Yay for safety rules and elimating the physicality out of the NFL one step at a time. So much for highlight films of big hits. Here's a run down of the 4 rules they have put through over the past week.The Bernard Pollard Rule
Everyone's calling it the Brady rule. Nonsense, name it after the hero. No longer when a defender is on the ground can they dive at the quarterback. So essentially being a defensive lineman and getting knocked to the ground is like the WedgeRats getting stabbed in their foam sword battles. It's time to play dead. The NFL will probably say something moronic like, well they can get up and then when they get back to their feet they can tackle the quarterback. How many times has Bob Kraft been on the ground trying to stand up when a 350 pound man is pushing him in the back? That's going to be completely wasted effort. One injury to a high profile Quarterback and we need to turn their knees into endangered species.
The Let's Try To Eliminate Kickoff Return Touchdowns Rule
Honestly I think this rule pisses me off the most. No longer can a kickoff return have a wedge blocking scheme. If you don't know what a wedge is then you don't watch much football, but I'll explain. It's like the flying V but for kick off returns. You get 3 or more blockers to form a V and blast through the defense and let the ball carrier follow behind the path of destruction. No longer. If three players are within two yards of each other shoulder to shoulder it will now be a 15 yard penalty. A 15 yard god damn penalty for blocking. For blocking!!!!! Ahhhhhhhhh, this rule is ridiculous. Let's just eliminate kickoffs completely. Skip the god damn commercial breaks and give the ball to each team at the 20s, cause if you can't have guys block within 2 yards of each other what the hell is the point?
The Keith Rivers Broken Jaw Rule
I'm ok with this one. Basically, Hines Ward blind side blocked Keith Rivers in the head and broke his jaw. Now it'll be flagged a 15 yarder. Basically when you blind side block a guy you can hit him in the chest and not the head. I'm ok with this rule although watching the Ward hit over and over again was pretty awesome.
The Let's Blow Up the Receiver Rule
I'm not really fervently against this rule either. Essentially when you go up against a defenseless receiver you can't hit him in the head anymore. Before you couldn't go helmet to helmet, now you can't go shoulder or forearm to helmet. Basically they don't want Wes Welker getting his head blasted off going over the middle on an incomplete pass again. I get it, you want to eliminate concussions but what if the dback goes for the chest and the receiver ducks and turns it into a head shot? Will that be a penalty as well? It just seems like the NFL is really shackling the Dbacks aggressiveness and definitely eliminating big hits.
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