What a shame!
Proposal to limit NFL defensive pass interference withdrawn
ORLANDO, Fla. — NFL owners won’t have a chance to pass a proposed playingrule change that would have limited defensive pass interference (DPI) penalties to 15 yards.
The New York Jets submitted that proposal but, no doubt because they sensed the proposal had no chance to pass, withdrew it Monday afternoon, a Postmedia source said. And that’s a shame. The rule for ages has been a spot foul. That means if a defender interferes with a receiver’s attempt to catch a pass, say, 68 yards own field, it’s a 68-yard walk-off. Such occasional long walkoffs will continue in 2018.
The change proposed by the Jets would have limited walkoffs to 15 yards, no matter how far downfield the transgression. But it would still allow for spot fouls, if “intentional and egregious.”
A report Sunday night said there was little support for the change within the eightmember NFL’s competition committee — which traditionally is more averse to substantive change than the Catholic Church. Only two of eight committee members endorsed the change, the report said.
And when the competition committee doesn’t endorse a significant rule change, owners almost never do either.
Every rule, by-law or resolution proposal must be approved by at least 75% of owners, or 24 or 32, to go into effect.
U.S. college football implemented the 15-yard DPI limit in 1984, after rejecting such a limit for generations. Despite heretical predictions from the opposed coaches — who claimed that targeted receivers on deep passes would be tackled left and right in the last couple minutes of a half — it never happened. The college DPI limit proved a huge success from the get-go, in that it eliminated the chance for a desperate offence to gain a huge chunk of yards cheaply.
One person familiar with NFL competition committee discussions on this proposal told Postmedia that a member argued vehemently at a meeting in Indianapolis late last month against its passing.
To back his point, he said that while college defenders seldom know where the ball is, or when it might drop into a receiver’s hands, pro defenders almost always do. And they’d abuse the 15-yard limit whenever a trailing offence has a long way to march; that is, they’d just keep committing DPI if necessary, if they know the most an offence could advance is 15 yards at a time.
Well then, how about putting in the 15-yard limit only for the first 28 minutes of each half? That is, up until two minutes remained in each half? The “intentional and egregious” qualifier would take care of the rare tackling of receivers before the end of a half.
Competition committee chair Rich McKay last Friday on a conference call with reporters listed the number of long DPI walkoffs last season, and you might be surprised how few there were.
Of approximately 40,000 offensive plays and 17,000 passes across the league in