NFL Rule Changes: Let’s Just Play Football Man!

It’s official there are some NFL rule changes that will affect the upcoming season. Thank you, Roger Goodell, for fixing your previous mistake of getting rid of this rule. Now, NFL teams are allowed to designate an inactive emergency 3rd quarterback who will play if the team’s two active signal callers are out.  This rule was originally in place until Goodell got rid of it.

NFL Rule Changes

Prior to it being reinstated, teams could only activate two quarterbacks. That meant your third quarterback (if your team even had one) was inactive and not allowed to play.

Goodell finally realized this was a mistake after the San Francisco 49ers were not only blown out in the 2022 NFC Championship game against the Philadelphia Eagles, but their starting running back, Christian McCaffrey, was forced to play quarterback for their team due to injuries.

NFL Rule Changes: Thursday Night Flex Schedule

As of now, just for 2023, the flexed Thursday night games will have some of the similar regulations that games flexed in and out of the Sunday night slots do now.

Flexed games are allowed only during the last five eligible weeks of the regular season (weeks 13 to 17). Week 18 isn’t included, as it isn’t part of the Thursday night schedule. No more than two games per season can be flexed. Also, no squad may be flexed in or out of a Thursday selection more than one time.

One of the problems that needs to be addressed is the fans that want to attend the games live. What happens when they make their travel plans, and the games get flexed? What happens when they want to make a family weekend trip out of it and make several arrangements ahead of time, only to have to change or cancel them?

 

 

NFL Rule Changes: More Streaming?

Now that we are already watching Thursday Night Football on Amazon Prime, the NFL just announced last week that they will be bringing the Saturday night Wild-Card game on NBC’s Peacock.

NBC Universal paid $110 million for a one-night playoff game. This Streaming craze is really starting to get out of hand if you are not already a subscriber.

I am a big New York Yankees fan and just this past week, the “Streaming Monster” came into my life.

In order for me to watch every game this week, I would have had to subscribe to Peacock ($4.99/mo) for Sunday’s game, YES ($24.99/mo) for Tuesday’s game, Amazon Prime ($14.99/mo) for Wednesday’s game, Thurs – YES, and (6.99) Apple TV+ for Friday’s game.

Sure, it doesn’t really seem like a lot at $51.96 to watch your favorite team, but if you already have other services such as basic cable ($70), Hulu ($7.99), Netflix (15.49), or Max (9.99), it does start to add up.

All sports are definitely on the up-tick. You can get any sport on TV your heart desires. It does come at a cost sometimes when buffering interrupts your favorite game. Just hope it doesn’t freeze you out.

 

NFL Rule Changes: Kickoffs

The NFL approved changing the kickoff return rule that would simplify fair catches and safety catches. Just like in College football, after the kicker kicks the ball, if the returner decides to fair catch the ball anywhere inside the 25-yard line, the offense will start with possession on the 25-yard line.

Normally, I would agree that there should be a least one rule in College ball that is the same in the pros, but this is an exception to the rule. This is dumbing down the idea of having quality kick returns in the game.

People like myself grew up watching guys like, Terrence McGee and Dante Hall catch the ball and return the kick 100 yards for a touchdown. Even most of the Special Teams coaches didn’t want this rule changed.

Now, Special Teams coaches may have to tell their kickers to squib kick the ball more to force more returns and have fewer fair catches.

 

Even Kansas City Head Coach Andy Reid weighed in on the new kickoff rule:

“My thing is, where does it stop, right?” Reid said, according to NFL Network.  “We start taking pieces and we’ll see how this goes. But you don’t want to take too many pieces away or you’ll be playing flag football.”

Now that you’ve heard some opinions on the subject let’s show a few facts to back up these opinions.

In 2022, 19 players experienced concussions which were up from 14 in 2021 and 10 in 2020, based on data gathered by Sports Illustrated. Those 19 concussions were obtained across about 2,700 kickoffs: concluding 99.3% of kickoff plays were concussion-free.

Special Teams coaches from around the league showed the statistics as they firmly were against the change. Some believed the ruling confusion from the change posed a sizable health violation than the one presently affecting 0.7% of plays.

Then one should ask themselves this question, “What is the percentage of “all” positioned players (except kick returners) getting hurt in any (1) week of all teams playing?”

For another NFL Story, please check out:

Does the NFL’s Scheduling Style Affect a Team’s Season Record?