Proposed Rule Changes for Professional Sports

Some Rule Changes to make Watching Sports more Fun

The first deal with football. How many times have you seen a handoff, the running back sprints along the line of scrimmage, beats the defenders to the outside and rockets 20 yards upfield just to have the play called back because of a holding call and now it's first and 20. Nobody likes that, especially since the line between good blocking and holding isn't even readily apparent to casual football viewers anyway. So I propose abolishing the holding call and instituting a new rule instead: any player can tackle any other player at any time as long it's a clean tackle. No clipping, no tripping, no horsecollars, no leading with the head, just good clean tackles—wrap the guy up and throw him down. I think the only caveat to that rule is that PI should still be enforced, because otherwise once the defender sees that he's going to get beat to the ball he would tackle the receiver; not having PI would really take away the long ball. So pass interference is still there, but otherwise any player can tackle any other player at any time. Also, watching the linemen face off with each other wrestling style could end up being more entertaining than watching where the ball is.

This next rule change comes from another great American activity: pinball. You know how when you lock the third ball you get a multi-ball? I think this would translate exceptionally well to football. Probably set it up so that after a team scores its third touchdown of the game it gets a bonus drive with two footballs, two quarterbacks, and two centers hiking the ball simultaneously. Now THAT would be fun to watch. Think about it, it would be chaotic, completely change offensive and defensive strategy, and you'd be almost assured to see big exciting plays.

Next, nobody should ever be rewarded for failure; they should be punished. That's why having the clock stop with an incomplete pass is bullshit. Say you've got the ball on your own 40 yard line, there are 55 seconds left on the clock and it's ticking: you launch one deep, the receiver has it in his hands but the cornerback arrives at the same time and knocks the ball away before the receiver has possession and now THE CLOCK STOPS. Why should the clock stop? It's a pretty big reward for a failed play since now you don't need to take a timeout. That's why the clock should keep running. But just letting the clock still run is more neutral than punishment, so here's the final rule: an incomplete pass DOES NOT stop the clock and it also immediately takes 15 seconds off the clock. So in the example above, instead of having the clock stopped at 55 seconds after throwing incomplete then the clock would instantly jump to 40 seconds and keep ticking down. Also, any player who complains to the refs or pantomimes throwing a flag to request a call will be immediately ejected.

Moving on to basketball but staying on the subject of rules that dramatically change the last several minutes of the game, I think everyone's biggest complaint is when exciting games turn into dental appointments for the last two minutes of clock because the teams take a billion free throws. You know, you're watching an exciting game, lots of fast breaks, 3 pointers, dramatic defensive plays—blocks, steals—closely contested so either team can easily pull it out, then at about the 2 minute mark both teams start immediately fouling once the ball is in bounds and the excitement grinds to a halt. My proposed rule change to completely reverse this situation: once less than 2 minutes remain in the game there are no more free throws, players who commit fouls must sit in a penalty box for time equal to a shot clock (35 seconds in college, 24 in the NBA). The power play is my favorite thing about hockey and I think it would translate well into basketball at the end-of-game situation. It would keep play moving quickly (probably actually speed it up) and almost certainly add to the highlight reel. Then high intensity, hard fought games could end with thunderous excitement as they should and not with the collective bored sigh of an arena full of fans watching an endless succession of free throws.

Credit to Bruce Manclark for about half the material in this post.