Tuesday Afternoon Linebacker

I say King instead of Commissioner because the Commish does not have absolute power to make unilateral changes. He has to work with the various committees and owners to get things accomplished. What follows is what I would change if I were King Of The NFL. And Tommy, this one’s long too.

Broadcasting
1. There will be four afternoon games on in every market unless the home team is home and has not sold out the stadium. That last part has to stay, it’s there to make money for the team. And if they don’t make money, they’ll go away.

2. With the exception of home team games, the games broadcast on a local affiliate will be chosen by phone and Internet voting of local viewers.

3. Monday Night Football games where both teams are from the Eastern or Central time zone will kick off at 8 PM. If one or both teams are from the Mountain or Pacific zones, the start time will move back to 9 PM. This should allow those of us on the East coast to watch our home team and also get some sleep.

4. At least five real-world minutes must pass between commercial breaks for the first 55 game minutes of any NFL contest. Time outs taken by the teams, due to injury, or during an instant replay review are excepted from this rule.

5. The Monday Night Football schedule for the final five weeks will not be set before the season. Instead, after week 11 the League will determine which match up for week 13 appears to be the most “attractive” and assign that game to MNF. The Sunday afternoon networks (currently Fox and CBS) will receive one veto each for the season. If a network uses their veto, the League will then assign the next most “attractive” game to MNF. The process will be repeated after week 12 for the week 14 match-up, and so on. Sunday night, Thursday night, and “special” event games (eg; Thanksgiving) cannot be moved to MNF.

6. The blackout radius will be reduced from 75 miles from the stadium to 50 miles.

7. NFL Sunday Ticket customers will be exempt from blackout rules. They are paying a premium above and beyond everyone else, so they should get a bonus.

Officiating and Replay
1. Officials can use replay to determine the spot of a ball where the spot could not be easily determined by the on-field officials.

2. Offensive Holding will be given more attention. This will be done in order to counter-balance the increase in offense seen as a result of the higher scrutiny given to illegal contact starting in the 2004 season.

3. A blown whistle cannot negate the opportunity to use the instant replay challenge system.

4. Teams will be allotted their four instant replay challenges at the beginning of the game. And, with the exception of the last two minutes of each half, those challenges can be used at any time during the game. If a team is successful on a challenge, they will be awarded another challenge, but only one time.

5. The Referee of each crew will become a full-time NFL employees. The two top-rated Referees after each season will become members of the League’s competition committee for the following year.

6. A player who commits three personal fouls in the span of 60 game minutes (that is, it can run from one game to the next) will be automatically ejected.

7. Any called penalty that can be found to not have an effect on the play will be automatically “waved off”. The exception being any personal foul.

Game Play
1. A player is down when he has possession of the ball and:
- The player goes out of bounds.
- The ball crosses the goal-line.
- Any part of the body besides the feet and/or hands touch the ground and an opposing player touches him with any part of their body.
- The officials have determined that forward progress has stopped. Regardless of any blown whistles.

2. An offensive lineman can no longer be “drawn off” by the defense. The offensive linemen should know the snap count. If they move illegally before the snap, they will be penalized, regardless of the actions of the defense (except for encroachment with contact).

3. This might be the most radical one yet. And I’m not even sure I’m all for it myself.
On kickoffs, the kicking team may station a 12th player in their own end zone. Once the ball is kicked, the kicker must then proceed off the playing field. Once the kicker is off of the field, this 12th player can then move out of the end zone and toward the play.

Personnel
1. Rookie salaries would be capped. The cap would be designed as follows; the value of a drafted rookie’s initial deal can be no more than the inverse of their draft round (a 1st round pick could have a $7 million deal, a 6th round pick would get up to $2 million) and the length of the deal is set at 4 years.

Undrafted rookies would fall under the 7th round cap.

The deal cannot be restructured at any time before the end of the contract. Negotiations can take place any time during the final year of the deal and a new deal can be signed seven days after the final regular season or playoff game for the team.

Drafted players can only be released during their first or third year training camp. At the end of the fourth year, the player becomes a restricted free-agent.

If the player is released during their first year training camp they can re-sign with another team under these same rules. If they are released during the third year training camp, the player becomes an unrestricted free-agent until they are signed. They would then be subject to normal NFL free-agent rules.

This should accomplish two things. First, untested rookie players will not break the bank only to become disappointments later on. Second, more cap space will be free to retain accomplished veteran players.

2. A veteran salary cap exemption will be put in place. Veteran players with six consecutive years of service to one team (or eight total in the NFL) will have 40% of their base salary and 60% of any bonuses counted toward the team’s salary cap allotment.

3. Coaches will be barred from also holding the title and/or duties of President, Vice President, General Manager, or Director of Player Personnel for any NFL team.

4. A head or assistant coach may interview for other coaching opportunities within the League at any time with the exception of the week before the Conference championship game and/or Super Bowl if their teams are participating. Teams may not have any contact with head or assistant coaches (or their representatives) they wish to interview or hire during the week prior if those coaches are participating in Conference championships or the Super Bowl.

Scheduling
1. Thanksgiving Games:
- The 3rd seeded division champion of each conference will be the Thanksgiving game hosts for the following season.
- The four teams participating in the Thanksgiving games will be assigned their bye for the week prior.
- The visiting teams will always have a home game the following week.
- The host teams will always have a road game the following week.

2. The Bye schedule will be adjusted to accommodate the provisions in item 1. The week before Thanksgiving will be the final Bye week.

3. Divisional games will be scheduled for the first three and last three weeks of the season.

Super Bowl
1. The Super Bowl will NEVER be played in an outdoor stadium in a city where it is historically possible that there could be snowfall on the expected date of the game.

2. The League can no longer engage in the practice of promising a Super Bowl to cities in order to entice them to build new stadiums. However, a city can be informed that their bid was (or would be) rejected due to a stadium that does not meet Super Bowl requirements. But no “if you build it, we will come” promise (official or otherwise) can be made by the League or any owner or other associated party.

I thought of a few more things that I would change, but then forgot them. Maybe this can become a regular special feature. We’ll see. As always, feel free to add your own King-like proclamations or harsh criticism to the comments section below.