[ThePundit]

Among the biggest changes:

1) Limited celebration: Perhaps the most controversial decision involved end zone celebrations. A few years ago, the committee tried to clamp down on excessive end zone celebrations, particularly in light of Joe Horn's touchdown celebration with a cellphone and Owens signing a football with a Sharpie after a touchdown. But in 2005, numerous creative celebrations crept back into the game. In a vote of 29-3, the owners gave officials power to penalize a team 15 yards on the ensuing kickoff for excessive celebrations anywhere on the field. Spikes, dunks, Lambeau Leaps, spins, dances and simple celebrations will be allowed. But penalties will be given for any celebration other than that. My take: They should have left it alone. Some of that stuff is funny

2) Replay changes: Perhaps the biggest victory of the competition committee was the inclusion of down-by-contact plays on replay challenges. Last year, the Committee fell four votes short of getting down by contact plays included. This year, it passed, 27-5. There were 12 plays in 2005 that would have been overturned in a replay challenge on a lost fumble that was ruled down because the player had been downed after contact with a defensive player. If the defensive team wins the challenge, the ball would go to them at spot of the recovery. In 2004, about 13 change of possessions would have been made in favor of the defensive team that recovered.
My take: Wonderful, more confusion for the already confused referrees. I think they should ban replay altogether. They get half the reviews wrong anyway and it slows the game down too much


3) One slight modification included in the rule change would shorten the time the referee has to review a play. The review time would go from 90 seconds to 60 seconds from the time the referee begins looking at the replay monitor. My take: Anything that speeds the replay process up is good

4) A rushing defensive player won't be allowed to forcibly hit a quarterback below the knees. He has to make every effort to avoid such a low hit. Palmer, Griese and Roethlisberger suffered knee injuries on low hits but those three plays were considered legal by the committee because they involved defensive rushers coming off blocks. Several other plays such as the old Rodney Harrison hit on Trent Green when he was with the Rams along with a Jared Allen low hit on Kerry Collins would be subject to a 15-yard penalty. That proposal passed, 25-7..My take:...Carson Palmer was the sacrificial lamb for this one...Anything that increases safety for the QB's I'm for.

5) Centers who snap on field goals, extra points and punts can not have a defender line up directly over him. Instead, the defender has to line up outside the snapper's shoulder pads. The penalty for illegal formation will be 5 yards, but few penalties are expected to be called because officials will warn the player before the snap. My take: Yeah - whatever

6) The committee expanded the definition of a horse collar tackle. Last year, the committee determined the tackling style of Cowboys safety Roy Williams and others was causing too many injuries. Williams would grab a player by the back of his shoulder pads, pull him down and fall on his legs, causing at least four serious injuries during the 2004 season. In 2005, though, only two "horse-collar" penalties were called. On Wednesday, owners voted in a change that will include grabbing the back of the jersey as a horse collar tackle. The vote was 25-7 in favor. My take: See above explanation on Safety rules


Turndowns
• The Bucs' recommendation to include all penalties for replay review was almost unanimously defeated. My take: Were they kidding?

• The Chiefs proposal to expand the playoffs from 12 to 14 was tabled to May, but it doesn't have the support of Tagliabue and the Committee and is expected to fail. My take: 12 teams are enough. There are enough 9-7 teams who get in as it is.

The Committee also completed a six-page clarification of the writing of the holding penalties that it hopes will bring uniformity to the calls and the coaching of offensive linemen.....My take: 6 more pages for senile refs to learn?

Everybody elses take?

[Lefty Noob]

1. The NFL want to be the "No Fun League" again, apparently.

2. Eh, don't really have a problem with it. The refs blow these calls a lot. Sadly, this still won't do anything to stop the ridiculous "we blew the whistle" errors that seem to happen all the time.

3. Yeah, it'll speed things up, which is good. And really, if you can't tell in a minute, are :30 extra seconds REALLY going to help anything?

4. They talked about this one on NFL Network the other day. It still won't be a penalty is a guy is blocked into the knee, so determining intent makes this a very subjective penalty. Yeah, maybe it'll protect these poor fragile little quarterbacks, but they'll need to work out the flaws for this to truly be effective.

5. So no more nose tackles getting into the long-snapper's face and causing him to mess up the snap, eh? Shame.

6. Another one that got debated on NFL Network. Given turf conditions and everything, I guess this makes sense. But with this and the QB protection rule, it sure hamstrings defenses a little, especially this one. Now, if a guy's turning the corner on a defender, he pretty much can't do anything about it. Expect higher scoring games as a result.

And thank goodness that the proposal to add more playoff teams was tabled. More playoff teams is the last thing the NFL needs right now. Do they want their regular season to be largely irrelevant, like the NBA's and NHL's?

[pete_b]

You know what, I can go either way with this. In a way its good that there is no taunting. The NCAA is very strict on these rules as we saw in the last few games. But you guys are right, the celebrations do add to the fun of the game a little bit. But the players should be compensated for their play on the field and not exploit a touchdown by doing some showboat and then get a commercial deal out of it. Thats just BS. Here is a link.

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/F/FBN_NFL_MEETINGS?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEF AULT&CTIME=2006-03-29-18-32-09

[Who Dey]

I really don't care either. T.O. w/ the sharpie, yeah... Kinda' funny.... Every imitation I can do w/o.

The funniest endzone celeb's are the ones, generally, w/o props.

As a Bengal fan, Kelly Washington's chicken dance in the endzone is infinitley more entertaining than anything Chad Johnson has ever done. In fact, the funniest thing I have seen Chad do was the river dance, and that would still be legal.

Joe Horn w/ the cell phone, Chad playing golf w/ the plile on, or Steve Smith changing the diaper.... I could do w/ out..... Really it's just not funny... The funniness comes from... well, at least the appearance of.... Well, ya' know... Spontanaity.