New NFL Rule Being Discussed?? No kickoffs!

[bjornolf]

Well, to be honest, I don't know how serious the NFL is about concussions so much as they are interested in not getting sued for lack of safe play. Their willingness to force teams to play games on VERY short rest (Sunday to Thursday) and to push for more regular season games suggests that they don't completely care about safety. They care about revenue first and foremost.

I think rule changes like that would put the league at a risk of losing revenue. The big hits are part of why people watch. Take them away (or completely change the rules of football) and you run the risk of damaging the popularity of the sport. And if there's one thing the NFL isn't interested in, it's losing popularity (i.e., revenue).

The simple way to fix the short rest issue, and something I'm a little surprised they haven't done, would be to have the teams who play in the Thursday game (after the first few weeks) have their byes right before they play in the Thursday night game. That way, they'd have ten days before and ten after to recover and prepare.

[JasonEvans]

The simple way to fix the short rest issue, and something I'm a little surprised they haven't done, would be to have the teams who play in the Thursday game (after the first few weeks) have their byes right before they play in the Thursday night game. That way, they'd have ten days before and ten after to recover and prepare.

That might work some weeks, but what about Thursday night games early or late in the season when it does not make sense to have teams on bye?

-Jason

[bjornolf]

That might work some weeks, but what about Thursday night games early or late in the season when it does not make sense to have teams on bye?

-Jason

Like I said, after the first few weeks. Guys don't need the long rest as much the first month of the season, though teams have byes as early as week four or five anyway, I believe. As for late in the season, yeah, that would be difficult. I hadn't realized we had Thursday games all season now. It could help the teams playing the Thursday night games in, say, weeks 5-14 though, and teams playing after that could still benefit from a late bye in weeks 12-14. That bye makes a HUGE difference for these guys.