rule Page 14 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

No One Understands Soccer's Rules, And That's A Problem
In training last week I nicked a player from behind in an 8v8 game, he fell to the ground, and we scored off the turnover. Our coach, acting as referee from the sideline, asked if I fouled him. I always have the natural instinct to say no chance; there’s no asterisk next to a W in the results column...

The NFL Now Has James Jones And Joey Porter Rules
As pointed out by Mike Pereira, the NFL makes a bunch of rule changes each year that aren’t technically rule changes—the rulebook wording can be adjusted under existing rules without having to send something to the Competition Committee. We’ve got some new ones for 2016, and they’re all direct respo...

American Mason Cox Is An Australian Rules Football Human Highlight Reel
Former Oklahoma State basketball walk-on Mason Cox only made his Australian Football League debut a few weeks ago, but he’s already stunning audiences and broadcasters alike as the Texas native helped lead his Collingwood team to a 104-80 win over Geelong today in Melbourne with a pair of impressive...

Richmond Beat Sydney Swans 101-100 On Kick After The Siren
One of Australian Rules Football’s many byzantine rules is that a player awarded a mark or a free kick as time expires may take a kick after the buzzer. Rarely, this kick can decide a game—but it did this morning as Richmond defeated Sydney Swans 101-100 thanks to Sam Lloyd’s perfect goal....

How Two Online Baseball Writers Won An Indie-League Draft By Finding Talent And Stealing It
The following is excerpted from The Only Rule Is It Has To Work, the wonderful new book in which two sabermetrically-inclined baseball writers—Sam Miller of Baseball Prospectus and Ben Lindbergh of ESPN—recount their experience running baseball operations for the Sonoma Stompers, an actual, real-lif...

Does An Intentional Walk Ruin A No-Hitter?
Okay, so before I get into the Funbag, some quick appearance news. I’m gonna be at this big Towson sports career speaker series on draft night. It’s at the Greene Turtle (CLASSY), and open to the public. Also, next month, I’m gonna read the first couple of chapters from The Hike over at the Howard C...

IOC Lets Athletes And Sponsors Market During The Olympics, As Long As They Say Nothing About The Olympics
Brigham Young University professor of statistics Jared Ward finished third in February’s US Olympic Trials Marathon, filling the final spot on the Rio-bound marathon team. The married father of two is almost unknown outside the competitive running community, but has been successful enough in the las...

I Just Learned About A New MLB Rule That's As Trivial As It Is Wonderful
It makes me a total hypocrite to criticize the NFL’s byzantine rulebook and yet value baseball in large part for its own wholly opaque regulations. (Seriously. Try explaining a balk to an alien or to a small child, or, hell, to me. You can’t do it.) I don’t care. I love the fact that baseball has pl...

New MLB Slide Rule Costs The Blue Jays A Game And They Are Pissed
Baseball’s controversial new Chase Utley Rule was implemented for the first (update: second) time in a game tonight, and it could not have come at a more crucial juncture. Down by a run with the bases loaded and one out in the top of the ninth, Edwin Encarnacion slapped a grounder to third. Logan Fo...

Check Out Bryce Harper's "Make Baseball Fun Again" Hat
Bryce Harper’s 2016 season is off to a roaring start. He crushed a dinger in his first at-bat today, then continued his crusade on baseball’s stodgy unwritten rules with a timely (except for the trucker hat part) fashion choice....

New Touchback Rule Designed To Reduce Number Of Kickoff Returns May Actually Increase Them
Among the two new rules passed today by the fiat of NFL owners—over the overwhelming objections of coaches—is one that will move touchbacks up five yards, with teams now starting from their own 25. This move is specifically designed with player safety in mind. It may well have the opposite effect....

NFL Makes All Chop Blocks Illegal
Today the NFL revealed the rule changes that will be implemented for the upcoming season. There’s nothing too drastic on this list:...

Report: NBA Free Agency Moratorium Reduced To Five Days
Remember last summer’s NBA free agency moratorium period, when DeAndre Jordan agreed to sign with the Mavericks before reneging on his verbal commitment and re-signing with the Clippers on a crazy night that included an emoji war? A similar occurrence is less likely this summer, as Adrian Wojnarowsk...

The Ravens Have Proposed A Strange NFL Rule Change
Today is the day when NFL teams submit proposed rule changes to be debated at next week’s owners meeting, and the Baltimore Ravens have come in with the silliest proposal....

Bryce Harper Speaks Truth About Baseball's Unwritten Rules
ESPN’s Tim Keown has a profile of Nationals superstar Bryce Harper out today, and it contains a lengthy quote from Harper that you should print out and frame....

MLB Kills The Neighborhood Play, And That’s Bad News For Player Safety
MLB announced its rule changes for the upcoming season, and the big ones have to do with pace of play and dangerous slides, two issues that have grabbed a lot of attention over the past few years....

The Terrible Calvin Johnson Rule Outlasted Calvin Johnson
If Calvin Johnson is indeed retiring, the NFL will be worse off for his absence. But he leaves it a different league than he found it, a much more confusing one for receivers, officials, and fans. Look at that photo above. Through no fault of Johnson’s, we now live in a world where that is not a cat...

The Replay Booth Probably Did Not Assist Ed Hochuli On Late Facemask Call
For a moment during the third quarter of tonight’s Monday Night Football contest, it seemed that we had yet another refereeing controversy on our hands. As Broncos DE Malik Jackson sacked Bengals quarterback AJ McCarron, he grabbed McCarron’s facemask. But despite McCarron pleading for the call as h...

Seven Intentionally Missed Free Throws Made For A Bizarre Ending To A Euroleague Game
The above video is truly extraordinary, and one of the craziest endings to a sporting event I’ve ever seen....

MLS Has Some Sweet New Rules To Make The League Real Good
Attention MLS fans! The league has some exciting news to share with you all! As put so eloquently in their press release, they “will be investing an additional $37 million in player compensation over the next two years.” What does this mean, you may ask? See for yourself:...