NFL Introduced Several Rule Changes Today

Every year the NFL and its 32 owners meet in the off-season to vote on a collection of proposed rule changes; today was that day. Among them, owners voted in favor of banning players from leaping over the line of scrimmage to block field goals or extra points. Their reasoning: owners and players alike fear a player could be flipped in the air by linemen as they rose from their stances and land awkwardly, resulting in injury. Although this did not happen in 2016, player safety is real concern for the league.

The annual owners meeting also approved a handful of additional rule changes, including: implementing centralized replays where officials at the league office in New York have final say, replacing sideline replay monitors with handheld tablets, prohibiting teams from committing multiple fouls on the same play in an effort to manipulate the game clock, ejecting players after they commit two of a certain type of unsportsmanlike conduct penalties, and a few others.

The meeting also saw a few rules get shot down: proposals to shorten the overtime period from 15 to 10 minutes, and to place the ball at the 20-yard line, rather than the 25, if a kickoff went through the uprights were all declined.

In other news, the Oakland Raiders are moving to Las Vegas in 2020.