Has the NFL gone too far with rule changes favoring the offense over many decades?

IMO the NFL has gone too far with the rule changes for the offense over the course of many decades. It seems every week, month and year more and more records get broken. 600 + yards of offense. 5,400 passing yards. TD records. Everything else.

You can't hit the QB high. You can't hit the QB low. You can't hit the QB if they slide. You know there was a time you could do all of these and viciously. Can't jam a WR or TE down the field. You used to be able to rough them up all the way down the field. You used to be able to head slap O Linemen on the pass rush. O Linemen couldn't even use their hands to block at one point. Every time there is a push off by a WR they call it pass interference on the DB.

I get that the average fan thinks they want to see offense and touchdowns. But there was something about the purity of the true historical game over many years and several decades. Defense mattered too. And getting people off the field mattered. Now you try to post 50 and hold the other team to 40. I think they have messed with the integrity of the game and the balance of offense, defense and special teams. It used to be all of those mattered in pretty equal proportion. But now one is weighted massively more.

To me I take all these "records" if you want to call them that with a grain of salt. I would put 1 or 2 or 3 asterisks by them. These aren't real records by the old style of football. They were playing under totally different rules 10, 20, 30 years ago. And the longer ago you go back the more dramatic the change. I don't think the real little kid young fans even realize it. You aren't comparing the same thing. It's not even in the same ballpark for rules and enforcement of the way the game is called. The advantage to powerful offenses is just massive now. And out of balance IMO (***).

Originally posted by SanDiego49er:
IMO the NFL has gone too far with the rule changes for the offense over the course of many decades. It seems every week, month and year more and more records get broken. 600 + yards of offense. 5,400 passing yards. TD records. Everything else.

You can't hit the QB high. You can't hit the QB low. You can't hit the QB if they slide. You know there was a time you could do all of these and viciously. Can't jam a WR or TE down the field. You used to be able to rough them up all the way down the field. You used to be able to head slap O Linemen on the pass rush. O Linemen couldn't even use their hands to block at one point. Every time there is a push off by a WR they call it pass interference on the DB.

I get that the average fan thinks they want to see offense and touchdowns. But there was something about the purity of the true historical game over many years and several decades. Defense mattered too. And getting people off the field mattered. Now you try to post 50 and hold the other team to 40. I think they have messed with the integrity of the game and the balance of offense, defense and special teams. It used to be all of those mattered in pretty equal proportion. But now one is weighted massively more.

To me I take all these "records" if you want to call them that with a grain of salt. I would put 1 or 2 or 3 asterisks by them. These aren't real records by the old style of football. They were playing under totally different rules 10, 20, 30 years ago. And the longer ago you go back the more dramatic the change. I don't think the real little kid young fans even realize it. You aren't comparing the same thing. It's not even in the same ballpark for rules and enforcement of the way the game is called. The advantage to powerful offenses is just massive now. And out of balance IMO (***).

+1

Goodell is sucking all the life out of this game. Sorry Goodell this is a high impact, high risk sport. Thats what brings people to the games and watch at home.

Originally posted by monsterzero789:
Goodell is sucking all the life out of this game. Sorry Goodell this is a high impact, high risk sport. Thats what brings people to the games and watch at home.

You can't even play defense anymore. And now all the "defenseless WR" crap. How soon until we go to 2 hand touch?....

Originally posted by SanDiego49er:

Originally posted by monsterzero789:
Goodell is sucking all the life out of this game. Sorry Goodell this is a high impact, high risk sport. Thats what brings people to the games and watch at home.

You can't even play defense anymore. And now all the "defenseless WR" crap. How soon until we go to 2 hand touch?....

I hate the defensless WR junk. Ronnie Lott would be suspended for seasons if he tried to play in todays game. And how about that penalty last night when the db got called for the penalty when he slapped the top of the WRs head. Its become an embarrassment. And whats sad is EVERYONE says it is. I dont know one person who loves football that likes these new rule changes. The NFL is doing it in spite of what the viewers actually want.

Originally posted by monsterzero789:

Originally posted by SanDiego49er:

Originally posted by monsterzero789:
Goodell is sucking all the life out of this game. Sorry Goodell this is a high impact, high risk sport. Thats what brings people to the games and watch at home.

You can't even play defense anymore. And now all the "defenseless WR" crap. How soon until we go to 2 hand touch?....

I hate the defensless WR junk. Ronnie Lott would be suspended for seasons if he tried to play in todays game. And how about that penalty last night when the db got called for the penalty when he slapped the top of the WRs head. Its become an embarrassment. And whats sad is EVERYONE says it is. I dont know one person who loves football that likes these new rule changes. The NFL is doing it in spite of what the viewers actually want.

Yeah it's sad. I don't think Ronnie Lott could even play in todays football. If we played old school football the Saints would get knocked out when they play us. Touch a guys head inadertently and they call a 15 yard penalty. Just rediculous...

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I'd definitely have to say its gone too far. For almost 30yrs Marino's passing record stood. Now suddenly 3 QBs have thrown for over 5,000 yards in one season as if it's madden or something. And it's not b/c of the simply adage "records were made to be broken" as Marino's record was actually more impressive numerically. He dropped back less and avg more yards per attempt. It's just that the rules make it almost dumb to do anything other than drop back and throw it as far as you can.

It reminds me of baseball where for 40yrs no one could hit 60hrs, then suddenly multiple ppl were approaching or passing that number every year. It's just that in the NFL, it's performance enhancing rules.

F**K YES.

Goodell should kill himself for what he's done to this league.

It depends on which QB. Guys like Brady and Breese are treated with kids' gloves, while the defense can get away with hitting a lesser-known QB hard.

It's because other teams have tall receivers.

Originally posted by BenQ:
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Why is there more money in that? Don't people like defense too?

Originally posted by fastforward:
It depends on which QB. Guys like Brady and Breese are treated with kids' gloves, while the defense can get away with hitting a lesser-known QB hard.

I've seen guys crawing through the pile and just trying to get a hand on Brady and they touch him on the shin or something and get a 15 yard penalty. It's just embarrassing. They might as well make it 2 hand touch for Brady...

Originally posted by susweel:
It's because other teams have tall receivers.

Originally posted by SanDiego49er:

Originally posted by BenQ:
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Why is there more money in that? Don't people like defense too?

It seems the sad truth is no. People only want to see lots of offense