Yakuza Rich: YR's 25 Ways to Improve the NFL

[ZeroClub]

I'd like to see a rule limiting the number of player substitutions. No more than 2 players substituted per team, between any given play, except on change of possession. If three or more more players on a team are injured on a given play, all could be substituted, but it'd cost a time out and/or yardage.

I'd like for pass interference rules to be simplified (lose the subparagraphs, please), such that the average announcer and/or average serious fan readily understands the rule.

 

[Mavs Man]

I don't think that overtime should be messed with in the NFL. They really can't go to a college system because offenses and kickers are pretty good. That could lead to games where there are 8 or more overtimes. Pretty soon you could be wearing out teams. It is still pretty rare that games go to over time. I also believe that the stats have shown that in most overtime games both teams do get a shot at the ball and a pretty equal chance at winning the game. A tie hurts a team more in college than it does in the NFL due to the NFL having a playoff system.

You bring up some good points.

Possible solution: Instead of starting possessions at the opponent's 25 yard line and battling points back and forth, you could have a coin toss and play the game like a regular overtime (kickoff). The only exception would be that if the first team scores, the opponent gets a chance to tie the game (or in the event of a field goal, score a touchdown to win). But if the first team fails to score, then the next score ends the game.

Also, on the opening possession if the first team throws a pick 6 or fumbles the ball and the defense returns it for a touchdown, the game is over.

 

[bobtheflob]

I pretty much agree with all of those. #'s 1 and 2 in particular.

Another one I would add is a rule to prevent icing the kicker, it's just not fun to watch as a fan. Maybe have a rule that when there's less than one minute left in the half/game, the defensive team cannot call a timeout with less than 5 seconds left on the playclock.

 

[baj1dallas]

great job YR, all reasonable options. All would actually improve the games too.

 

[HoosierCowboy]

#whatever: take the Raiders away from Davis--he scares me

 

[Skinsmaniac]

Next up
Yakuza Rich: YR gives you YR's ideas for improving the draft, by Yakuza Rich.

/seriously though, I agree with a lot of your ideas. The difference between defensive and offensive pass interference bothers me. I would just limit def pass interference to fifteen yards, not spot of the foul, and keep the offensive penalty the same.

 

[dallasfaniac]

Interesting that the argument to make gametimes earlier because OT might run too late is in the same post as an argument that OT should be longer to allow a competitive balance. Does that mean games should be even earlier to make up for this?

 

[THUMPER]

Now that I think about it, I would like all rules to revert to what they were in 1968. :starspin

 

[ZeroClub]

how about a "Demarcus Ware Rule" where you can challenge off sides.......

Or does that fit under the "better refs" rule?

I really like this suggestion.

 

[CrazyCowboy]

great job....I especially like #1, man all those time outs are murder in a big time game....I get so nervous.

 

[kTXe]

Next up
Yakuza Rich: YR gives you YR's ideas for improving the draft, by Yakuza Rich.

/seriously though, I agree with a lot of your ideas. The difference between defensive and offensive pass interference bothers me. I would just limit def pass interference to fifteen yards, not spot of the foul, and keep the offensive penalty the same.

Oh dear God, no. That craptastic rule is one of the worst things college football has to offer.

I also disagree with #3 on YR's list. The college system of reviewing plays is atrocious. Countless times this past year I saw plays that were clearly ruled correctly on the field be reviewed by the booth. Other plays that were somewhat questionable but had little to no bearing on the outcome of the game were reviewed. This was really, REALLY annoying in that it completely disrupted the flow of the game.

In the most egregious cases, plays that were both questionable AND pivotal to the game were NOT reviewed. Leave the burden of the review system on the coaches. A simple rule-tweak could fix the jumbo-tron issue you raise. Simply give the assistant coaches responsible for calling for reviews a feed of the game that automatically shows replays after every play. It can't be THAT difficult to accomplish.

To me, though, the biggest rule that needs to be changed is a hard limit on the rookie contracts given at the top of the first round (the current rookie cap clearly doesn't work). The fact that top 5 picks are now almost undesirable due to the exorbitant rookie contracts is just disgusting to me. That needs to be fixed ASAP.

 

[lkelly]

7. Allow for a special DVD set of coach’s film on each game. It would probably be something that could sell well with hardcore football fans and bring many new fans into the game.

You can already get these:

Coach's Film of all 32 Teams

 

[Yakuza Rich]

I disagree with Field Turf at Heinz Field. Natural grass is always the best option.

They should have remedied that situation by an even simpler but broader rule; Only NFL games may be played at any NFL stadium during the course of the NFL season.

Having a Pitt game and the WPIAL playoffs there during the a time of inclement weather preceeding the Steelers' game was the problem, not the field surface.

It's not feasible. Teams can't get these stadiums built often times unless it can be used for other events. It's a no brainer that there are too many games played on Heinz Field, but given how the city of Pittsburgh is structured, they are not going to get HS teams off that field. So by putting Field Turf in there, it would make everybody reasonably happy.





YAKUZA

 

[Yakuza Rich]

Rule change #1 could easily happen if the NFL knew how to sell it. It's probalby less than 10 commercial timeouts per game. While that would mean slightly less advertisers, the NFL could charge more per commercial since there's a lesser supply of commercial time and still a high demand for that commercial time. They could also tell advertisers that while there's less commercial time, that means their commercials are more exclusive.





YAKUZA

 

[Achozen]

I'm not a big fan of #20. NFL Football shouldn't be played on Saturdays. It just doesn't feel right.​

 

[THUMPER]

Rule change #1 could easily happen if the NFL knew how to sell it. It's probalby less than 10 commercial timeouts per game. While that would mean slightly less advertisers, the NFL could charge more per commercial since there's a lesser supply of commercial time and still a high demand for that commercial time. They could also tell advertisers that while there's less commercial time, that means their commercials are more exclusive.


YAKUZA

Nothing that negatively affects the bottom line will EVER be done. Advertisers are the ones who fund the NFL through the networks (well, ultimately it is the consumers but the advertisers are the ones who write the checks to the networks) and the networks aren't going to do anything to cut that back, EVER!

As much as I would love to see all of the commercials lumped into one large time slot at halftime, and then shown on NFL Network, it is never going to happen.

 

[skinsscalper]

I disagree with Field Turf at Heinz Field. Natural grass is always the best option.

They should have remedied that situation by an even simpler but broader rule; Only NFL games may be played at any NFL stadium during the course of the NFL season.

Having a Pitt game and the WPIAL playoffs there during the a time of inclement weather preceeding the Steelers' game was the problem, not the field surface.

Another thing that should be considered as far as Heinz field is concerned is a flawed design.

The designers of that field knew that the turf would be under heavy stress due to the amount of use between Pitt, the Steelers, and local sports. The problems that we all saw were due to heavy rains and heavy use. Standing water and playing turf are a horrible combination. The first thing to hit the ground on that project should have been a state of the art drainage system.

Augusta National rebuilt almost all of their greens with a drainage system that actually sucks the water down through the soil profile and out to the irrigation complex. It's how they keep the greens firm and fast when the rains try to spoil the club's reputation of fast rolling, hard to hold greens that Augusta champions as it's signature. If Augusta can incur this cost, for all intents and purposes, for a single yearly tournament then there's no reason a stadium with a mere football field's worth of turf hosting literally millions of dollars worth of world class athletes on a bye-weekly (at least) basis can't do the same.

The damage done to Heinz field with the previous activities and the added torrential rainfall was a recipe for disaster. The other mistake that was made was trying to put new turf right on top of the old saturated turf. I can't believe that ANY turf professional worth his salt would even consider such a move. This is a multi BILLION dollar industry. At the very least the old damaged turf should have been removed and replaced. The companies that put this turf down are VERY efficient. That entire field could have been completely removed and replaced over night.

Last year we replaced the entire approach on one of our fairways (roughly 30 yards wide X 45 yards long) in one working day with around 8 laborers and NO heavy machinery (other than golf carts with manual dump beds). The truck came, dropped off the pallets of turf and we finished with an hour to spare. The fiasco in Pittsburgh should NEVER happen in the NFL with 24 hours to spare before game time.

 

[IndianaCowboyFan]

5,11,13 are very good ideas.

5. Either get rid of the franchise tag or limit the franchise tag to a one time only deal for players. I don’t know of another profession where you can fulfill the terms of your contact and then when you want to work elsewhere, you are forced to stay around.

This should have been the rule since the beginning. Allowing the franchise tag continuously is almost criminal.

 

[parchy]

To follow up on the ref training... I think hiring refs who don't have day jobs would be a pretty good way of making sure these guys have their heads in the game all the time... every week, day, hour, minute and second, just living football rules. Ed Hoculi is a lawyer, for pete's sake. Pay the refs enough to make it a full-time job. The league sure as hell has the money to do it.

 

[WoodysGirl]

To follow up on the ref training... I think hiring refs who don't have day jobs would be a pretty good way of making sure these guys have their heads in the game all the time... every week, day, hour, minute and second, just living football rules. Ed Hoculi is a lawyer, for pete's sake. Pay the refs enough to make it a full-time job. The league sure as hell has the money to do it.

To me, there's no way you can justify paying officials for 12 mos, when they only work six. No matter how much they train, officials will still make mistakes. It's part of being human.

And I don't know of anybody who eats, sleeps, and breathes their job. It's unrealistic to expect anyone to do that.