Friday, March 18, 2011
Posted: 10:07 a.m.
By John Mullin
CSNChicago.com
If youd like a vague feel-good about the prospects for a 2011 NFL season, heres one ( a little one): The NFL is proceeding with rules changes just like they always do this time of year when there is a season looming.
This is the normal time that rules would be passed, Mike Pereira said Friday on The Dan Patrick Show on Comcast SportsNet. NFL owners have got to look as business-as-usual going forward.
Pereira, formerly the NFLs vice president of officiating and now one of the top rules analysts in the game in his post with FOXSports, does think the rules affecting kickoffs and kickoff returns in particular will pass. But they do reflect a near-reversal of a previous trend for the league.
Kickoffs, once moved back to the 30-yard line to increase the number of returns, now would be moved to the 35 to cut down on them. Touchbacks would be brought out to the 25-yard line instead of the 20, providing a five-yard incentive to take a knee.
And coverage teams will be limited to a five-yard running start, which might be the biggest change in terms of physics. Force is equal to mass times speed-squared, so if you trim some speed at the front end, you reduce the potential impact at the other end. Throw in a total ban on wedge-blocking of any kind and you have at least theoretically dialed down the chance for injuries on coverage teams, which in fact do suffer more of them than the receiving team.
NFL
Its got to be clearly for safety, Mike said. This is a complete shift for the competition committee. Now they are clearly going to take the returnout of the game.
Dan asked Mike if in fact you can make kickoffs safe. You cant make it safe, Mike explained. You can slow it down.
The 25-yard-line provision seemed to Mike to be the one to watch. The average return of a kickoff is 22.5 yards, he said, so If you catch a ball in the end zone, guess what Youre going to take a knee and get the ball at the 25.
Mike cited players like Devin Hester, for whom the Bears gave a No. 2 draft choice (2006). And a valid question is how much teams will value returners now.
Mike suggested a very simple reason why he sees the measures passing when they come to a vote at the upcoming meetings in New Orleans. Owners traditionally do not vote against safety proposals, he said.
The Charles Johnson Rule, where a catch must be clearly completed to be a catch, will not be revised, although itd be nice to get the rules consistent with how everyone visualizes the game, Mike concluded.
Ooops
A pretty good day for the Moon Bracket, except for one huge setback. Youd think that a school that gave the Bears about 10 percent of their roster would be a little kinder to a Chicago guy but Vanderbilt took the pipe against Richmond, and I had the Commoduds all the way through to the Elite Eight. Ooooops.
But Butler took care of Old Dominion, which was nice, and Gonzaga handled St. Johns, which was very nice. So Ive got 15 of my final 16 still doing business but I do need Texas A&M to dispatch Notre Dame a round from now.
See the things you pay close attention to when theres no NFL to speak (or write) of some days?
John "Moon" Mullin is CSNChicago.com's Bears Insider, and appears regularly on Bears Postgame Live and Chicago Tribune Live. Follow Moon on Twitter for up-to-the-minute Bears information.