Mikey D

These 3 rules bother the hell out of me.

1) Intentional Grounding: "A forward pass is thrown intentionally incomplete so that the passer avoids loss of yardage or to conserve time."
The defense comes with a huge pass rush, and the quarterback is about to get destroyed and go down for an eight yard loss...but wait! To spare his own life, he chucks the ball to his receivers coach on the sideline. The defenders let up, the quarterback breathes a sigh of relief, and oh yeah, the referee throws the penalty flag. Ten yard penalty, and a loss of down. Now it's not the loss of down that gets me here, as the QB was giving that away as he chucked it three rows deep into the stands. It's the ten yard penalty. Why are we penalizing QBs for not getting creamed and taking sacks? Plays such as the one described above seem completely natural and sensible. You shouldn't be penalized for not wanting to be sacked. To make matters worse, instead of just losing the down and moving onto the next play, we have to stop the game, have the referees discuss the play, hear the explanation, mark off ten yards, AND THEN move onto the next play. It's kills the flow of the game (and yes, I know there are a thousand other things that kill the flow, but no need to add another one), and puts the offense at a severe disadvantage- all because the QB didn't want to have his head buried into the ground courtesy of a 300 pound lineman. This rule is all the more curious to me because of the concussion conscious and QB protecting NFL we are in these days. Stupid rule.

2) Forward Progress: "The runner's forward progress toward the opponents' goal line is stopped from contact by the opponent with little chance to be resumed."
Okay, I have a small problem with this rule. It's stupid. To me, a player is down when he is tackled. It's one of the simplest rules of the game. You are down when you are down. But that's not the case with this rule. If you are a running back, and you run the ball into a giant pile, you run until you are pushed down, or until forward progress is stopped. It's that last part that bothers me. How often have we seen running backs get pushed by their offensive line an extra five yards? And how often have we seen a defense gang tackle a running back and push him back five yards, only to have the play blown dead and have the forward progress be considered the "down" point? It's not fair! If the offensive line can push a running back who refuses to go down forward for extra yards, a defensive line should be able to push a running back who refuses to go down backwards. If the back is stupid enough not to go down and allow himself to be pushed backwards, he deserves to lose the yardage. A player is down when he's down. When you're on the ground, the play is over. Forward progress is bullshit.

3) Kickoffs: "On kickoffs, if a kicking team recovers the football, they may not advance the football past the point of possession."
When a team kicks off to another team, it is essentially a free ball. The first one to grab it has possession for their team. Easy enough to understand, right? Most kickoffs we see involve the returner taking the kickoff from his goaline and running it forward until he is tackled. Other times we will see the kicking team recover the onside kick and be tackled immediately. My question is, why can't the kicking team advance the ball if they recover the football? Unlike a punt, the ball is free in the air for anyone to get when it is kicked. The only way the kicking team can recover the ball on a punt is if it's touched, or fumbled, by the receiving team. On kickoffs, all you have to do is get it first! So why is the receiving team allowed to return the ball once they possess it, and not the kicking team when they get it? It's not like the kicking team has an unfair advantage- they are kicking it to the other team's players! The chances of them getting the ball and returning it anywhere are slim, but why take away the opportunity? I think on free balls, like the ones on kickoffs, it's only fair to let the kicking team advance the football if they recover it.

~Mikey D