PHOENIX -- John Harbaugh is tired of the “circus act.” A dozen clowns stuffed into a tiny car? Bear riding a tricycle? The flying trapeze? Nope. He’s talking about the process of NFL referees informing players on the field who’s an eligible receiver and who isn’t, the very same “circus act” that burned the Ravens in a playoff loss to the Patriots this year.
John Harbaugh still fighting Patriots’ playoff trick play
Surprise! The Ravens head coach was lobbying to change the rules about eligible and ineligible receivers at the league meetings this week.
On three plays in their 35-31 divisional round win over the Ravens, the Patriots had five players on the line and made another player who was usually an eligible receiver ineligible. Each of those plays resulted in a first down, and New England ended up gaining a total of 41 yards on them. (Here’s a detailed breakdown of the play that touched off the firestorm).
An irate Harbaugh ran onto the field after one and got flagged for it. After the game, people questioned whether what the Patriots did was legal (it was), and Harbaugh complained that the officials hadn’t provided his team with enough warning about who was and who wasn’t eligible. The refs did make it clear though, and the NFL was satisfied that the whole thing was completely above the board and well within the league’s rules.
A big part of the reason the play worked so well was that Shane Vereen sold the hell out of it. Vereen wears No. 34.
Lo and behold, the NFL is considering a proposal from the competition committee to change the rules to make it illegal for an offensive player with an eligible number (i.e. a receiver, running back or tight end) to report as ineligible and line up outside of the tackles.
The proposal came from the coach’s subcommittee, from John Madden specifically.
“If you’re eligible, you have to put on an eligible number. If you’re ineligible, you put on an ineligible number. They do it in college, and they did it in the NFL up until, I don’t know, I’m going to guess the ‘60s,” Harbaugh explained.
“That’s why they created eligible and ineligible jersey numbers, so they could look at them and say, ‘He’s eligible and he’s not.’ Now we go through kind of a circus act to identify who’s eligible and who’s not with signals, and that’s what got the referees in trouble.”
Except the referees weren’t in trouble. They made it clear who was eligible and who wasn’t, so clear that even the press at the stadium for that game knew.
Harbaugh’s main beef with the ref that got him an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty that day was that he wasn’t given enough time to adjust and make substitutions. By one count, the Ravens got 10 seconds to make adjustments. Harbaugh also could have called a timeout to get it sorted out with his defense.
Steelers owner Art Rooney recently echoed Harbaugh’s concern with the rule. With Rooney and Madden behind the proposal, it wouldn’t be surprising to see it pass. Tom Brady’s trollish suggestion that the Ravens “study the rule book” now seems like a sensible alternative.
It’s a pretty draconian change to the rules, if it passes, with far-reaching consequences -- like maybe the possibility of no more J.J. Watt touchdowns -- and another example of the NFL’s existential struggle against innovation ... and fun.
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