Game Changers

Reading an article by Marc Tracey about when rule changes in professional football go to far made me upset. Football is a game of controlled violence, yet in recent years safety has taken priority over protecting the necessary conditions of what make American football football. I’m not against making the game safer, but taking kickoffs out of the equation corrupts the sport, maybe beyond recognition. These all seemed like reasonable thoughts to me, and some of you other football lovers probably felt similarly. Unfortunately, we’re all wrong.

It’s hard to be a fan of a sport and not think conservatively about that sport. If Edmund Burke, grandfather to our modern conservatism, read the same article I imagine he’d have similar thoughts initially. Change is dangerous if not handled correctly. However, these rule changes are hardly a French Revolution. The NFL isn’t taking a lighter to the rule book and redrafting the game, only modifying small things. This is what conservatism thinking means-not disregarding change, but using it incrementally.

Still, football is football and any rule changes should stay true to what the game is known for, right? If that was true the forward pass would never have been introduced into the sport. Think about Sundays watching a game without any deep touchdown passes or interceptions potentially changing the tide of the game. What good would the $132 million contract the Lions have with Calvin Johnson be worth if the rules of the game hadn’t changed to include the forward pass?

Any fan of this is a fan of changes to the game

And what was the spark that jump started this rule change? Safety. In 1905, there were 18 fatalities in the sport, leading to the 1906 revamp which included rules limiting more dangerous formations and introducing the passing game. Initially it was barely used (an incomplete was a 15 yard penalty and a pass that went untouched was an automatic turnover). People wanted to keep the game “pure,” thinking along similar lines as I did reading Tracey’s article, and the forward pass was too revolutionary. What changed everyone’s’ mind was a man named Glenn Scobey (Pop) Warner, a coach of a Native American collegiate team. That’s where the name Pop Warner for youth football comes from. Warner was a big fan of the Air Bud sports logic-”There’s nothing in the rules that says a dog can’t play basketball.” He didn’t incorporate animals into his offense, but most other trick plays made it into the playbook. The forward pass was perfect for his nontraditional offense. No one paid attention until he started beating major teams with his little known program. Notre Dame gets a lot of credit for pioneering the forward pass, but in reality it was good ole Pop Warner.

No football fan has a problem with this rule change that was more revolutionary at its time than small changes to tackling and kickoffs that are presently happening. In reality the game of football and every other sport is constantly changing, no matter the reason. Hockey had its own forward passing rules changed to make a more exciting game-goal counts doubled in the season after the changed was made. The NFL overtime rules were altered just a few years ago to make things slightly more fair. Touchdowns didn’t earn the 6 point status they now have until around 30 years after the game’s inception. Field goals were actually worth more than touchdowns at one point, imagine if that rule had never changed.

Not always the best way to live

Change cannot be taken out of the equation of sports. Its just important to make them conservatively, a little bit at a time. Jason Davis talks about soccer (football for all you Europeans) but his point encapsulates this American football issue perfectly: “Maybe it’s time to consider altering the game just a little. Subtly. Evolution, not revolution.” That’s already started with the movement of the kickoff line five yards to increase touchbacks.  With this rule change concussions have went down 40%. If the goal is decreasing injuries then the changes are starting to work. A lot of people are going to argue that injury is a part of sports, and if we don’t want to end up watching flag football (I imagine college ‘pregaming’ would skyrocket in this case) then we have to accept that injuries happen. Injuries go hand in hand with sports, especially high contact ones like football. While this is true, there are things we can do to limit them. No one can say protecting the integrity of the game is more important than safety, unless they also wish to remove the forward pass.Is the excitement of a kickoff, or potential for onside kicks worth serious brain trauma? Radical change will definitely alter any game, perhaps beyond recognition. But conservative change in favor of a safer game is a necessary thing that we can all live with, whether or not we like it at first.