After reading Tracy’s article about football, I began to question things that I normally accept as rote. I asked myself what defined a class, a game, and a relationship. It is interesting because we normally accept things like football as a set activity, but fail to recognize the fact that it is really a reflection of all of the gradual changes that have taken place over the years. Just like Tejada-Flores’ Rock Climbing article, the game is really decided by the players.
Refs decide a game with an infamous call
Tracy argues that “the most provocative rule change” is the removal of kick-offs from the pro bowl which effectively says that you do not need kickoffs to play football. I would agree with that statement. As a former football player, I always hated being on the kickoff because it would just tire me out for offense. However, there are always those players whose careers were made on special teams, and by eliminating the kickoff, you basically eliminate their careers. I experienced this firsthand in the sport of lacrosse.
In high school, I was a face-off man for my lacrosse team who was at one point ranked in the top 40 in the entire country. My senior year, we were coming off of a state championship and had a very good team. I dominated the face-offs because I had perfected the technique of keeping the ball in the back of my stick. I was looking into playing lacrosse at Michigan, but the coach regretfully informed me one day that the NCAA rules committee had made it illegal to carry the ball in the back of your stick. That was it – goodbye to my college lacrosse dreams. I am not telling this to reminisce but rather to question – was that rule really necessary to eliminate? Most of the players seemed to want to keep it, but the committee decided against it. In the same way that the NFL wants to eliminate kickoffs, I think that the players should be the ones deciding these rules. The problem with making big changes is that the more they add up, the less of a singular identity the game has – it becomes merely a result of committee meetings and opinions.
Brendan Fowler, face-off man for Duke, with the ball in the back of his stick
The topic of rule changes reminds me of a discussion that I recently had in an english class. The University of Michigan used to be cheaper, and received more funding from the state than it does now. When it got more expensive, only wealthier students could consistently afford to attend school here. As a result of the decrease in funding, the student body demographic changed. Different students were attending the school, and that caused the learning environment to change. The reason that college rankings can change so dramatically is because of occurrences like this. Change is gradual going forward, but is very large when you look backward. I think that I will always think of football with a kickoff and lacrosse as being able to keep the ball in the back of your stick. Just the same, I will always think of Michigan with the memories that I made here and not because of who goes there ten years in the future.
Rule committees for the NCAA or boards in companies are not the ones that determine what makes something what is it. The determining factor in the identity of a game or of a person is the sum of their experiences and their applications. I agree with Tejada-Flores that games are a result of subtle changes made by professionals, and I agree with Tracy that football needs to maintain its original roots. Just the same, people will always be attending Michigan, playing lacrosse, and playing football, so the committees should be restructured to promote tradition rather than change.
Students will always fill the Big House, regardless of who they are and where they come from
Touchdown Theory 
I think it is very interesting that you suggest that the players change the rules instead of a committee. I think that in that sense, players wouldn’t make changes in the rules just to make changes, which the NFL and NCAA lacrosse seem to be doing. I believe that it does not matter who is making the rule changes as long as no one is being hurt in the process of the rule change. Rules are in place to ensure safety, a fair game, and make it so a sport is not just an all out blood bath, but most importantly keep the players playing the game correctly. With these additional changes that cut out players like you in lacrosse or NFL special teams players, I believe these rules are hurting the game and the players it vows to protect more than helping it.
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I also found your proposal that players create these rule changes to be interesting. I guess I never considered this possibility. Rule changes always seemed to be carried out “behind closed doors” and I would just hear about it on ESPN or SportsCenter without ever giving much thought to who was making these rules. I feel like increased player input into some of these rule changes could definitely be a beneficial change some of our national sports leagues could adapt. I’m assuming the player’s unions are at these rule change meetings; I wonder if they’re representing the players accurately on rule changes like kickoffs and such. Unfortunately, when it comes to rules like kickoffs, a small minority of players probably feel passionately about keeping kickoffs in the game – namely, the players who make a career off kickoffs (the ones who you mentioned in your post). I wonder if our NFL or NBA will eventually make a rule change, insisting on larger inputs from players on future rule changes. Otherwise I agree with the point of your post: a lot of our sports place themselves in danger of alienating athletes and changing fundamental parts of the game.
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I think that while allowing the players to decide the rules of the game would be an interesting route to take, it could also prove very costly. This is because a committee is meant to have everyone’s best interests in mind when deciding rules, however each individual player would try and find rules that would improve his or her personal performance regardless of the effects on other players. As a result sports could change ever faster and even more dramatically if players were allowed to decide the rules. However, I do think that players should have some say in the rules that govern their games and therefore if a majority of players are against a rule change that does not pose a safety threat then i do not see why the rule change should be implemented.
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