Rules proposals from teams come with a very important caveat

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The NFL helped fill an otherwise slow Tuesday afternoon news cycle by announcing the various rule proposals originating from the various teams. But there’s one very important thing to remember when assessing the seven suggested rules from the Eagles (four), the Dolphins (one), and the Ravens and Chargers (two).

The Competition Committee has seen fit to include none of these ideas within the list of proposed rule changes that will eventually be released to the media and presented to ownership.

This means that, for example, the Competition Committee passed on the idea for a “Senior Technology Advisor to the Referee” (fancy way of saying “sky judge”), the notion of allowing teams to use a fourth-and-15 play as the replacement for the onside kick, and the return of 15-minute overtime periods. Which means that, whatever the Competition Committee proposes as the latest effort to prevent a repeat of the Rams-Saints NFC Championship debacle, it won’t be the thing that would be the best way to bridge the gap between what we see on TV and what the officials see on the field, while trying not to be trampled.

Of course, that doesn’t doom these proposals. The owners ultimately decide on the rules, and if 24 or more of them want to go in a given direction, they can do whatever they want to do. They can, if they want, reject every proposal from the Competition Committee and accept every proposal from the teams. They can go off the board, if they want, crafting their own rules on the fly.

It all comes down to what the owners want, as if always does. However, it won’t be easy for these team proposals to pass without the endorsement of the Competition Committee. Indeed, in some cases, the Competition Committee may be arguing zealously against the ideas.