rules Page 2 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights
The WNBA All-Star Game Will Include One Really Dumb Rule Change
This is apparently the summer of zany, experimental All-Star games. The WNBA will use its showcase Saturday afternoon to experiment with a couple rule tweaks, one of which is straight out of left field—or, well, straight out of hockey, the most dreaded sport of all....
The NFL Plans To Actually Enforce The Helmet Rule This Year
Soon after the NFL rolled out its controversial new helmet rule last year—which aims to penalize lowering the head to initiate contact on avoidable hits—the league realized it needed more time to figure out how to implement it, and for players, coaches, and officials to adjust to it....
Rays Put Pitcher At First Base, Nearly Destroy The Tender Fabrics That Hold Together The Game Of Baseball
A crucial AL East game between the Rays and the Red Sox ground to a screeching halt in the eighth inning on Wednesday afternoon after the Rays pulled some lineup shenanigans with their relief pitchers. Lefty Adam Kolarek got the first out in the inning, at which point the Rays brought in right-hande...
The NFL's New Pass Interference Replay Rule Is Going To Be Pretty Chaotic
The NFL’s competition committee issued its recommendations for how instant replay for pass interference will work, based on the rule that had been approved in March. On one hand, some relatively prudent judgement has been ironed into the standards the league will use to review and overturn pass inte...
Dear The NFL: The CFL Is So Much Better At Video Reviews Than You Are
As the NFL keeps pondering ways to define the undefinable when it comes to pass interference, the CFL just up and simplified things for everyone. Seriously, someone over on Park Avenue should probably take a look at this statement that was put out this morning by the CFL’s commissioner and senior di...
Commissioner For A Day: Let’s Have More Indirect Free Kicks In The Box
One quirk of soccer is that the rules of the game change when the ball is in the box. Not massively, but in one small and crucial way: Because a foul in the box is punished with a penalty, things that would be fouls anywhere else on the field are occasionally just not called in the box....
The NFL Is Apparently Determined To Screw Up The Hail Mary
The NFL this morning approved a rule change that could potentially allow coaches to challenge pass interference calls and non-calls in the last two minutes of a half or game. As with most tweaks to the league’s rulebook, this one’s likely going to create even more confusion. Are you ready for some H...
NFL Owners Vote To Make Pass Interference Calls And Non-Calls Reviewable
That replay review would be expanded to include pass interference ahead of the 2019-2020 NFL season seemed inevitable. The question, then, was whether it would be expanded in such a way that it could hope to address the kind of situation that befouled the NFC Championship game in January, when the S...
Here's An Idea For Fixing The NBA's Fouling Problem
The NBA has a fouling problem. Broadly, it’s this: Tactical defensive fouling has been normalized, because it’s a helpful tactic, yet the fundamental nature and rules of the game are built around the premise that fouling is bad....
A Bunch Of People Close To The Saints Desperately Want Roger Goodell To Step In And Screw This Up
Late Thursday afternoon, Benjamin Watson put out an all-too-serious complaint about the blown pass interference/unnecessary roughness call the Saints didn’t get in the NFC Championship matchup against the Rams. In a screenshot posted on Twitter, Watson called on commissioner Roger Goodell to step i...
The Only Thing That Can Ruin A Great Football Game Is Football
NFL fans could not have asked for a better pair of conference championship games. The four best teams in the league had all advanced, and the two remaining games promised to feature beautiful, high-scoring football played by some of the best young and old players the league has to offer. We got some...
The NFL Re-Emphasizes Its Emphasis On A Rule No One Understands
During Sunday’s Raiders-Dolphins game, as a replay sequence that included the above clip was shown to viewers, the CBS broadcast crew had the following conversation:...
New NBA Rules Clear Up Some Things That Stink
It stinks when a team up late in the game can milk the clock for the better part of a minute just because they snag an offensive rebound and cache the ball deep in the backcourt. The NBA’s newly announced shot clock rule should cut down on that idling, and force more actual basketball plays to occur...
Joe West Gums Up Phillies' Strategy With Textualist Reading Of Foreign Substance Rule
A strange thing happened in the eighth inning of Saturday night’s Cubs-Phillies game. Veteran umpire Joe West, working third base, noticed Phillies reliever Austin Davis pull a notecard out of his back pocket before pitching to Addison Russell, and decided he needed to know more, and brought the gam...
Are These Hits Legal According To The NFL's New Helmet Rule?
FLORHAM PARK, N.J. — Take a look at that tackle up there from last season by Vikings safety Andrew Sendejo. Now try to guess, according to the NFL’s new helmet rule, whether the league will consider what Sendejo did to be legal or illegal. As you think it over, let’s consider the rule and what vario...
The NFL's New Helmet Rule Somehow Got Even More Confusing
Even after it officially approved a new helmet rule for the 2018 season, the NFL quietly made a significant change to the wording of a related rule that addresses the applicable penalty. The change was an attempt to provide clarity by distinguishing prohibited hits to the helmet from incidental cont...
Cheatin' Phil Mickelson Becomes Self-Reporting Phil Mickelson After Stomping On A Tuft Of Grass
Noted cheater Phil Mickelson played out the final round of the clumsily named A Military Tribute at Greenbriar Sunday, well out of contention from start to finish. Perhaps it was the low-stakes atmosphere of this formality of a round that led Phil to earn back some brownie points on the par-4 sevent...
How The NFL's New <em></em>Helmet Rule Could Change Football As We Know It
Last month, the NFL approved a rule that attempts to define what players are permitted to do with their helmets, in the name of player safety. It’s pretty much a given that the rule is going to create some chaos, at least initially. But it might also portend a fundamental change in how the game is p...
Report: Dez Caught It
The NFL’s competition committee is currently discussing possible changes to the league’s catch rule, which is commonly interpreted by replay officials throwing tea leaves and chicken bones against a wall. According to committee member and Giants owner John Mara, the group is in agreement that the ru...
The New XFL Should Have An <i>Ooonnnkkk</i> Horn, And Other New Football Rule Ideas
Last week, Vince McMahon announced the return of the XFL. Considering the quality of the original XFL and the track record of Vince McMahon’s non-wrestling ventures, there’s reason to wonder if this thing will ever happen....