As previously mentioned, the dust has settled during a pretty ugly NFL lockout and we now are knee deep with a weekend's worth of action to discuss. But what's new with the NFL? What did that whole lockout accomplish? What changes did it bring about? What about new game play rules? Ride with me as I attempt to give you some of the highlights.
First off congratulations everyone, job well done!
So what have we come back to? Well most of the points they argued over about in the lockout you may not notice at all, a few of the rule changes however...First the lockout quarrels.
I'm only touching highlights but if you'd like a more comprehensive following of how things went down, Andrew Brandt did a fantastic job of covering the lockout, new labor deal and aftermath.
Overall the two biggest issues appeared to have been safety and money (duh!) with the players wanting to protect their bodies, careers and livelihoods and Owners wanting to not have to keep on paying millions of dollars to busts like Ryan Leaf or Jamarcus Russel.
The new agreement which would stay in place into the NFL's 2021 draft has numerous provisions to both insure and provide medical coverage for not only current NFL players but retirees as well.
The only other talking point and noticeable change from a labor stand point would be the condensed schedule the league ran on this year. With the length of the negotiations this couldn't have been avoided but none the less the only effect that came of it was a shortened pre-season. Not bad at all!
The really noticeable part....the rules.
Every year the NFL tweaks game play. This year features some of the most polarizing changes ever. These are rules that made an immediate impact in the flow and play of the game. There were several rule "adjustments" made to clearly define the previously mysterious "illegal hit" during an NFL game, so now there is language that is supposed to clearly define to the refs what this constitutes. What this boils down to is no more human torpedo's.
The two biggest new rules in my opinion would be the touchdown review rule as well as the new kick off positioning rules. The TD review rule, it's pretty simple...every TD is eligible for booth review. EVERY. SINGLE. TD. Yes. Every TD, in every game, every week is reviewable by the booth if they should choose to review it. No challenge needed. If this sounds like a pain in the ass and a huge waste of time for fans because it ruins the game flow...that's because it is and it does.
The kick off changes? Kicker now kicks off from the 35 while the rest of special teams lines up at the 30 yard line. The NFL figures if you give those heavy hitters on special teams less space to build up a head of steam that kick off injuries will go down. I dunno. It sounds logical. Coaches were pissed about it and fans were mixed but all that noise died down after a slew of electrifying kick returns dominated the weekend.
And that's that. If visual aides are your kind of thing there is a great graphic of the rule changes as well as a video explanation of the 2011 NFL rules available. I'm pretty cool with all except the damned review of every touchdown (pain in the ass) but I can't be too mad. Football is back baby!
