Owners were able to reach consensus on multiple rule changes, including a new spot location of the football (all the way to the 35!) after kickoffs that result in touchbacks, another change designed to increase the number of returns.
We’ll start this week with a rule change that was discussed and tabled.
I’d like to put some thoughts on the record regarding a play I choose to refer to as “the scrum” a.k.a. “tush push.” I despise that popularized term even more than the ugly action that results from the play itself.
I remember a pamphlet I had as a kid showing and explaining referee signals for various penalties. One of the diagrams showed an official with his hands at his sides, arms straight and palms facing forward with arrows showing the arms and hands pushing forward as the penalty signal for “aiding the runner” as it was known at the time.
I vividly recall the famous clip of the Bart Starr QB goal-line sneak in the Ice Bowl against Dallas. Only Starr and the center knew the ball was not going to the tailback as the play was called in the huddle. So when Starr took the ball forward himself, the surprised and charging tailback who was expecting a handoff, threw his arms in the air not to signal touchdown, as many have believed, but to avoid incurring the aiding the runner penalty.
Even in those days, when the rule was interpreted and enforced far differently, I can say with certainty, it is a rule violation and referee signal I have never seen called. What a far cry we have come. As years went by, the rule was modified to allow some assistance from offensive players but nothing so blatant as the current scrum. What’s next? Put a ball carrier on your shoulder and literally carry him? Get on a knee behind the QB, lock your hands together and use your grip as a vault to fling the ball carrier over the line? Sickening.
Here’s my solution to this travesty of a rule allowance. If an offensive player is simultaneously engaging a defensive player, as well as the ball carrier, there is no foul. Regardless of the amount of contact to either team’s player, as long as a defending player is engaged, the blocker can also assist the ball carrier’s momentum. If, however, the offensive player is in contact with the ball carrier alone or the ball carrier and only other offensive players, aiding the runner is called with the signal mentioned above. Five yards. Repeat the down. What a delight it would be to see the rule actually enforced.
As a timely tribute to Val Kilmer’s performance as Doc Holliday in Tombstone, I quote another character from that film and agree, “We’ve got to have some law.”
Your Skol Huckleberry,
— Jeff K. in Sacramento, California
I was so glad that Jeff mentioned Val Kilmer. I know we usually keep the focus on Vikings football here, but what a talented actor!
Tombstone is one of my favorite movies of all time, and Kilmer’s sheer excellence has so much to do with my regard for the film.
He nailed the part of a cocky fighter pilot in Top Gun and gave all his energy to playing Doors frontman Jim Morrison whole heartedly in the lead up to being just what was in order for Doc.
As for the tush push, with Jeff’s description of all the improper forms of aid that could deviate from this point, it made me think of one of my favorite comedies, with “Slingshot engaged,” by Cal Naughton, Jr. (John C. Reilly), for Ricky Bobby (Will Ferrell) in Talladega Nights.
Based on what was reported from last week’s Annual League Meeting regarding the proposal submitted by Green Bay to ban the tush push, it sounds like decision makers are closely split and were not going to reach a conclusion quickly. The proposal was tabled — likely resuming at the Spring League Meeting, which will be hosted this year in Minnesota in May (and hopefully it will feel like spring by then).
It is already illegal for a player to pull a teammate.
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