The NFL Makes Some Rule Changes in 2008

At the 2008 NFL annual owners meetings, the NFL recently made some final decisions about regulating the game. Many of the topics debated and eventually voted on have long been in the public eye, and it appears that the NFL has finally passed judgment on them.

Here are some of the new implementations (or lack there of) that will affect the 2008 NFL football season.

There are no more force-out rulings. - There are pretty much two major distinctions between the college and pro game when it comes to football. One of them is the fact that if you hit the ground with the ball in college football, the play is dead whether or not you were forced to the ground. The other major difference is the system of rules effecting the determination of a catch alongside the sideline. In college football, you have to get only one foot down, and if somebody pushes you out of bounds before you put that foot down, then it is not a catch. Up until now, in the NFL you had to get both feet down and if you were forced out by a defender then it was ruled a catch. Well, you still have to get two feet down, but if you are forced-out than it is no longer ruled a catch. That certainly makes the referee's job a lot easier, but does it really help the game?

When I first thought about it, I thought eliminating the force out was a horrendous mistake. I thought that defenders would immediately turn to just shoving receivers out of bounds and not playing the ball, taking some of the aesthetics out of the game at a position where people like to see more grace and athleticism as opposed to brute and power. However, when you really think about it, the aesthetics of the cornerback vs. receiver battle (on the sidelines) has been just as pleasing on the college level as it has been in the NFL, prior to this rule change. So I don't think eliminating the force-out rule will change a hole lot. In fact, I wouldn't have a problem if they also made it so that players only had to get one foot down, so that there would be added incentive for the cornerback to try to make a play on the ball and not just the receiver. But that's an argument for another day.

The playoffs will not alter the seeding. - Going into the meetings, it was proposed that instead of giving the division winners the first 4 seeds no matter what their records were, that the conference seeding should be entirely determined by record alone; thereby, allowing non-division winners to obtain 3^rd and 4^th seeds and get home field advantage in the first round. The proposal was shot down though. The main argument against this new structure was that you can't devalue the accomplishment of winning a division. Many people debated that by saying that some divisions are so horrible, that the winner shouldn't be given home field over a wild-card team with a better record from a better division. But the fact of the matter is that no owner wants to be the team to win their division and not have a home game where they can sell thousands of tickets. Given that there are only a handful of competitive teams that have to deal with being in a division they just can't ever win (i.e. the AFC East and the AFC South), there just weren't enough votes in the room to get the reseeding proposal passed.

Referees can now use replay on field goals. - Remember that Phil Dawson field goal for the Cleveland Browns where the refs had to debate as to whether or not it was a successful attempt, all because they weren't allowed to simply jog over to a TV? Had they been allowed to review the kick on instant replay, the could have instantly seen what every other American watching the game could see, which was that the field goal was good. Well, in 2008 they will be able to review such kicks, and now they can avoid the potential embarrassment of deciding a game on pure speculation.