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Watch your mouth: NFL wants to clean up sportsmanship, taunting
• By Jim Thomas
http://www.stltoday.com/sports/foot...cle_0c8e0536-80af-5c92-b34e-8b63a3e07bd7.html
In a league that covets competitive balance and offense, 2013 was a very good year for the NFL.
Five teams made the playoffs in 2013 that did not qualify in 2012, marking the 24th consecutive year that at least four new teams qualified for postseason play.
Eighteen games took place last season in which teams overcame at least a 14-point deficit to win, tying a single-season record set in 2011.
And 48 percent of the games in 2013 were decided by seven or fewer points, the fourth-highest percentage in league history.
In terms of offense, there were a combined 46.82 points scored per game, and 697 combined yards gained per game. Both are league records.
Even with those numbers, things didn’t get out of whack between offense and defense. To wit, the top five teams in total defense last season made the playoffs and all won at least 11 games. That would be Carolina, Cincinnati, New Orleans, San Francisco and Super Bowl champion Seattle.
So the overall state of the game never has been better on those fronts. But the state of sportsmanship, taunting, verbal abuse? Not so much.
As NFL owners, coaches, and club executives gather this week in Orlando, Fla., for the league’s annual March meetings. sportsmanship and player conduct will be a major topic of discussion. There were reports during the NFL scouting combine in late February that a rule would be proposed banning use of the “N-word” on the field or in the workplace.
Part of the impetus for this comes from the bullying scandal in Miami involving former Ram Richie Incognito and Jonathan Martin. But also, some games (See: Rams at Seattle) degenerated into trash-talking marathons.
But there will be no new rules passed on the subject. As Atlanta president Rich McKay and Rams coach Jeff Fisher pointed out during a competition committee conference call Wednesday, there already are provisions in the rule book to handle such things.
“We have the current rule — unsportsmanlike conduct, Rule 12, Section 3,” Fisher said. “It states that, ‘Using abusive, threatening or insulting language, or gestures to opponents, teammates, officials or representatives of the league is unsportsmanlike conduct.’’’
Fisher said that rule certainly applies to a couple of potential issues in the league at the moment.
“The ‘N-word’ would fall under that category,” he said.
“The officials will be empowered to call a foul if there are racial slurs or statements regarding another player’s sexual orientation, or even baiting and insulting with verbal abuse.”
Comments about sexual orientation could be an issue now that University of Missouri defensive end Michael Sam announced last month that he is homosexual, and as a result would be the league’s first openly-gay player.
Fisher said keeping such language and slurs off the field and out of the workplace in the NFL, “is going to be a very significant point of emphasis.”
Points of emphasis are things that the league’s officiating crews carefully monitor. More than a decade ago it was illegal contact by defensive backs on wide receivers.
The last couple of years, it has been blows to the head of quarterbacks and defenseless receivers.
This coming season, players need to watch their mouths. McKay pointed out that NFL vice president of officiating Dean Blandino and his office will take the time to educate players, coaches, officials and even the media on how the rule will be enforced this year.
“So that it is very clear,” McKay said. “It will be done in the spring when the officiating department goes on the road to see all of the clubs.”
Overall, Fisher said there have been indications of a decline in sportsmanship in the game recently.
“We have seen instances of taunting increase ever so slightly on the field,” Fisher said. “Those that are called and those that are not called. We recognize that we need to clean up a lot of the activity on the field as well.”
According to statistics relayed by McKay, Fisher’s statement that taunting is increasing “ever so slightly” is understatement. McKay said there were 34 penalties for taunting in 2013, almost a four-fold increase from the nine taunting calls in 2012.
All told there are a whopping 21 playing rule, bylaw, or resolution proposals up for discussion and potentially for vote at the owners’ meetings. Among them:
• Moving the kickoff to the 40-yard line (which would all but eliminate the kickoff return as part of the game).
• Making personal foul penalties subject to instant replay.
• Making the recovery of a loose ball in the field of play reviewable under instant replay.
• Allowing referees to consult with the NFL officiating department in New York during instant replay reviews.
• Eliminating overtime games in the preseason.
• Moving the line of scrimmage back to the 25-yard line on extra-point attempts.
• Expanding game-day rosters to 49 players for any game not played on a Sunday or Monday (with the exception of opening week).
• Expanding the practice squad roster to 10 players, from eight.
• Moving up the start of the trading period to two weeks before the start of the league year.
• Permitting more than one player to return from injured reserve to the active roster during the season.
There is no proposal per se to expand the number of teams in the playoffs from 12 to 14, but it will be discussed this week.
• By Jim Thomas
http://www.stltoday.com/sports/foot...cle_0c8e0536-80af-5c92-b34e-8b63a3e07bd7.html
In a league that covets competitive balance and offense, 2013 was a very good year for the NFL.
Five teams made the playoffs in 2013 that did not qualify in 2012, marking the 24th consecutive year that at least four new teams qualified for postseason play.
Eighteen games took place last season in which teams overcame at least a 14-point deficit to win, tying a single-season record set in 2011.
And 48 percent of the games in 2013 were decided by seven or fewer points, the fourth-highest percentage in league history.
In terms of offense, there were a combined 46.82 points scored per game, and 697 combined yards gained per game. Both are league records.
Even with those numbers, things didn’t get out of whack between offense and defense. To wit, the top five teams in total defense last season made the playoffs and all won at least 11 games. That would be Carolina, Cincinnati, New Orleans, San Francisco and Super Bowl champion Seattle.
So the overall state of the game never has been better on those fronts. But the state of sportsmanship, taunting, verbal abuse? Not so much.
As NFL owners, coaches, and club executives gather this week in Orlando, Fla., for the league’s annual March meetings. sportsmanship and player conduct will be a major topic of discussion. There were reports during the NFL scouting combine in late February that a rule would be proposed banning use of the “N-word” on the field or in the workplace.
Part of the impetus for this comes from the bullying scandal in Miami involving former Ram Richie Incognito and Jonathan Martin. But also, some games (See: Rams at Seattle) degenerated into trash-talking marathons.
But there will be no new rules passed on the subject. As Atlanta president Rich McKay and Rams coach Jeff Fisher pointed out during a competition committee conference call Wednesday, there already are provisions in the rule book to handle such things.
“We have the current rule — unsportsmanlike conduct, Rule 12, Section 3,” Fisher said. “It states that, ‘Using abusive, threatening or insulting language, or gestures to opponents, teammates, officials or representatives of the league is unsportsmanlike conduct.’’’
Fisher said that rule certainly applies to a couple of potential issues in the league at the moment.
“The ‘N-word’ would fall under that category,” he said.
“The officials will be empowered to call a foul if there are racial slurs or statements regarding another player’s sexual orientation, or even baiting and insulting with verbal abuse.”
Comments about sexual orientation could be an issue now that University of Missouri defensive end Michael Sam announced last month that he is homosexual, and as a result would be the league’s first openly-gay player.
Fisher said keeping such language and slurs off the field and out of the workplace in the NFL, “is going to be a very significant point of emphasis.”
Points of emphasis are things that the league’s officiating crews carefully monitor. More than a decade ago it was illegal contact by defensive backs on wide receivers.
The last couple of years, it has been blows to the head of quarterbacks and defenseless receivers.
This coming season, players need to watch their mouths. McKay pointed out that NFL vice president of officiating Dean Blandino and his office will take the time to educate players, coaches, officials and even the media on how the rule will be enforced this year.
“So that it is very clear,” McKay said. “It will be done in the spring when the officiating department goes on the road to see all of the clubs.”
Overall, Fisher said there have been indications of a decline in sportsmanship in the game recently.
“We have seen instances of taunting increase ever so slightly on the field,” Fisher said. “Those that are called and those that are not called. We recognize that we need to clean up a lot of the activity on the field as well.”
According to statistics relayed by McKay, Fisher’s statement that taunting is increasing “ever so slightly” is understatement. McKay said there were 34 penalties for taunting in 2013, almost a four-fold increase from the nine taunting calls in 2012.
All told there are a whopping 21 playing rule, bylaw, or resolution proposals up for discussion and potentially for vote at the owners’ meetings. Among them:
• Moving the kickoff to the 40-yard line (which would all but eliminate the kickoff return as part of the game).
• Making personal foul penalties subject to instant replay.
• Making the recovery of a loose ball in the field of play reviewable under instant replay.
• Allowing referees to consult with the NFL officiating department in New York during instant replay reviews.
• Eliminating overtime games in the preseason.
• Moving the line of scrimmage back to the 25-yard line on extra-point attempts.
• Expanding game-day rosters to 49 players for any game not played on a Sunday or Monday (with the exception of opening week).
• Expanding the practice squad roster to 10 players, from eight.
• Moving up the start of the trading period to two weeks before the start of the league year.
• Permitting more than one player to return from injured reserve to the active roster during the season.
There is no proposal per se to expand the number of teams in the playoffs from 12 to 14, but it will be discussed this week.
