NFL : New rules for the new season

1209 Views 9 Replies 6 Participants Last post by Stewart Vernon, Oct 27, 2008

Steve615

Discussion Starter · Aug 30, 2008

More changes to the rule book are coming with the regular season approaching soon.
Coin toss : Coaches can choose to take the ball at kickoff,or defer to the second half.
Designated defensive players will be allowed to use radio communications inside the helmet,allowing coaches to relay defensive signals to their players.
More info about other rule changes at the following link.

http://sports.yahoo.com/nfl/news?slug=ap-nflruleschanges&prov=ap&type=lgns

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Stewart Vernon

· #2 · Aug 30, 2008

Steve615 said:
Coin toss : Coaches can choose to take the ball at kickoff,or defer to the second half.

Maybe it is semantics or maybe I'm just missing something... but I don't understand exactly what the change here is.

In previous years teams that won the coin toss sometimes would pick field position (for or against wind) and go on defense first rather than take the ball... and whomever gets the ball at game kickoff has to kick-off to the other team in the 2nd half start.

So this "deferral" confuses me in that it doesn't seem to me to be a change in the rule.

Or am I missing something?

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Steve615

Discussion Starter · #3 · Aug 31, 2008

HDMe said:
Maybe it is semantics or maybe I'm just missing something... but I don't understand exactly what the change here is.

In previous years teams that won the coin toss sometimes would pick field position (for or against wind) and go on defense first rather than take the ball... and whomever gets the ball at game kickoff has to kick-off to the other team in the 2nd half start.

So this "deferral" confuses me in that it doesn't seem to me to be a change in the rule.

Or am I missing something?

I'm with you on this one.I thought that it had been this way for years too.

I'm just going from what was stated in the online article,referenced to in the OP.

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Doug Brott

· #4 · Aug 31, 2008

For the coin toss, it's been that way in College Football for 20+ years .. I think NFL if you won the toss you get the ball .. until now I presume

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miketorse

· #5 · Aug 31, 2008

HDMe said:
Maybe it is semantics or maybe I'm just missing something... but I don't understand exactly what the change here is.

In previous years teams that won the coin toss sometimes would pick field position (for or against wind) and go on defense first rather than take the ball... and whomever gets the ball at game kickoff has to kick-off to the other team in the 2nd half start.

So this "deferral" confuses me in that it doesn't seem to me to be a change in the rule.

Or am I missing something?

In the past, it's actually been if you "defer" you start playing defense in the first AND second half. Unlike college, where you can pick to receive the ball in the first or second half.

It was a weird weird rule, that resulted in teams "deferring" only in very very very windy days. Now you can defer and then receive the ball in the second half...

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Stewart Vernon

· #6 · Aug 31, 2008

miketorse said:
In the past, it's actually been if you "defer" you start playing defense in the first AND second half. Unlike college, where you can pick to receive the ball in the first or second half.

It was a weird weird rule, that resulted in teams "deferring" only in very very very windy days. Now you can defer and then receive the ball in the second half...

Weird, maybe that was what I missed then, if it applied to the 2nd half as well before the change.

I know I remember a team like the Chicago Bears sometimes (even in overtime once) choosing to go on defense first because their strength was their defense, not offense.

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jimbo09

· #7 · Sep 7, 2008

HDMe said:
Weird, maybe that was what I missed then, if it applied to the 2nd half as well before the change.

I know I remember a team like the Chicago Bears sometimes (even in overtime once) choosing to go on defense first because their strength was their defense, not offense.

Here's the time Ditka "deferred" to the D in the early 90s after winning the coin toss in OT. He wanted the wind off the lake, for the FGs sake, even though they won with a TD pass (I'm sure the wind helped that, too, though)

http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/football/bears/csac-bt-901202bearslionsgamer,0,4689079.story

Another site which has a list of games where the winner of the toss deferred ..not a big list, but maybe not exhaustive either:

http://quirkyresearch.blogspot.com/2006/07/nfl-games-in-which-winner-of-coin-toss.html

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Stewart Vernon

· #8 · Oct 27, 2008

Resurrecting this thread because I was reminded today of a rule I wish would change...

Offense has the ball at the 5 yard line 1st & 10, commits a false start but only backs up "half the distance" which becomes increasingly meaningless so they could just keep false starting almost indefinately and not lose more than 5 yards in aggregate.

Defense commits an offides penalty, and is assessed the full 5 yards thereby wiping out an infinite amount of previous penalties by the other team OR resulting in a gain (think 1st & 10 false start becomes 1st & 12.5 then becomes 1st & 7.5 after the defensive penalty).

I understand why they can't back them behing the end zone

but I think these penalty yards should be "banked" against future defensive penalties on that same drive.. so either only assess the defense the same penalty as taken from the offense (2.5 yards for offsides, for example) OR make the offense go to 1st & 15 even though they only backed up 2.5 yards.

I could live with either proposed solution above as long as they do something to change this.. Otherwise, smart offensive teams will start taking penalties on purpose to try and draw offsides at that point just to gain the freebie yards I fear.

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tonyd79

· #9 · Oct 27, 2008

But it works the same way for the defense if the offense is inside the defense's 10 yard line. Half the distance to the goal.

And the rule has been like that forever and no one has tried to get freebie yards. Too risky.

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Stewart Vernon

· #10 · Oct 27, 2008

tonyd79 said:
But it works the same way for the defense if the offense is inside the defense's 10 yard line. Half the distance to the goal.

And the rule has been like that forever and no one has tried to get freebie yards. Too risky.

Yeah, it does work both ways on the other side of the field... but for any one posession one team has an unfair advantage in terms of penalty. When teams have the ball inside their own 5 yard line, I've often wondered why they don't just keep waiting for a while and rest or something once they are backed up and penalties against them are relatively meaningless as long as it doesn't occur in the end zone.

Same for defense... just keep jumping offsides and disrupt the other team if they are inside your 1 yard line since the gain is negligible at that point.

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