NFL owners will gather in sunny Palm Beach, Florida next week for the annual spring meetings.
My favorite part of these meetings is learning which proposed rule changes will be implemented. The NFL Competition Committee announced during a conference call Wednesday that it will introduce multiple rule changes for this season -- some "on-field" and some off. Below are the highlights:
- Making the current playoff overtime rules apply to the regular season -- thus eliminating the current "sudden death" system. Candidly, the current regular season overtime rules in the NFL are perhaps the worst in all of sports.
- Allowing a player who has been placed on the injured reserve list, the opportunity to return to the action versus being forced to sit the remainder of the season.
- Having replays viewed solely by the official in the booth, not the referee on the field. No more referee sticking their head under a black curtain covering a camera.
- Automatically having turnovers reviewed, much the same way all touchdowns were reviewed last season. This would save coaches the anxiety of deciding whether or not to throw the challenge flag on, for example, an interception that may or may not have been trapped.
For any rules to be changed, 24 of the 32 teams have to vote for approval of these and other suggestions from the competition committee.
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