A Rule Change

R

romegajacket

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May 14, 2003
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That I would like to see is:
for a touchdown to be scored, a player with the football has to get into the endzone with the ball.

No more waving the ball across a flag.
No more controversy over did his knee touch the ground before the nose of the ball barely penetrated the plane of the goal line.
No sir, have a player either take the ball all the way into the endzone or catch the ball in the endzone and touch endzone dirt.
 
The case of balls caught in the end-zone is clear I guess, but for running a TD in, what you are saying is

A) the whole football has to break the plane before the player's knee hits ground?
B) or the player's knee has to hit the end zone with ball in possession?


I might also add that, I think the rules as they are fine. It is easier to judge if a ball breaks the plane, rather than if the whole thing breaks the plane.
 
Forward Progress?

So how would you rule the forward progress of the ball that goes into the end zone but the player does not?

Anywhere else on the field the ball is spotted at the point where forward progress was stopped. Is it a special rule just for touchdowns?

What about first downs? Players can do the same thing to reach a ball for a first down. Would you require the whole player with ball to be beyond the yard marker to get a first down?

Your rule change introduces more complexity than the current system unless you change the overall ball spotting to the point where the player first goes down instead of where the ball is located when he goes down. Then you still have the forward progress issue when a whistle blows but the player never goes down.

FWIW, I like the uncertainty the current rules provide. You can choose to reach the ball forward, but if you do you risk getting it knocked loose. The player has to decide whether to take the gamble.

It seems only recently have defenses caught on to swat at those balls. And there seem to be lots more cases where the "reach" backfires on the player with a fumble.
 
Also, you will never get away from confusion in ruling close cases, there will always be close calls.

Just as a reference, soccer uses the rule that the whole ball has to cross the goal line for a score. They got no cameras, no reviews, with a ball being kicked moving at a high speed and just three refs miles away from the scene. Practically, they pick those cases randomly. Football is ages ahead in terms of refereeing.
 
Ball touches ground in the big ole endzone = Touchdown.

Seems plenty fair enough to me. YMMV.
 
It sounds good but if a defender picks the guy up and totes him back on the field before he can dive to the dirt it wouldn't be a TD? That would create a bunch of hijinks. But wasn't it a rule originally that you had to touch down the ball on the ground (hence, the term "touchdown")
 
Football didn’t really begin to take on any consistency of rules and boundaries until it was picked up as a sport in the seven major public schools of England in the early 1800’s. Six of the seven schools were largely playing the same game (including Eton, Harrow and Winchester) - while the seventh, Rugby School (founded in 1567) was playing a markedly different version of football.

The other schools moved ahead refining their rules and eventually their game became known as "association football" – or soccer, which was played back then much as it is today.
old_football.jpg
Rugby School went in a different direction. How and why the game developed differently at Rugby School appears to have been lost in history, but what is known is that by the 1830's, running with the ball at Rugby School was in common use and 18 foot goal posts had been added with a cross-bar at 10 feet above the ground.

The inclusion of the cross-bar was accompanied by a rule that a goal could only be scored by the ball passing over the bar from a place kick or drop kick. Apparently this was done to make scoring easier from further out and also to avoid the horde of defenders standing in and blocking the mouth of the goal.

 Players who were able to "touch down" the ball behind the opponents goal line were awarded a "try-at-goal" - the player would make a mark on the goal line and then walk back onto the field of play to a point where a place kick at the goal was possible (a conversion). There was also an "off-your-side" rule used to keep the teams apart. Passing the ball forward was not allowed.

By the mid-1860s British schools and universities had taken up Rugby's game and honored the school by giving the "new football" the name of rugby.
 
Rugby school must feel pretty proud! Rugby is still pretty popular in Europe and among some British ex-colonies.
 
If I were Commish for a Day, I'd change the rule that the ball was spotted where the players knee hit. After all, that's where the refs are looking to determine if a player is down or not.

If you want to go with forward progress. Fine, spot the ball where the feet got to before the player was pushed back. The foot is a helluva lot closer to the knee than outstretched finger tips. This would also mean a player had to at least step into the end zone for a TD to count.
 
You guys are crazy. The rules are fine as they are. The football is what counts. The same as in baseball and basketball.
 
i wish they would change a few things in college football, but not this rule
 
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