Indianapolis Colts: How Annual League Meeting Could Make an Impact

The Annual League meeting is set to kickoff tomorrow in Phoenix, Arizona with the Indianapolis Colts top brass in attendance.  The meeting tends to bring about rule changes or at least the discussion of changes.  What are some of the things being discussed that could impact the Indianapolis Colts?

The Washington Posts’s Mark Maske does a nice job covering the main items that owners will be considering during the meetings.  Without hitting on all of the items, let’s take a look at three of the proposals and the possible impact on the Indianapolis Colts:

Centralizing Replay

The owners are looking to take a page out of the NBA’s book by centralizing all replay decisions in New York.  The current system of having on the field referees review calls is seen as too time consuming.  I can’t disagree that this would speed up the game a bit.  It also provides for an independent review of questionable calls.  Personally, I like this change.  I’m not saying it would have directly impacted any specific calls for or against the Colts, but having an independent, timely review makes sense.

Ejections and/or Suspensions for Certain Illegal Hits

We see it fairly often – defenseless receivers, aggressive hits on quarterbacks, etc.  The NFL is considering adopting (to an extent) the college rule of ejecting, and possibly suspending players for certain hits.  This is a tough one.  When a player is in the flow of the game, it’s hard to “hold up” from making an aggressive play.  That said, safety is obviously important.  Sometimes, I wish the Colts recently “soft” defense would be more aggressive; however, I hope the NFL doesn’t turn this into a joke by ejecting and suspending players at will.

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10 Minute Overtime

This is a silly change in my mind and one that would have impacted very few games over the last 5 years.  The rationale is that NFL players are on the field for so many plays during the season, why not shorten overtime to keep them off the field a little more.  This makes no sense to me.  Consider this…..a new overtime system went into place in 2012 whereby both teams would get a chance to score in overtime if the team receiving the overtime kickoff does not score a touchdown.  Since this new format went into place, only 22 games have lasted more than 10 minutes into overtime.  Is this rule really helping anything?  In case you’re wondering, none of Colts 4 overtime games since the beginning of 2012 would have been impacted by this possible rule change.

Another very interesting proposal that is unlikely to gain acceptance comes from the Washington Redskins.  They propose that if a kickoff goes between the uprights, the receiving team gets the ball at the 20 yard line instead of 25 yard line.  A little gimmicky in my mind.  Also, without Pat McAfee, this would likely not result in the Colts favor.

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The big talk during the meetings will be about the Oakland Raiders’ possible move to Las Vegas.  It will garner much of the media attention.  Still, keep an eye on the other more subtle rule changes as any change will have an impact on the league and the Indianapolis Colts.