Far as anyone knows, the NFL loves the Broncos and Cowboys.
It’s when a Cowboy puts the horse collar on another player that the NFL has a problem.
Once again, the NFL looked at plays and techniques that cross the line between clean collisions and unnecessary danger. By reaching inside the shoulder pad at the crook of the neck and yanking down prominent players to serious injury, the NFL has ruled that Dallas safety Roy Williams must find another way to tackle.
Thus the “Roy Williams Rule” is the most notable of the new NFL rules for the 2005 season.
“We don’t call it the Roy Williams rule, by the way,” crew chief Walt Anderson said.
It was Williams’ horse-collar maneuver that resulted in highly publicized torn ankle ligaments for Terrell Owens, a compound leg fracture for Baltimore’s Musa Smith and knee surgery for Tennessee’s Tyrone Calico. A legal technique last season, it will receive a 15-yard penalty this year. (The rule does not apply when the quarterback is in the pocket, as pass rushers likely would only grab the collar inadvertently.)
Although many changes in rules for the sake of player safety are countered with complaints that the NFL has gone soft, there are few dissenters to the “Roy Williams Rule.” Like Lester Hayes’ stickum, Conrad Dobler’s leg whip and Deacon Jones’ head slap, the horse collar had to go.
“We have no problems with any of the rule changes,” Broncos coach Mike Shanahan said.
In all, there are 12 new rules, most of them so technically subtle, only the officials will notice a change. But besides the “Roy Williams Rule,” there are two others that fans may notice.
One is that punters and kickers will be offered the same protection from a punishing hit as quarterbacks. In other words, no more cheap licks on unsuspecting kickers as they run down the field. The owners have come to realize that with usually only one punter and field-goal specialist per team, and so many outcomes decided by the kicker and punter, safety provisions had to be provided.
Also new is the added option the kick-return team has on penalties against the kicking team. Before, if the punting team was offside or had an illegal man downfield, the 5-yard line penalty could be assessed only from the line of scrimmage on a rekick. Now, the 5-yard penalty can be tacked on at the end of the runback. The idea behind the change is to reduce the number of game-dragging rekicks.
“That might be the biggest adjustment we have as officials, just from a procedural standpoint,” Anderson said.
Rules changes
* Defensive players are prohibited from grabbing the inside collar of the back or side of the shoulder pads and immediately pulling down the runner. This rule does not apply to a quarterback in the pocket or a runner in the tackle box. Penalty: Loss of 15 yards. Reason for the change: Will prevent injury that can result from this tackling technique.
* An offensive player who is aligned in the tackle box at the snap and moves to a position outside the box cannot initiate contact on the side and below the waist of an opponent if the player is moving back toward the direction of his own end line. If the near shoulder of the blocker contacts the front of his opponent’s body, the “peel back” block is legal. Penalty: Loss of 15 yards. Reason for the change: Player safety.
* There shall be no unnecessary roughness, including unnecessarily running, diving into, cutting, or throwing the body against or on a player who is out of the play before or after the ball is dead. Reason for the change: Player safety.
* A kicker or punter standing still or fading backward after the ball has been kicked is out of the play and must not be unnecessarily contacted by the receiving team until he assumes a distinctly defensive position. An opponent may not unnecessarily initiate helmet-to-helmet contact to the kicker or punter at any time during the kick or during the return. Reason for the change: Prevents teams from gaining an unfair advantage as a result of injury to a punter or kicker, a position at which there is little to no depth.
* If, during a scrimmage kick, a player is called for illegal touching inside the receiver’s 5-yard line, the receiving team may elect to take a touchback. Reason for the change: Prevents an ineligible player from keeping a kick from entering the end zone and becoming a touchback.
* If, at the end of a half, the defense commits a dead-ball personal foul, the offense may choose to extend the period for one untimed down and move 15 yards forward. Reason for the change: Ensures unsafe act committed by defense after time expires does not go unpunished.
* The “pocket area” is now defined as spanning the normal tackle position on each side of the center and extends backward to the offense’s own end line. Reason for the change: Without two tight ends on opposite sides of the center, the pocket area definition is inconsistent. Narrowing it to the tackles makes the definition more concrete and easier for officials to monitor.
* If, for any reason, the play clock is stopped with fewer than 10 seconds remaining, it is reset to 10 seconds. Reason for the change: More specific regulation of the play clock prevents putting teams at a disadvantage for certain stoppages of the game. If the play clock is stopped with fewer than 10 seconds left, it is exceedingly difficult for teams to line up and execute a play.
* For the following fouls called during a kick play, the offended team will have the option of accepting the penalty at the previous spot and replaying the down or adding the penalty yardage (5 yards) onto the end of the play: ineligible player down field, member of the punting team voluntarily out of bounds, illegal formation, illegal motion, player not reporting change in eligibility, offensive offside and illegal shift. Reason for the change: The added option of assessing a penalty at the end of a return is expected to reduce the number of rekicks.
* An attempt to call an excess or illegal timeout to “freeze” a kicker prior to a field-goal attempt or a PAT will be considered unsportsmanlike conduct. Reason for the change: Will eliminate a team’s attempt to distract the kicker by an illegal request. Officials are instructed to assess the penalty at the end of the play. If the timeout is inadvertently granted, the penalty also will be enforced.
* A team that is out of timeouts or has used all of its available challenges may not attempt to initiate an additional challenge. Penalty: Loss of 15 yards. Reason for the change: Prevents a team that has exhausted all of its challenges or timeouts from stopping the game and protects the competitive integrity of replay procedures. This also applies inside of 2:00 of either half.
* A player or an official is out of bounds when he touches anything other than a player, an official or a pylon on or outside a boundary line. Reason for the change: Helps with officiating consistency.
(SOURCE: NFL)
