Today was a big day for NFL rules proposals. Some of them normal...
And some of them anticipating we're going back to the replacement refs who "blessed" the league with riggings like The Loudest Manure Chant and The Fail Mary (and the Bill Belichick assault of one of the replacement refs), which came 24 hours apart and forced the league to capitulate.
Here are at least some of the proposals:
1) Both teams can now declare an onside kick at any point in the game, regardless of score.
2) This probably ties into this rule: A rule that, after an unsportsmanlike or other major foul on a score or try by the defense, that kicking team loses the incentive to kick the ball completely out of bounds if they kick off from the midfield line. Any touchback from the 50 goes to the 20.
I'm going to have to have that one explained to me. Reading the rule (Point 2 in the first section), where's the advantage?
3) In another effort to create excitement and more kickoff returns with the new setup, the rules would be changed that one fewer receiving-team player must be on the line five yards from where the kicking team's non-kicker players are (the "restraining line"). In the next five yards of the receiving side of the field, the team can have one more player in that area, but cannot have more than two players in any area bounded by a sideline and the hashmark, or between the hashmarks.
They're still trying to save the kickoff, for obvious reasons. I get what they are trying to do, but...
4) This is going to be the biggest rule, and it sounds like it's going to require massive manpower watching each game from the New York offices.
They ARE officially proposing disqualification-level conduct and Player Safety fouls can be called from New York, starting next year. The rules already allow direct communication between the Replay Official, the on-field officials, and New York on all rulings and applications of game rules. (Which answers the question on that revoked touchdown during the season -- the rules actually DO allow direct communication with New York on situations such as that.)
The deadline is the next legal snap or kick.
... which will mean that each game will need not just one New York official at the NFL offices, but almost-certainly a team of officials on each and every game, dedicated to all such actions.
5) This is the one that gets added if they lock out the regular referees and decide to Fail Mary the league again (the referees' CBA ends May 31): The offsite officials effectively become the officials of the game, in concert with the on-field crew.
The rule, for only the 2026-27 season and only in the event of and for the duration of a referee lockout, allows for the New York officials to call:
- Roughing the passer
- Intentional grounding
- Changing a running into the kicker foul into a roughing the kicker foul, and the other way around
- Any disqualification foul which would fall under the fourth rule change (remembering that these are independent rules proposals, and this one specifically dependent upon the referees' work-stoppage situation).
- Nullification of mis-called fouls for:
- Face masks
- Roughing the passer
- Intentional Grounding
- Horse-collar fouls
- Illegal contact
- A limited form of reversal of pass interference -- meaning that either the feet get tangled or neither player is playing the ball
- or specifically the fact that a penalty is declared on the field for disqualification. (The yardage still applies, except...)
- After the two minute warning, they get even more power!
- Basically any fifteen-yard penalty can now be fully reversed in the final two minutes from New York.
Oh shit. If this isn't pressure to get that settled... You think the Loudest Manure Chant was bad? I give that about the three weeks the last set of problems had, and there will be a Bottlegate-level incident, if not WORSE, the first time you see New York decide a contest outright because of the replacement refs.
