N.F.L. Rules Special

The owners meetings took place this week, and some rules were changed while others were either shot down or tabled for the next set of meetings in May. One tabled proposal that I'm glad was shot down was the potential reseeding of the playoffs so that Wild Card teams could get home games if they finish with a better record than a division winner. Some will argue that this is good to reward regular season play, but it didn't go over too well with enough owners. "This idea we wanted to push this year to get the discussion going," Said Falcons executive and Competition Committe co-chair Rich McKay. "There were not a lot of hands up, so we withdrew the proposal for now." I believe that teams which won their division should be rewarded with a home game in the playoffs like hockey, baseball, and basketball do. "I do believe if you win a division, it's good for your fans to know you will have a home game," Patriots owner Robert Kraft said. "To win a division, there is a reward and we wanted to keep that." I agree with Kraft's statement completely.
Forceouts have always been one of the most subjective, judgemental calls in the game and now thankfully it'll be eliminated. The rule made it tougher on referees and on defenders who had to worry about whether the receiver would have came down with the ball or not. We don't live in a would have rule, now it's whether he had two feet inbounds or not, and if the wideout was pushed out of the play then call a pass interference. But thank you to the leaugue for eliminating this forceout garbage. In a game so tough for referees, it's nice to see them finally get a break.
In the "Phil Dawson Rule" refs can now review certain field goals on whether it was good or not. I don't see how anyone could argue against this, unless you don't want the right calls to always be made. Deferring on the coin toss will now be instituted in the pro game just like it is in college. For those not familiar with this, not only can a team choose to kick or receive, they can let the other team choose and just pick a side. Titans coach Jeff Fisher said that this could become a large factor in the later, colder months where wind and snow or rain could make one side of the field more advantageous over the other, and the winner of the flip would now get to benefit from that. No more incidental face mask penalties, now only the 15 yarder, which could get a bit dicy towards the beginning of the year while refs adjust to this. I agree with the ruling, it'll just take some time to iron out the potential deficiencies in my mind. And the hair rule was so rediculous, let's keep some expression in this No Fun League. First excessive celebrations, and now excessive hair length? Soon there will be excessive smiling, or way too many fancy plays. C'mon, have a little bit of energy. So this was a recap of the rule changes, more football talk will emerge as the draft quickly (and quietly) approaches