PHOENIX — Despite ongoing discussions about a play made famous by quarterback Jalen Hurts during the Eagles‘ magical Super Bowl run, NFL owners on Tuesday chose not to get rid of the effective Philadelphia push play in short-yardage situations.
The owners did make a handful of other rule changes, including giving players permission to wear No. 0, along with the expansion of the use of Guardian protective hats during contact practices in the regular season.
Speaking to reporters at the close of the annual NFL owner meetings in Phoenix, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said owners also received a brief report on the possible sale of the Washington Commanders. Goodell added that the league-directed probe by independent investigator Mary Jo White into allegations of misconduct by Washington owner Daniel Snyder and the team is not complete, but that the league will release a report once finished, regardless of the sale of the team.
The Commanders reportedly have two $6 billion fully financed bids, matching Snyder’s asking price. One is by a group led by Maryland billionaire businessman Josh Harris that includes Magic Johnson and the other is by Canadian billionaire Steve Apostolopoulos.
If one of those bids is accepted by Snyder and eventually approved by 24 of 32 NFL owners, the price tag would blow past the previous record set by Walmart heir Rob Walton in purchasing the Denver Broncos for $4.65 billion last August.
“The Washington Commanders are obviously the ones conducting the process on the sale,” Goodell said. “When there’s a transaction, they will notify us, and we will proceed on that one.”
On the potential rules changes for the league, Rich McKay, CEO of the Atlanta Falcons and chairman of the NFL’s competition committee, said the NFL took language out of the rulebook in 2005 that prohibited players pushing ball carriers from behind because of officials’ concern with the difficulty of discerning when a player blocked or pushed a ball carrier in goal-line situations.
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However, McKay said the league did not anticipate the loophole leading to an effective short-yardage strategy by teams like the Eagles.
“Nobody made a rules proposal, nor was there enough on the committee for us to propose a rules change, so it will stay in,” McKay said. “We’ll certainly look at all the injury data and see if there’s anything there.”
According to Next Gen Stats, Hurts converted 85.3% of the time on designed runs on third and fourth down in short-yardage situations in 2022.
Seattle Seahawks coach Pete Carroll said continuing legality of the play will change his approach to how he designs his offense in the lead-up to the regular season.
“I’m really surprised that there hasn’t been more focus on it because I see it as an extremely unique change in the game,” Carroll said. “I’m just surprised that it wasn’t a bigger topic because I thought it was that obvious. It’s been really obvious to me, and it’s going to affect my coaching.”
McKay also said owners will continue to discuss the proposal of having an emergency third quarterback available on game days during the regular season.
Owners approved a proposal allowing any player to wear the No. 0, except offensive and defensive linemen. And punters and place kickers can now wear Nos. 0-49 and 90-99. McKay said with the expansion of practice squads and players seeking single-digit numbers, the new rule gives teams a larger inventory of numbers for the bigger rosters.
Owners tabled a proposal for teams to have a fourth-and-20 from their own 20-yard line that they would need to convert to keep the ball instead of trying an onsides kick. They approved the establishment of one final roster reduction at the end of preseason from 90 to 53.
Also approved was a resolution allowing teams to play two Thursday night games in the regular season, which will not guarantee a nationally televised Thursday night game for every NFL team.
However, the league pushed discussion of teams possibly being flexed into Thursday night games until the next owners meeting in May. The NFL would like the ability to switch late-season games from Sunday to Thursday, giving teams a 15-day notice, to create a better matchup for league partner Amazon.
Goodell said he’s not putting the creation of more entertaining matchups in prime time ahead of player safety.
“We’ve always been looking at the data with respect to injuries and the impact on players,” Goodell said. “They drove our decisions throughout the first 12 or so years of Thursday Night Football and how it evolved.
“I think the data is very clear: It doesn’t show a higher injury rate. But we recognize shorter weeks. We went through this with COVID, too. We had to have a lot of flexibility. Those are obviously different circumstances, but we work very closely on that.”
Jeff Miller, vice president of the league’s health and safety policy, said owners approved the expansion of the use of Guardian Caps for running backs and fullbacks this year. The NFL introduced the use of protective wear on helmets for offensive and defensive linemen, along with linebackers and tight ends last year during training camp.
The protective headgear will now be used throughout preseason practices and in regular season contact practices. Miller said the use of protective headgear resulted in a 52% drop in concussions compared to the three-year averages of those respective position groups.
Eric D. Williams has reported on the NFL for more than a decade, covering the Los Angeles Rams for Sports Illustrated, the Los Angeles Chargers for ESPN and the Seattle Seahawks for the Tacoma News Tribune. Follow him on Twitter at @eric_d_williams.
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