How the 2008 Rule Changes Impact Sports Fans

As many of you are aware, the NFL owners meeting brought with it some rule changes for the upcoming season. There are five major changes that will impact play on the field, but that’s not all, they will actually impact the way you watch the game. Let me break them down and explain the impact they will have on your viewing pleasure.

Rule 1: All face mask penalties will now receive a 15 yard penalty with the lesser “touch of the face mask” not being penalized.

Viewer Impact: You will no longer have that annoying drunk in the bar yelling “this is bullsh@t, that’s a fifteen yarder!”

Rule 2: Defensive player(s) will be allowed to have a radio in their helmet.

Viewer Impact: We hopefully won’t have to go through another season hearing about Bill Belichick and his cronies stealing signals...well until he figures out how to “accidentally” intercept the radio frequencies into Tom Brady’s helmet.

Rule 3: Certain field goals are now reviewable by instant replay.

Viewer Impact: Absolutely none. With the criteria for instant replay on field goals, this rule will be used maybe once every 10 years when we have another Phil Dawson experience.

Rule 4: Teams can choose to defer their decision to the second half when winning the coin toss.

Viewer Impact: Now we will have two prop bets to choose from during the coin toss – heads or tails and receive or defer.

Rule 5: Receivers can no longer be ruled forced out of bounds.

Viewer Impact: You no longer have to explain to your girlfriend/wife why the Dolphin receiver (we know all girls love the Dolphins because of their “cute colors”) was out of bounds when he only had one foot in bounds but when that happened to the receiver on your favorite team the guy in the white hat said the catch was good.


Now you can sit back and enjoy the season knowing you no longer have to worry about these situations.