TORONTO — The Canadian Football League (CFL) Board of Governors has approved six rules adjustments for the upcoming season. Three are meant to increase player safety, while serving as deterrents for potentially dangerous or reckless acts on the field.
Well folks, there we have it.
Now we can see that once again,
/looks slowly around forum
we will be playing by strict rules.
Finally this off-season is almost over! In a few days there is preseason action, for those of you who enjoy that, and in three weeks finally the first game!
Here are my grades and comments on these changes.
Positive
+Grade Two Roughing the Passer
+Low Hits on Vulnerable Receivers - Long overdue to protect players from injury to lower limbs, often via cheap shots
+Eligible Receivers - A ball once touched by an eligible receiver, which is still in the air, to be fair game for all sounds great to me.
+Full Enforcement of Major Penalties - Long overdue change here to eliminate the benefit of “half the distance to the goal” whenever the team committing the penalty has possession deep in their own end of the field
Positive, But Question(s)
?Expansion of Automatic Ejections
On the low block penalties on kicking plays, I would have to read the exact wording, for it does happen often that players stumble, lose balance, are hit or pushed and end up going to ground and voila, some player’s legs are right there as they run into them. Such unintentional acts in the mayhem of plays on special teams do not merit an automatic ejection.
Negative
Offside Pass - No, when the offence has the ball, or after the defence has possessed the ball after a fumble or other loose ball, the rule as it was before to not allow advance of the ball via batting towards the opponents’ deadline was fine as it was.
I would go even further and say that all penalties should be spotted at the one yard line, not just major penalties. Could never see the logic behind that.
I have hated that half the distance to the goal line clause forever.
So the offense team is on the 15 Yard line and the defense get an offside penalty the offence get rewarded with the ball on the 1 yard line? How about the offense are on the 25 yard line and the defense get a two many player penalty so the ball moves to the 1 yard line? I think major penalties are the only one that needs the change.
No that wouldn’t be the case. Like the rule change, if the full penalty yardage would put the ball in the end zone then it is placed at the one. None of this 4 yards for a 10 yard penalty crap. If there was an offside call at the 15 it would go to the 10 as normal. I don’t see any reason why the penalized team should catch a break just because they have allowed the other team to reach the shadow of their goalposts.
wth, they didn’t add a down yet? 
seriously tho, this RTP stuff is all fine and dandy, but officials actually have to make the calls and make them consistently.
So if i fumble the ball i can now bat it 20yds up field to a teammate and it won’t be considered an offside pass? Can envision some edgy drop and pass stuff in our futures kind of like a drop kick only with the hands.
On the whole, some good rule changes.
If a team can pull that off by design, more power to them. It would not be easy at all in the heat of a play with enemy players coming at the ball-carrier.
I have no problem with any of the rules changes.
I suppose before too long, along these lines, we’ll restart those heated skirmishes about the “dribble kick”/wimpy punt again. Thanks.
I think where you might see it a bunch is with a fumble in the backfield and a player on defense bats it towards the endzone. If i can bat the ball 30 yds towards the endzone, why wouldn’t i? Assume thats allowed?
LOW HITS ON VULNERABLE RECEIVERS
A penalty has been created to deter low hits on receivers who are not in a position to adequately protect themselves. A 15-yard penalty and an automatic first down will be called when a blow is delivered at or below the knees of a receiver who is in the act of catching a pass, while in a vulnerable position. Should the receiver jump, they will lose low hit protection.
Many a game will be won or lost, and a few refs will deserve championship rings at the end of the season for being the winning team’s MVP over this one.
Does anyone else remember this gem?
@Paolo_X , I saw your reaction. Wait till you see refs on the sideline waiting for the Command Centre to rule whether the receiver had actually jumped or whether the blow was at thigh, knee or calf level.
You heard it here first!
And how about the low hit by a D player on a QB? If they believe the D player would have hit the QB above the knees but a blue and gold Olineman for example jumps on his back and forces him lower then its a different call than the low hit.
Lets call this the Streveler rule.
Mitigation for RTP at last!!!
This has been needed for a while. Not all high contact is direct or intended. Not to say judging intent is or should be part of any rule, but a glancing blow while reaching for a shoulder doesn’t need to be a penalty every time.
The changes on removal of restrictions on Major Penalties, including removal of the half the distance crap is something that should have happened long ago.
Hmm, on the contrary, I believe it’s more the “Brown rule” 
Copy and paste below, article from the play that is likely the reason for this is a rule change.
An attempt at deception by the Winnipeg offence – short-yardage quarterback Chris Streveler dropped back to pass instead of plunging for the first down – ended in disaster when Riders defensive lineman Miles Brown hit Streveler on his left knee and left him crumpled on the turf in pain.
Given it was also Brown whose hit to the head of Zach Collaros took the Bombers’ starting quarterback out last week in Regina, tempers flared.
Nobody was more angry than Streveler, who eventually got up on one leg and hopped towards Brown to tell him exactly how he felt.
This sounds like a situation that should inspire another rule change, though I doubt due to the reality of play by a quarterback who would fake the pass or the run in especially short-yardage situations, that any rule could be perfect. Any change will have to wait another season.
My proposed fix here would be to eliminate any protection to low hits to the quarterback within two yards of the line of scrimmage AND INSIDE the tackle box for the quarterback, retaining of course existing rules for protection to the head of a quarterback who is upright.
This rule would eliminate the guesswork by an official within two yards on whether a quarterback is passing or not when in the designated area near the line of scrimmage.
In the designated area the quarterback would be presumed to be on the run in the area unless and until he passes, such that a low hit would be legal unless of course after passes the ball, and that timing includes if in the wrap of a defender before passing the ball on a last ditch effort and still managing to pass the ball.
Then beyond two yards behind the line of scrimmage or ANYWHERE outside the tackle box, the quarterback would presumed to the contrary to be passing the ball, unless and until he tucks or fake tucks the ball to run.
Once the quarterback fakes the pass at any time when outside the tackle box, the protection to low hits that is inside the tackle box would be removed, even if the quarterback is to change his mind to pass the ball.
Anyway, all that is more for off-season threads, but here we go.
Welp, with all this talk of a “tackle box” I suddenly have a hankering to go fishing, maybe I run into a pesky beaver better known as @Maaax