Owners vote for stricter safety rules

INDIANAPOLIS — NFL owners voted unanimously on Tuesday for rule changes that protect defenseless players and set stricter guidelines for tacklers. In total, three rule changes were agreed upon, all by a vote of 32-0.

The league expanded on the previous rules that protect defenseless players to those who are "clearly not a runner." Those players include placekickers and punters who are not attempting to make a tackle, quarterbacks following an interception or fumble and a player who is blocked from the blind side when the blocker is moving toward his own endline and approaches the player being blocked from behind or the side. Hits on those players are now forbidden.

If the receiver or runner is able to avoid the impending contact from an opponent, however, that receiver or runner is no longer defenseless.

"We had some discussion about should this (protection) apply to a runner because we've got some hits in the open field," competion committee chairman and Falcons president Rich McKay said. "We really felt like no because there is a lot of pressure on the defensive player to make to the tackle and if you take away something like this maybe you're giving this offensive player another advantage, so we didn't apply it to that."

Owners also voted to make it against the rules for a player to leave his feet prior to contact by springing forward or upward into an opponent or using any part of his helmet to make forcible contact against any part of his opponent's body.

Finally, a defender grazing a quarterback's head with hands, arms or any othe part of the body will no longer result in a personal foul unless they are forcible blows. It is a judgment call by the referee to determine if the hit was a forcible blow.

"We're putting a little on the referee as to that, but we think we've got good video to show the referee what we want called and what we don't what called," McKay said.

The changes passed Tuesday had been tabled at the owners' meetings in March after some teams believed they were too vague. The competition committee revised the proposed changes.

"I don't think we really felt like these are any changes that the officials can't handle and I don't think any of them are moving the needle that dramatically," McKay said. "They're just moving the needle in the right direction, as I think we have been."

The league has emphasized player safety and limiting head injuries in recent years and McKay said it's something the NFL will remain vigilant about.

"I hope that we've reached a place where, on the defenseless player aspect, we've got it where we want it," McKay said. "It doesn't mean it won't have to change because as people become better athletes and people come up with new techniques, and they always do, then you've got to always be on the lookout."

Source: http://www.profootballweekly.com/2011/05/24/owners-vote-for-stricter-safety-rules

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