On Tuesday, it looked like the NFL owners would turn down the proposal to institute a new rule calling for players to be ejected if they received a pair of unsportsmanlike conduct penalties in the same game.
Things changed on Wednesday, however. According to multiple reports from the league meetings in Boca Raton, Florida, Cowboys executive vice president Stephen Jones said that the proposal passed on a one-year basis.
It’s the same path the league took when they agreed to move the snap for extra point kicks to the 15-yard-line last year. That rule was largely seen as a successful tweak to the game and was adopted on a permanent basis at this year’s meetings.
Some coaches had expressed concern this week about players baiting opponents into getting a second foul that removes them from the game when discussing their misgivings about the rule and Seahawks cornerback Richard Sherman recently laced into NFL commissioner Roger Goodell’s support for it. Those feelings may have led to the decision to go with a one-year trial rather than a full adoption of the rule, but weren’t enough to stop the league from moving forward altogether.