PDA

View Full Version : Interesting Rule Change Ideas



BroncoWave
06-07-2011, 12:25 PM
Yes, I know this is college football but they are interesting ideas that the NFL could possibly consider too. And given the lack of things to discuss during the lockout, this will be a nice little change of pace.

A couple of excerpts, I chose the second one because I know how a lot of you will probably respond to this...


He wants to get rid of what?
That's a perfectly acceptable gut response to Rutgers coach Greg Schiano's plan to eliminate kickoffs. I thought the same thing when I saw the headline on Steve Politi's Sunday column in the Newark (N.J.) Star-Ledger about the idea Schiano floated last month to his fellow Big East coaches. After all, the play -- or at least the word that describes it -- has transcended the game and become an acceptable synonym for "start time" in any context. It is woven into the fabric of our sporting culture.

-----------

When I forwarded Politi's column for discussion on Twitter on Monday, plenty of Internet tough guys countered with the "Quit crying, it's a violent game" argument. Those people probably wouldn't know a thigh pad from a Thighmaster. More than 100 years ago, President Teddy Roosevelt thought college football had grown too dangerous. While some wanted to ban the game, Roosevelt saw the value in a slightly-less-violent contact sport. So he called a summit of representatives from the football-playing schools and forced them to create rules to make the game safer. They banned the "flying wedge" and forced offenses to spread players across the line of scrimmage. They also legalized the forward pass, which probably brought howls from the purists.



http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2011/writers/andy_staples/06/07/abolishing-kickoffs/index.html?eref=twitter_feed