Eagles Propose 4 NFL Rule Changes for OT & Instant Replay

Jeffrey Lurie

Getty Eagles owner Jeffrey Lurie bought the Eagles in 1994.

The NFL’s overtime rules have been a prickly subject over the years. The Eagles have weighed in on the issue before and are doing it again.

According to NFL Football Operations, Philadelphia has offered four different amendments to current league rules to the Competition Committee. The nine-man committee features two owners, two club presidents, two general managers and three head coaches — and none of them work for the Eagles.

Falcons president Rich McKay is the chairman, with Giants owner John Mara and Cowboys owner Stephen Jones on the committee. The proposals will be presented before the NFL Scouting Combine and will be reviewed and eventually voted on later this month by all 32 teams.

Among the rule changes proposed by the Eagles were “to modify the blindside block rule to prevent unnecessary fouls” and “to make permanent the expansion of automatic replay reviews to include scoring plays and turnovers negated by a foul, and any successful or unsuccessful try attempt.”

The team is also seeking to amend overtime rules by restoring preseason and regular-season overtime to 15 minutes and implementing rules to minimize the impact of the overtime coin toss.


Eagles Owner Thinks Coin Toss Too Impactful

Eagles owner Jeffrey Lurie has been vocal about changing the overtime rules in previous years, as pointed out by Crossing Broad‘s Kevin Kinkead.

Lurie has long been an opponent of the coin toss and how much it impacts the outcome. He even came up with an idea to potentially fix it.

“One of the ideas I floated was the team that scores the most touchdowns (in regulation) has the advantage of getting the ball first,” Lurie said in March 2019, via Crossing Broad. “Often it will be a tie, but those times when you score more touchdowns, we award that. You want to avoid a coin toss as best you can, I think.”

Lurie has also been railing hard for the NFL to allow the Eagles to wear their Kelly green throwback jerseys, too. Under current rules, teams cannot use two different helmets in the same season. The Eagles’ midnight green helmets do not match the Kelly green jerseys, so therein lies the dilemma.


Miami, Baltimore Propose Additional Rule Changes

The Eagles weren’t the only team to propose NFL rule changes. However, they did provide four of the seven proposed changes.

The other teams to suggest changes were the Baltimore Ravens, Los Angeles Chargers and Miami Dolphins. The most interesting additional rule changes involved umpiring and officiating.

Both the Chargers and Ravens are advocating for adding a “booth umpire” as an eighth game official to the officiating crew. They are also want to add a “Senior Technology Advisor” to assist the officiating crew.

Saints coach Sean Payton joined the NFL’s Competition Committee last year and the officiating changes came up in 2019. A second year on the ballot may get them passed.

“We discussed an eighth official up in the box who will have access to kind of the same video a fan would have, but just as an official,” Payton said in 2019, via NFL.com. “We’ve discussed replay, we’ve discussed all of those topics. I think in the next month or so, we’ll be further along.”

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