Owners Meetings wrap-up
Overtime won't change, rosters weren't expanded, defensive players can't have a headset, and players can no longer spike the ball except on the end zone. Instant replay is here for good, including down-by-contact. It's no longer an illegal touching penalty if a quarterback hits an offensive lineman by accident.
The biggest issue effecting fantasy leaguers concerns the injury report, which it appears won't officially come out until Friday. We'll just know whether players are practicing or not before then. Considering the intentionally vague and dispare ways teams handled the injury report, I think this is for the best.
I find the rule changes and discussion fascinating, even if there wasn't a lot this year that will change the lives of fantasy leaguers. Just the fact that owners meet at all to improve the quality of the game is the point to me.
Bill James of all people has a great quote in America's Game, which is the text I'd start with if I was teaching a college course on the NFL.
James said,
"Baseball in 1960 was run by people who loved baseball. But it was run by people who, because they loved baseball so much, assumed that there was something 'special' about baseball which had propelled it to its predominant position in the American sports world. And because they made this assumption, they allowed the game to drift. They didn't really think about the game, as a commercial product; they still don't.Pete Rozelle, Lamar Hunt, George Halas and the other people who ran pro football had serious disagreements among themselves, but they all assumed that they had both the right and the responsibility to shape football into the best possible commercial product that could be built upon the framework of the game. If they games were boring, they assumed it was their responsibility to make them more exciting. If they games were too long, they assumed it was their responsibility to trim the fat."
A lot of what James said still applies to how the NFL and MLB differ in management style. The NFL Owners' meetings is a good example.
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