NFL owners on Tuesday tweaked several rules in an effort to improve player safety but decided to leave the league's replay policies essentially unchanged.
The most significant new rule enacted for 2015 will be the addition of a medical timeout for a player who appears to be having trouble on the field. That measure passed unanimously Tuesday morning at the league's owners' meetings in Arizona.
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The change empowers an independent medical spotter present at each game to contact a member of the on-field officiating crew if the spotter notices a player "displays obvious signs of disorientation or is clearly unstable" and is attempting to remain in the game. The official will then stop the clock and have the team's medical staff escort the player off the field.
That player's team will be allowed to put a substitute on the field and the opponent will have the opportunity to match up as desired. If the play clock is under 10 seconds at the time of the stoppage, it will be reset to 10 seconds when play is restarted. Each team's medical staff will make the decision on when the player is allowed back on the field.
If that rule had been in place for the Super Bowl, it could conceivably have resulted in Patriots receiver Julian Edelman being taken off the field when he appeared unsteady after a fourth-quarter hit by Seahawks safety Kam Chancellor.
When it comes to replay, the owners had numerous opportunities to make a change; 13 different proposals were put forth to argue the existing system. Only one passed, a proposal by the Titans to allow officials to use replay to determine whether there was a clock error with at least one second remaining in the half, game or overtime.
Other new measures for the coming season include modifications to existing rules that:
— Provide "defenseless player" protection to intended receivers after interceptions.
— Prevent defensive players from pushing teammates into a punt formation (which already is prohibited on field goals and extra points).
— Extend prohibition of illegal "peel back" blocks to all offensive players instead of limiting it to those in the tackle box.
— Make it illegal for a running back to chop-block a defensive player who already is engaged outside the area originally occupied by the tight end.
