Should the NFL Have a Slaughter Rule?

For those of you who have never heard of the slaughter rule (sometimes called the mercy rule), it is a rule in many amateur sports that allows a contest to end once a team has reached an insurmountable lead. It basically allows a team to save face rather than be embarrassed any more.

Today I ask should the NFL have a slaughter rule?

This past Sunday, the Arizona Cardinals ended up seeing their top receiver Anquan Boldin lying motionless in the end zone following a head-to-head collision. The New York Jets safety who hit him, Kerry Rhodes, was suspended for one game. But, Arizona Coach Ken Whisenhunt also came under fire for attempting to score a touchdown when his team was behind by 21 points with only 27 seconds remaining and obviously, barring an unlikely miracle, was not going to be able to win the game.

It's situations like that one that make me wonder if a slaughter rule is needed.

If an NFL team takes a huge lead, the coach on the losing team has two choices. He can either play his back up players; essentially showing he's given up. Or, he can leave his starters in, try to put some points on the board and hope nobody gets hurt. As a fan, I don't like either option. I don't want to watch the second stringers play and I certainly don't want to see my team's star quarterback or running back get knocked out for the year in a game that was decided by the half. That's why I would like to see the league step in with a simple rule; if a team trails by 28 points or more at the start of the 4^th quarter or 21 points or more at the 2 minute warning and does not have possession of the ball; game over. If the team has possession of the ball at either of those given points in the game, they are given the opportunity to score. If they fail to or they fail to bring the score within the before mentioned point differences, then the game ends at the change of possession.

Of course, the NFL might not like this rule. They will be concerned about advertising and whether fans would be happy paying for a ticket only to go home early. And, those are legitimate concerns. But, if a game is a blow out, chances are nobody is even watching it at home; meaning the advertisers aren't getting their money's worth anyway. And, I'm certain a good portion of the fans attending the game would already be on their way out of the stadium to beat the traffic.

Besides, would the advertisers or fans be just as interested in future games if a marquee player ended up getting hurt with a minute remaining?

Not to mention this isn't something that would be a common occurrence in the competitive NFL. Through the first four weeks of the season, for example, I'm counting just three games would have ended at the start of the fourth quarter and 6 that would have ended at the 2 minute warning (which, incidentally, does not include the before mentioned Cardinals/Jets game). That's 5% of the games ending early in the fourth quarter and 10% ending about 2 minutes early. And none of the games mentioned saw a come-from-behind win anyway. Oh, and I won't mention names, but a lot of those 9 games that would have ended in my slaughter rule featured the same couple of teams.

Maybe it's not needed and the NFL will continue to survive without its star players. But, if there really is a concern about player's health both from their perspective and from teams trying to cut costs by not having to pay a bunch of guys on injured reserve then this might be a rule worth looking at.