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The NFL is reportedly expected to approve a pair of rules changes next week.
At league meeting next week, NFL owners will vote on proposal to allow a second player to come off IR in season. Likely to be approved.
— Judy Battista (@judybattista) May 17, 2017
NFL owners are also expected to approve the proposal that was previously tabled to reduce regular season OT from 15 to 10 minutes.
— Judy Battista (@judybattista) May 17, 2017
My thoughts:
Second IR spot: I don’t think it goes far enough, but this is a step in the right direction. Players take a physical pounding in this league, but the rules for dealing with injuries are more restrictive than baseball’s. It makes no sense. The league should make all injured reserve players eligible to return at some point. It would make sense to have a four week minimum for players to be on IR to prevent teams from cheating the system, but why not give teams a chance to replace short-term unavailable players on their roster?
Overtime: I’m not sure what the league is trying to accomplish with this move. The only tangible effect would probably be slightly more ties since there will be less time in overtime to break the tie. It probably won’t affect many games, but those it does affect will be ties. I really don’t understand the direction the league has taken with its overtime format. If you want to have sudden death, make it sudden death. If you want both teams to get the ball, have both teams get the ball. The current rules are this weird, arbitrary hybrid. I don’t think taking five minutes off the overtime period will help anything.