is making a touchback worth a point, therefore makings sure kicks and punts that land in the endzone get returned, and if the returner gets at least to the 1, the ball is spotted at the 20, like a touchback.

"i_bleed_purple" wrote:

no, its quite simple.
A punt returner is given a 5 yard cushion to catch the ball.
Any defender who breakes a 5 yard radius of the player while he's catching will get flagged.
That way every punt is returned.
HOwever, this takes away the ability for the kicking team to down the ball, as in order to down the ball, they would need to be within 5 yards of the ball.

THey do this in the CFL, as well as Canadian HS and University ball.

Like I said, thats a stupid rule.


If the coverage team forces a fair catch, why take that away from them?
Why (most likely) give the receiving team better field position when their receiving unit couldn't adequately block for them?
If other leagues like it, neat.
But I think it would be a terrible rule in the NFL

having a touchback worth a point is horrible. horrible idea. lets have a incomplete pass equal negative four points. and with eliminating the fair catch you could have guys getting their heads taken off on punt returns

"dcboardr41" wrote:

having a touchback worth a point is horrible. horrible idea. lets have a incomplete pass equal negative four points. and with eliminating the fair catch you could have guys getting their heads taken off on punt returns

nah thats the point of the 5 yard cushion, but yea... still hate the rule compared to the fair catch

"dcboardr41" wrote:

having a touchback worth a point is horrible. horrible idea. lets have a incomplete pass equal negative four points. and with eliminating the fair catch you could have guys getting their heads taken off on punt returns

haha.. you crack me up