NFL owners on Wednesday approved a series of new rules, including one that will extend the influence of resume officials amid coaches’ ongoing demands for greater oversight of game day officials.
The owners rejected more solid proposals for a full-time judge, including one from the Baltimore Ravens, who allegedly created a stand referee. Instead, the owners took the more modest step of giving the existing rerun official – who sits in each stadium’s press box – the authority to consult with referees on certain “specific, objective aspects of a play when the video evidence clear and obvious are present, “according to the language of the rule.
Resumption officials will not be able to throw flags or reverse calls alone. But now I can give advice to the referees based on what they saw on replays broadcast in possession areas, passes completed or intercepted, the location of the ball in relation to the limit or the end line and whether a player is down by contact. Coaches will not have to throw provocative flags to ask for that advice, which some rerun officials have been giving to referees informally for years.
In other news on Wednesday’s vote, NFL owners:
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He approved a relaxation of the rules for the numbers that players in certain positions can wear due to the extensive training teams. Running backs, wide receivers, tight ends, defensive backs and defenders can wear numbers in single digits, if they wish. Based on pre-existing NFL rules, players who want to change their numbers this season will need to purchase inventory from NFL production partners. This would not apply to players announcing in 2021 that they want to change numbers in 2022.
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We approved a one-year experiment in an attempt to facilitate the recovery of the blows. In 2021, the winning team will be limited to nine players within a 25-meter radius of the ball. Last season, NFL teams recovered just three of their 67 onside hits, the lowest total and recovery rate since at least 2001.
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Elimination of overtime in pre-season games.
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A rule has been changed that will now force a drop loss if two passes are made behind the scrimmage line.
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A rule change that ensures that all accepted penalties are applied during successive test runs, defined as an opportunity for a team to score one or two extra points during a leak.