The NFL’s rule changes are hurting the leagues watchability

57 Super Bowls, thousands of games, thousands of players and thousands of controversies.  

The NFL has a rich history as America’s sport. From Pee-Wee to the NFL, football connects millions of people by giving them blow-outs, game-winning fields goals and rags-to-riches stories. But where is it going? My love for football will never go away, but my love for the NFL has surely begun to expire.  

The game has changed, the NFL says it’s for the better, but I disagree. Player safety has become the priority concern for the league and its executives, and rightfully so. Football is a brutal sport, grown men run full speed at each other, and injuries are bound to happen. The league has an obligation to try and mitigate such injuries, but at what cost? The NFL’s desire to make the sport “safer” has created something different.  

From new rules around how to hit QB’s, to the recent ban of the so called “hip-drop tackle”, and other such rule changes, they have created a league where the offense reigns supreme. Sure, we all love a good QB shootout, but how can defenses hope to contain this era of artificial offense when the NFL’s executive continues to chop the legs out from the defense?  

These new rules are very one sided, all of them protect offensive players. Players share this sentiment. After the NFL banned the “hip-drop tackle” just a few weeks ago, the National Football League Players Association released a statement on their website.  

“While the players have consistently advocated for health and safety advancements, any prohibition on the “hip-drop tackle” technique is unfair to players and unrealistic to implement. It places defensive players in an impossible position by creating indecision in the mind of any tackling player, puts officials in an unreasonable situation that will result in inconsistent calls on the field, and confuses our fans.” 

They change the way the game can be played, and inadvertently affect how the game can be governed. Each and every rule change places a referee’s discretion more and more into the outcome of games. Referees who are shoddy at best. Most fans realize that a referee cannot see every call during a game. Refs missing or making unpopular calls have always been a part of the game, but as the league has given more and more influence over the outcomes of games to refs, the players lose control over what happens. The difference in calls between referees is obvious from game to game. What one may call, the other doesn’t, and that is the problem, especially with calls related to tackles.  

There is no standard for a hip-drop tackle like there is for others that have been banned. However, even with the standards, refs continue to make errors or calls that are, at a minimum, questionable. What rules were seemingly clear and obvious continue to get murky.  

The NFL refuses to make changes that the players want. In recent years, players have called for the removal of turf fields in favor of real grass. Leg injuries are at an all-time high in the current era of the league. Now the NFL believes that banning a tackle will fix that. Maybe it will. But something that won’t fix it is having your multi-million-dollar athletes run, fall and jump on hard turf. Turf Toe continues to affect players every year because of how hard the NFL’s turf fields are on player’s legs and yet the NFL refuses to make such changes.  

The league that doesn’t have such issues is the NCAA. Collegiate football has not experienced the same issues that plague the NFL weekly. In fact, I would venture to say that the NCAA is the better watch. While college football is no stranger to high-scoring, offensively sided shootouts between QB’s, these games are not derivative of rule changes. The game is pure and untainted, and the stakes are higher. Sure yes, NFL teams battle week to week for playoff spots, but in truth, it really doesn’t matter. In fact, of the 57 Super Bowls that have been played, 44 of the winners have been in the first four seeds, and 26 of them were the number one seeds. While the College Football Playoff is relatively new, it boasts six different champions in the 10 CFP’s that have been played. Week to week play is even more important in the NCAA. Every touchdown, every field goal, every fourth-and-goal can adjust a team’s ranking.  

In the 2023-2024 season, almost every single team’s early season ranking moved at least once, and at the end of the season the rankings were almost entirely different than they were from the start. This leaves tension in every game. Conference games matter, out-of-conference games matter and even player injuries can alter the way a team is ranked. Starting this year, the CFP will expand to 12 teams in total, adding eight from its previous version. This means the stakes are higher than ever before. More teams have a chance to compete, more teams will win and more teams will take risks to up their rankings.  

This not only is better for the players, but it is also better for the viewers. Giving the regular season true stakes makes every game a must-watch. They make every game a must-win.  

Maybe the NFL can make the necessary changes to balance player safety and invigorating games, maybe they can’t. We will have to see. But I know where I’ll be on Saturdays.  

Jack DeWitt can be reached at [email protected]