NFL rules that have to change

Every so often (like, any time I watch an NFL game) I spot a rule or five that just make no sense, or are well-intended but poorly executed. Here's a playoff edition of "NFL Rules That Have to Change."

1. Limited replay challenges, even when successful. I realize you don't want to give coaches unlimited challenges, because you know some of them would throw the red flag on every play. But the current rule -- coaches get two challenges per game, and a third one if the first two are both successful -- is ridiculous, and here's why:

Officials have been trained now to let plays continue if there's any doubt whether there was a fumble, for example. The fallback position now seems to be, "Let it play out and we'll sort it out after the action stops." That's admirable, except that if the official blows the call -- say, he lets play continue after a fumble when the runner clearly was down by contact -- the offensive team's coach has to waste one of his two precious challenges to correct the error.

Today's Seahawks-Redskins game provided a perfect example. In the first quarter, Seattle's Shawn Alexander ripped off about a 7-yard run, and the ball popped out at the end of the play. It was pretty clear to the naked eye -- even though I was about 50 feet away from a 29-inch TV screen while I was pounding away on the treadmill -- that Alexander's knee was down before the ball came out.

The official nearest the play decided to let the action continue. The Redskins recovered the "fumble" and ran around with it for awhile, then Mike Holmgren threw the red flag, and the officials quickly discovered that not only was Alexander down by contact, but both of his knees were on the ground before the ball came loose.

And yet, Holmgren was left with just one challenge, or a max of two more if his second challenge was also proved right. Why not give the coaches unlimited challenges, but as soon as they have two unsuccessful challenges, they're done for the game? Otherwise, the NFL is basically saying that they want to get it right, but only twice per team per game.

2. The whole "plane of the goal line" thing. Have you ever seen old NFL Films footage from the 50s or 60s? Do you think Dick Butkus or Jim Brown knew or even cared what a "plane" was, other than a way to get from one city to another?

In those days, a ballcarrier wasn't down until he was down, as in on the ground with a defender on top of him. And if you weren't standing in the end zone with the ball in your hands, you didn't score a touchdown.

But in recent years, the NFL has turned to geometry to determine whether a player has scored a touchdown. These days, in nearly every game you'll see a player stick the ball out as he nears the front corner of the end zone, because he knows that the end zone is now considered to be an imaginary three-dimensional rectangle, and if he waves the ball into that rectangle, it's a touchdown.

However, that leads to ridiculous plays like we saw in the Vikings-Broncos game last Sunday. Chester Taylor was nearing the goal line, and when it became clear that he wouldn't actually reach the end zone, he stuck the ball out in an effort to break the plane of the goal line. Naturally, Taylor fumbled -- although the only replay that I saw seemed to show the ball being knocked out by the pylon, which would result in a touchdown under the current, geometry-based system. Even worse, the ball went out of bounds in the end zone and the Broncos were awarded possession at their own 20, another ridiculous rule in itself (see below).

Let's get rid of this namby-pamby plane of the goalline thing. Unless you reach the endzone, or unless the ball is lying on the goal line itself (not waved over the goal line as you're going out of bounds), it's not a touchdown. This also removes the subjectivity of the call and keeps control of the game in the hands of the officials on the field, not in the booth.

3. Defense gets ball on fumbles out of the end zone. So, in the example above, Taylor fumbled into the end zone. The Broncos didn't recover the ball, so why should they get possession at their own 20? That's too punitive to the offensive team, especially when the current rules encourage the runner to stick the ball out in an attempt to break the plane, thus putting him at risk of a fumble.

Scrap this rule and give the offense the ball at the spot of the fumble if nobody recovers it before it rolls out of bounds in the end zone.