NFL officials just OK’d a rule that brings the NCAA’s ‘targeting’ calls to the big leagues

The NFL rules committee just took a page out of the NCAA’s playbook. Dangerous helmet-to-helmet hits targeting defenseless players will now merit automatic — but reviewable — ejections, aping the college game’s controversial “targeting” rule.

The new policy will turn egregious helmet-to-helmet hits from a 15-yard penalty into an automatic ejection for the offending player. The flag will also result in a 15-yard walkoff and an automatic first down for the team on the receiving end. However, these plays will be subject to an automatic review, where a replay has the opportunity to overrule any incorrectly assessed penalty.

But the violations don’t just apply to head-to-head contact. Here’s the full NCAA rule from which the NFL borrowed liberally:

Note 1: “Targeting” means that a player takes aim at an opponent for purposes of attacking with forcible contact that goes beyond making a legal tackle or a legal block or playing the ball. Some indicators of targeting include but are not limited to:

Launch — a player leaving his feet to attack an opponent by an upward and forward thrust of the body to make forcible contact in the head or neck area

A crouch followed by an upward and forward thrust to attack with forcible contact at the head or neck area, even though one or both feet are still on the ground

Leading with helmet, shoulder, forearm, fist, hand or elbow to attack with forcible contact at the head or neck area

Lowering the head before attacking by initiating forcible contact with the crown of the helmet

College refs are instructed to err on the side of caution, thereby throwing the flag first and allowing the replay to sort out the foul. While that’s liable to slow down the pace of games, another new league rule will help keep these penalties from dragging down broadcast times. The NFL is set to vote on centralizing all reviews at its league headquarters, which should cut the average duration of replay timeouts considerably.

That’s not the only change the league has in store for 2017. The NFL banned leaping over the line of scrimmage to block field goals, then failed to make kickoffs fun by awarding extra field position for kickers who blast kickoffs through the uprights. We’ll have the rest of the league’s newest rules for you as they develop.