A Very Hairy Issue

In addition, any direct snap from center that is untouched by the quarterback now will be a live ball; in the past it was considered a false start and the play was blown dead. The 5-yard penalty for incidental contact with a facemask has been eliminated, with the 15-yarder remaining for any grasping or twisting of the facemask.

On Tuesday, the owners approved a communication device in the helmet of one defensive player.

However, the reseeding was not met with much enthusiasm or support from the owners.
The league’s competition committee withdrew the proposal after an informal vote sent it “down in flames,’” according to New York Giants co-owner John Mara.

Atlanta Falcons, was not surprised about the lack of support for reseeding, in which a wild-card team with a better record than a division winner would play at home in the first playoff round.

“This idea we wanted to push this year to get the discussion going,” McKay said. “There were not a lot of hands up, so we withdrew the proposal for now.”

“There is the historical idea that a division champion should have a home game.”

Which was exactly why Patriots owner Robert Kraft opposed reseeding.

“I do believe if you win a division, it’s good for your fans to know you will have a home game,” Kraft said. “To win a division, there is a reward and we wanted to keep that.”

There remains concern about late-season games becoming meaningless when teams already have secured their playoff positions. Commissioner Roger Goodell indicated discussions of reseeding are not dead.

“The focus I said to the competition committee is what are the alternatives we have to make sure every game is as competitive as possible,” Goodell said. “I think the debate was good.”

Playoff reseeding makes sense to me and to some owners, but not enough to make it happen, not yet in any case. I hope they find a way to make the playoff seedings indicative of the team rankings and not solely based on division wins.

Case in point, the New York Giants, last year’s Super Bowl winner had to take the long way to the championship, as a wild card team. They had a season record of 10-6 while the Tampa Bay Bucs finished the season at 9-7 but were able to rest their players as division winners.

Another are that bears review and evaluation is the way college players are compensated in the draft. It is an insane system. Rookies are guaranteed unholy amounts of money before they have played one second of NFL football. The injustice is even greater when it comes to first round picks. I don’t know why the NFLPA hasn’t taken a stand on this inequitable treatment on behalf of their veteran players.