FanPost

Flag football.

Many fans, especially old school guys, have been less than impressed with the direction of the NFL in the last decade or two. You can't touch touch a QB anymore and it has been that way for awhile. The rules on receivers and pass interference have also helped fuel the outbreak in today's high output offenses while rendering running games and bruising backs more towards war stories of yesteryear. This season the NFL has taken things to a whole new level.

The new rules concerning illegal contact have made preseason games thus far look like training camp drills. There were over twenty penalties called in the Colts game tonight, a large majority of them illegal contact. I didn't watch the Saints game, but was told the number was closer to thirty. The result has been to turn games into frustratingly slow games that are borderline absurd to watch.

I'm not a big fan of all the rules protecting QBs, but when guys are making 20mil per year it is to be expected. I don't like the targeting rules (no issue with the intent, but all penalties should be reviewed they are wrong so often), but that is driven by concussion fears and lawsuits. The taunting and celebration rules are also stupid. Apparently it is a crime to have fun while playing the game. Most of these rules were developed for logical reasons. The same cannot be said about the new contact rules.

To be fair, the rules have apparently always been there, but now there is no judgement at all allowed. If you touch a guy beyond five yards, it will cost you. There really is no logical reason for this new enforcement. The NFL is a very offensive league where big scores and high powered passing attacks rule. There is no need to augment it. If anything, the rules needed to be adjusted for the defense, not the offense. I never thought I'd see the day when playing defense was a five yard penalty. If this is the future of the NFL, you might better abandon traditional run games and play exclusively out of shotgun formations with the occasional draw while passing almost exclusively.

The owners have a very good thing going with the billion dollar business that is the NFL. I don't see why they need to make unnecessary changes to the game and risk affecting the popularity of it. If this rule is called this aggressively in regular season games, it will have a definite negative impact on the quality of games. Teams that play physical defense such as SF, Seattle, NO and Indy (well, it is the plan, right?) are going to be the major casualties while teams that run spread out aerial attacks will be the big winners.

This is a FanPost and does not necessarily reflect the views of Stampede Blue's writers or editors. It does reflect the views of this particular fan though, which is as important as the views of Stampede Blue's writers or editors.