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By John Sarianides

I am not a fan of the new overtime and celebration rule changes that are being implemented by the NFL. Yeah, I know I probably sound like a curmudgeon but the fact of the matter, none of the changes make any sense to me.

Let’s start with the change to overtime. Why reduce the overtime period from 15 minutes to 10 minutes? How does that make any sense? Don’t give me this player safety crap! I don’t buy it. This latest change is nothing more than a stalling tactic by the owners because they don’t want to change the overtime format. Instead of trying to find creative ways to alter the format of overtime so that games don’t end in ties, the league decided to reduce the overtime period. That doesn’t make any freakin sense! It drives me nuts! Change the format so that games don’t end in ties.! It is not that hard!

The league also decided to do a complete 180 on player celebrations. After over-enforcing player celebrations in recent years, the NFL will now allow players to celebrate as they please. I don’t have an issue with player celebrations. I find them to be thoroughly entertaining. However, there is a fine line. When you start allowing groups of players to congregate around one player and celebrate, that is not good. What is next? Is the league going to allow players to come off the bench and join the celebration? Its too much at once.

It is one thing to allow the players to celebrate but once you allow the players to do what ever the hell they want, it makes it harder for officials to officiate the game. There is a lot of grey area now. Should an official throw a flag if they deem a celebration is excessive or inappropriate? How will they judge that? Will the league back them?

I get the league’s desire to be more fun and to shake its NO FUN LEAGUE reputation but the fact of the matter is, you cannot go from one extreme to the other. The league should allow players to celebrate after they score but there should still be some boundaries. Otherwise, the NFL will resemble the XFL after players score.

I will tell you this much. I wouldn’t want to be new head of officiating Al Riveron. I think the changes in celebrating will make his job much more difficult. It will be interesting to see what happens moving forward.

Either way, the NFL once again dropped the ball when it comes to making effective change that could have a positive effect on the game. It shouldn’t come as a surprise. Nothing surprises me with this league anymore.