Quote:
Originally Posted by mega3p
I think the officiating in the NFL has changed, to the point that they pick and choose what to call, like the NBA did.
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That's not a change for the NFL, or at least not a recent one. NFL game officials tend to interpret certain rules out of the book, or interpret them so as to effectively change them, and then eventually, after years or decades, the NFL codifies that interpret'n in the rule book. 2 examples that come to mind quickly were their rulings on players of R touching the ground in their end zone while touching a ball in the field of play, and ballcarriers touching or being touched by an opponent while on their way to the ground.
Being a league that adopts its own rules, you're more likely to see that sort of practice in the NFL than you would by a governing body like Fed. Although the NCAA operates much like a league, they're too big to practice that sort of informal rule making. The NFL is small enough that they have no problem with long lasting inconsistencies between their rule book and actual practice; as you can see, they don't even make their rule book easily available. (Many printed versions are missing some or all of the Approved Rulings, and all printed versions I've seen are missing the Official Rulings. Their official rule books at the time I bought a couple, ~30 yrs. ago directly from the league office on Park Ave., were the only football rule books I've ever seen in 8.5" X 11" format, meaning they weren't intended to be carried to the field, unlike the usual pocket format.) However, there are a number of minor leagues that base their own rules on NFL's, and they may well rule differently from the NFL on the field.