Michael A. Lough: Football is great, except for some rules

For all intents and purposes, football season all but ended a week ago with the NFL's conference championship games.

For many, it was over when Alabama recovered the onside kick and finished off Clemson. Particularly, that night made many of us sad.

But we have a game left and plenty of opportunities to get aggravated with those who run football, from the NFL rules people to the college rules people.

Maybe their constituents -- and we're talking more about the NFL here but all are affected, in most cases -- should spend the offseason writing them letters with a few pleas.

Blow up all discussions and rules about targeting, helmet-to-helmet and defenseless players and start over, but do not allow anybody involved in the previous discussions in the room.

Certainly, no lucid person is against rules improving safety. But everybody has to realize that football is football, and it is inherently a fairly unsafe game.

Look at it logically. We're not going to fix everything. And people with an open mind are fine with those who decide not to play or won't let their kids play at all or maybe until a later age.

Some of us get it. So let's allow those who are up for playing and understand the risks have at it, and we'll do our best for safety. People in charge have to do a better job of matching safety with the reality of the game.

Reality: receivers shrink their bodies and lower their helmets when making many catches, and a defender would almost have to crawl to avoid helmet-to-helmet contact. Let's stop penalizing those who do use somewhat proper tackling techniques. It seems about 30 percent of these flags are easily fixable with a set of eyes in the replay booth.

Man buzzes the official. "Nope, normal football play, no headhunting, but offer a warning."

And we're good, we being the fans and observers as well as the players.

But if you launch toward a player, any player, and your head's down, and you're clearly not going for the ball or to break it up, you get a flag and written warning. Since not that many players launch -- and officials know the ones who do -- we can err on the conservative side and still not be too grumpy.

Targeting is another play that needs that set of eyes in the booth.

For all of these scenarios, there is a level of context that's nearly impossible to have as an official because of the speed of the game and players and how many things one official is supposed to watch.

I doubt people will complain about another minute or two added to a game to review some calls that allow the game to be, you know, played while also taking safety concerns into account.

And there's another prominent plea: Can we make a catch a catch again?

Aliens long ago looked at the imbeciles covering the planet and decided against invading. Nothing to gain. This rule was fairly high on the sports list. After all, if we have so many interpretations of what a blasted catch is, how valuable a planet can we be?

It began with the butchering of Calvin Johnson's catch five years ago in Chicago. And ever since then, we all cringe a little bit when the ball goes in the air.

It's so bad, people felt for the Dallas Cowboys when Dez Bryant's non-catch was ruled a non-catch. Most Americans never feel for the Cowboys.

Maybe we just have a citizen, somebody who's not a huge football fan and has a grip on reality, in the booth to make the ruling: "Does that look like a catch to you, a catch as defined for most of your life and while growing up?"

And there's your ruling. OK, maybe not, but defining a catch shouldn't take up so many words.

Perhaps nothing is as regularly frustrating as the overtime rule.

I want to see every stadium filled with the boos when the officials and players huddle up, and the ref explains the overtime rule. There are scores of chants to offer.

"That's so stupid (clap clap clapclapclap) ... that's so stupid (clap clap clapclapclap)."

Most are unprintable, thus they're more encouraged so the NFL might be a little more inspired to stun us with common sense.

Both teams get the ball at least once, no matter what. Period. End of ridiculous discussion.

The aliens really get a chuckle out of this rule, about as much as campaign season (which also makes them cry, for us).

Just eliminate the silly stuff, the topics that lead to grousing -- even from those not affected -- every time they crop up.

There are certainly other items (Can we please go back to the 5-yard face mask and call holding rather than interference more often?) that need addressing, but goodness, if we could get one or two of these fixed, we'd almost forget about the others.

Contact Michael A. Lough at 744-4626 or mlough@macon.com.

This story was originally published January 29, 2016 at 4:23 PM with the headline "Michael A. Lough: Football is great, except for some rules ."