It’s official that the NFL has made some rule changes for the upcoming 2020 season.
As reported by Tom Pelissero of NFL Media, the NFL owners have approved a bylaw change that allows an increase in the number of players that can return from the injured reserve from two to three.
The NFL owners, during their meeting, also approved three rule changes for the upcoming season:
- Philadelphia proposed to make permanent the expansion of automatic replay reviews to include scoring plays, turnovers negated by a foul, and any successful or unsuccessful Try attempt.
- The Competition Committee expanded defenseless player protection to kickoff or punt returners who have possession of the ball but haven’t had time to avoid contact.
- The Competition Committee prevented teams from using multiple dead-ball fouls to manipulate the game clock while it’s running.
The change in game clock rules was prompted by a situation involving Bill Belichick exploiting a loophole which was later adopted by other teams as well.
During a game where the Patriots were leading 33-0 against the Jets and facing a 4th-and-2 situation, the Patriots intentionally took a delay of game penalty, which was declined by the Jets. They then took an intentional false start penalty, which was again declined, allowing them to run more than a minute off the clock.
“No, it was just the way the rules are set up,” Belichick told reporters. “We were able to run quite a bit of time off the clock without really having to do anything. That’s probably a loophole that will be closed and probably should be closed but right now it’s open.”
Belichick was correct, and this loophole has now been closed.
