Promote your business or product on 700level.com. For
more information about advertising with us CLICK HERE!

A couple of changes from the PE site.

I do like the no spiking the ball after after a pointless first down by some douche who feels the needs celebrate, even though the team is down by 30.

"NFL official Tom Sifferman hosted a roundtable discussion for the media on Saturday to discuss the rule changes for 2007. Sifferman, Chad Brown, Scott Helverson and Tom Symonette have been at the Eagles' training camp to advise the players on the new rules during practices.

The most notable changes include:

* Spiking or throwing the ball in the field of play after a down has ended results in a five-yard penalty. Players can still spike the ball after touchdowns. If a player spikes the ball while the play is still alive, it will be deemed an illegal forward pass if the ball moves forward. If the ball moves back, the result is a fumble and the play is still alive. The reason for this rule change is to improve sportsmanship and to speed up the game.
* In previous years, when an airborne player was headed out of bounds near the goal line he would score as long as the ball broke the plane in or out of bounds because, in theory, the goal line extended beyond the field of play. That is the case no more. The player now must get any part of the football to pass over or inside the goal line pylon before he touches out of bounds to be awarded a touchdown.
* The NFL invested a significant amount of money in the off-season to upgrade instant replay technology to high definition because it is now a permanent part of the game. To help speed up the game, referees will now only have 60 seconds instead of 90 to review a play.
* Another significant change to instant replay is that plays where runners are ruled down by contact, but a fumble occurs can now be challenged. If there is indisputable evidence of a fumble, the spot where the player recovered the ball will be the new line of scrimmage. Any advances are nullified. If there is no indisputable visual evidence, the original call of down by contact will stand.
* Illegal touching was called on offensive linemen if they were the first to touch a forward pass. Now, it is only illegal if they intentionally try to touch it or if the pass is caught by a player who was originally ineligible before the snap. It was deemed that no advantage was gained when an offensive lineman unintentionally touched a forward pass.
* An illegal cut block on wide receiver - any block below the waist after the receiver crosses the line of scrimmage - is now a 15-yard penalty and an automatic first down.

Other points of emphasis include:

* Referees will be very strict in calling illegal contact, defensive holding, taunting and roughing the quarterback penalties.
* The amount of time for teams to prepare the kicking (or K) balls has been extended to 45 minutes from 20, beginning two hours and 15 minutes prior to kickoff. The officials will assign an independent K-ball person to relay the 12 balls into play when needed. Every effort will be made to keep a ball in play that has previously been kicked.





07/24/07 Brown's Hit Featured On ...
06/25/07 Are Eagles Better Now...
07/28/07 Training Camp Autograph ...
07/23/07 What You Don't Know:...
07/25/07 All In As Kolb Agrees...



08/06/07 Training Camp
08/07/07 Training Camp
08/08/07 Training Camp
08/09/07 Training Camp
08/10/07 Training Camp

* Referees will be very strict in calling illegal contact, defensive holding, taunting and roughing the quarterback penalties.

The roughing the QB calls could get really out of hand, then.

Some logical changes in there and nothing major.

I may be alone here, but is there any reason they can't get rid of that "forced out of bounds" catch? Catching the ball and getting 2 feet inbounds is so simple and I cannot understand why they have that ridiculous "well...see...his feet probably would have come down in bounds if the defense wasn't on the field" rule.

Yeah, it never made sense to me that if a defensive player made a play to stop a guy from getting both feet down, that the WR could still get credit for a catch.

* Referees will be very strict in calling illegal contact, defensive holding,

And if I could make a rule change, it would be that these two penalties would be made 10 yarders but not result in an automatic first down.

The player now must get any part of the football to pass over or inside the goal line pylon before he touches out of bounds to be awarded a touchdown.

I guess this will remove a lot of sketchy calls, but it's also going to get ugly the first time a WR with two feet in the end zone catches a ball throw to the sideline and not over or inside a pylon.

The other rule changes are decent, overall. The long-hated "down by contact" is finally granted a replay.

Jerobi, that rule won't apply if the receiver is in bounds.

Thanks Dino. Good point, it makes sense now after rereading it.