Let’s talk bad or unpopular rules.
Now, one fan’s bad rule is another fan’s Golden Rule, so this is purely my opinion and my take on rules that I find cheapen a sport or take away from a sport’s otherwise brilliance.
I have seen a few rules that I find detestable, and one of my favorite rules to hate reared its ugly pads when I was watching the Kansas City Chiefs play the Denver Broncos during the last weekend of the regular NFL season.
The game had been a back-and-forth affair; with the Chiefs coming from behind in the fourth quarter to take a 28-24 lead. The Chiefs stopped the Broncos and got the ball back with two minutes left. Two minutes for the Broncos to tackle hard, try to force a fumble and try to get the ball back for one more try … under the OLD rules. But that was before the “take a knee” strategy was allowed. The Chiefs never really ran another true play, taking a few knees to run out the clock. The rule has, in effect, turned a 60-minute game into a 58-minute game. Now I understand there is a safety issue, but … it’s old-school football. Run the play and protect the ball. I would like to see a penalty for “Failure to try to advance the football.” Loss of yards, loss of down, stop the clock. Player safety was one of the reasons for the rule – but there are other rules in play to help provide contact sports safety as much as possible.
Another safety rule is the allowing of the throw-away ball, when you and I both know that it really amounts to intentional grounding. Out of the pocket, a QB can toss it away as long as it passes the line of scrimmage. Nope … to me, it is still intentional grounding. And so is spiking the ball to stop the clock … well, it is to me, anyway.
Also in football, if a defensive player hopped offside before the snap, but got back and re-set, it was not offside. No so, today.
Here’s a different sport rule I can’t stand … in college basketball, when the attacking team gets the ball out of bounds and is in the front court, it is allowed to throw the in-bounds pass into the back court. That used to be a back-court violation, and I believe it still should be … you are IN the front court, inbound it to the front court. In basketball, let’s talk charging, blocking and traveling. If you go up, block it and make some body contact, should it be a foul? The late Chick Hearn (Lakers announcer) would have called it “a ticky-tack foul.” And charging … it boils me when a defender takes a quick step and plants a split-second before the driving player makes contact. To me, that stop-plant is NOT “position” in front of the offensive player, and the calls vary from official to official. And what happened to the three-second rule? It is rarely enforced. Traveling? In the NBA, it seems nonexistent.
In baseball, no breaking up the DP, no home plate collisions, no brushing back a player … Don Drysdale would NOT have liked today’s game. I played lots of ball as a shortstop and had to dance-avoid the hard slide. It was baseball … then, not now.
In hockey, either call a cross-check or don’t. I have seen many players cross-checked off a puck or off a play with it not called. Be consistent.
Now here are some to moan about just to moan:
In baseball, a fielder is not allowed to catch a ball in his hat. If he does, even on the simplest fly ball to center, the batter is awarded three bases. And why do fat, old baseball managers still wear uniforms by rule? They are NOT players and shouldn’t be in uniform. A logo shirt and slacks would differentiate them.
Golf: Add correctly and sign your scorecard. If you add wrong too high, your high score counts. If you add low, you are disqualified.
Boxing: The only pro event in which you don’t know the score until after the match is over and decided. The referee’s and officials’ scorecards should be up on the scoreboard after each round.
In MLB: If a fly ball hits the catwalk above Tampa’s field in its domed stadium, the ball is in play and can be caught for an out, but MLB rule 2.00 states that a ball hit up the middle that hits the pitching rubber and isn’t touched by a fielder and caroms from the rubber to foul territory along the first or third-base base paths, is a foul ball.
In NCAA basketball: No dunking before the game or a two-shot technical is awarded to the other team.
That’s enough for now.
What do YOU think? Am I off base here? What rules do YOU love to hate? Write me at mike.blake@mountvernonnews.com and let me know. I’ll share it with the readers.
See you next time.
