i must be bored of "normal" football because i keep wanting to see all these crazy rules changes. here's the latest:
stop putting the ball between the hashmarks. i say, when a play is over, the ball stays put. unless you go out of bounds, in which case it goes on the nearest hashmark.
this way, if the ball carrier is tackled near the sideline, the teams would line up lopsided and we'd see all kinds of plays that either take advantage of the huge expanse on side one (return of the option?), or tricky, precision plays that go down the sideline.
it would also be interesting to watch a team trying to run out the clock, having to be wary of straying too close to the sideline.
so i want to see that, and of course giant footballs.
6 comments:
I think the pros should at least use the wider hashmarks that colleges use.
I also want to see 4-down football. Field goals less than 30 yards should be worth 1 point, 2 points for 3-45 years, 3 points beyond 45. For any punt in which the line of scrimmage is in the receiving team's half or at the 50, if the ball is not downed inside the 10 it goes to the 50 or the result of the return, whichever is more favorable to the return team. 1-point PATs must be kicked either from directly on one of the hasmarks, or in the middle but from the 30.
If a defending team calls a timeout to "ice" kicker, it is a delay of game penalty, and unsportsmanlike conduct, and an additional point is added to the ensuing kick if successful.
WOW! These are all awesome ideas - seriously, and unsarcastically, but the NFL is such a good-ole-boys club, I seriously doubt they would ever adopt any of them. On ne peut que rêver - one can dream, though.
I have an additional suggestion, to help the NFL avoid becoming more like the NBA and it's rampant infection of egotistical actors: when someone in the backfield throws a giant fit in an effort to try and have a pass interference penalty called, and an instant replay booth review indicates no such penalty was warranted, that player should be ejected from the game, and a unsportsmanlike conduct penalty given to the feigning actor's team. 15 yards minimum, and ball turned over perhaps. Give the 2nd string a chance to play, and ELIMINATE the Terrell Owens-esque, Deon Sanders-like, and other superfluous egomanical forces from the game who believe they can do no wrong, and who deserve to be brought down several notches.
If it is a QB who is feigning an injury after a soft tackle just to get a penalty thrown, he needs to be taken out of play - he's injured, after-all! - for the next set of downs at least, if not for the duration of the quarter.
Greenbay tried to "ice" Robbie Gould last Monday night, to no avail, and I instantly thought of you Zim! Despicable and desperate move, that revenue happy TV contracts wholeheartedly embrace.
Yeah, when did the "pantomime a flag throw" become so rampant? Everyone does it now. That should at least be unsportsmanlike conduct, or a new category of foul called "annoying the shit out of the ref".
Also, the TV timeouts are out of control. The league is going to overcook itself if it doesn't dial back on the short-term greed.
perhaps it's time to bring up my extra-man/short-a-man rules:
instead of the normal 11-man lineup, an offense or defense can decide, on first down, how many players they want on the field. a player = 5 yards and affects the yards to get a 1st down.
examples:
1. the offense brings 10 players, the defense stays with 11. it's 1st and 5.
2. the offense brings 11, the defense goes with 10. it's 1st and 15.
3. both teams go with 12 players. it's 1st and 10.
4. the offense goes with 10 and the defense goes with 12. it's 1st and zero (!!)
i reckon a limit should be set, probably a deviation of 1 each way (so, 10, 11, or 12). though it would be pretty hilarious to see 9 against 13.
i also reckon there should be some kind of structure for announcing @ each 1st down. e.g. the offense announces their number of players, the defense can then adjust and announce theirs, and then the offense can deviate by 1 either way, or stick.
once announced, teams must stick to that number of players on each play until the next 1st down.
That's a recipe for a 10-hour game.
I like the concept, but fear the time lapses would be large. 1st and zero would be hard to measure with traditional chains. Laser sighting, and the optical hazards that imposes, would be necessary - and then there's all the gage R&R and hysteresis.... ugh.
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