NFL Owners Pass New Overtime Rules, More Replay Opportunities Added As Well

On Wednesday, the NFL owners got together for one of their annual meetings to discuss some of the proposed rules that had been recommended to them. After a few hours behind closed doors, two very important laws were passed that will undoubtedly come into effect this season.

To see a list of what was passed and what has been tabled until a later date, hit the jump.

Azcardinals.com writer, Darren Urban did a great job detailing all of the rules and how they not only will affect the Arizona Cardinals, but the entire NFL.

Basically, the owners passed two rules yesterday. The first one was to basically apply the overtime rules that were previously being used just for the postseason to the regular season as well. What that means is that no longer can a team win a game by simply kicking a field goal on the first possession.

Both teams will now have an opportunity to put their offense on the field in overtime unless a touchdown is scored. As Urban pointed out in his column, that would have had no impact on any of the Cardinals' four overtime victories last season.

The second rule --which is much more important, in my eyes-- is that all turnovers will now be subject to review by the referees. Before, if a coach felt that a turnover was questionable, they would be forced to throw the red challenge flag on the field. If they had already used both of their challenges during the game and were not rewarded a third, then the turnover would stand as it was called on the field.

What we are basically seeing now is a movement away from the challenge flag altogether. In my opinion, it was a pretty silly idea to begin with, so I am all in favor of this rule change. Taking the extra few minutes to make sure a call was made correctly does not bother me. For others, the thought is that it takes away from the flow of the game, slowing things down too much.

The rules that are being held off until the May owners meeting are in regards to training camp roster size and a tweak to the injured reserve rule. Currently, NFL teams are allowed to carry 80 players on their training camp roster. With the proposed rule change, they would be allowed to have 90.

As for the injured reserve rule, players would no longer be forced to sit out the entire season once placed on the IR. Instead, they could return after eight weeks of being inactive if deemed healthy enough to resume playing.

Many feel that these rules should pass once they are brought back into the discussion a couple of months from now.

My question is this: what are your thoughts on the changes that have been made to the rules? Do you like the new overtime rules? What about the replays? Should teams stick to the traditional challenge flag approach? Will this new law slow the game down too much?

Tell us what you think.

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