decentralizing the riggage

good point though

Only thing I can think of that will make the game watchable, or a better idea would be eliminate 10 mins from every quarter.

There is, it's called Las Vegas.

I'm pretty sure raising the rim would just make it even more beneficial to be tall, jump shooting would be even tougher and there would be a ton more rebounds.

In the NFL, a safety should be 5 pts, but instead of a free kick, the team that scored the points should kick off to the team that got the safety on them.

Making it 5 points would impact the end of games as well. If a team is down 3 and on the 1 yard line, instead of kicking a FG to go to overtime, they can go for it on 4th down to try to get the TD, or if they don't get the TD, they can still try and get a safety on the other team for the win.

raising the rim would turn basketball into the wnba

safeties are so rare that I can't imagine that changing anything

we get it, you don't like basketball

NBA players can dribble and shoot

GB said they won't do the franchise-and-trade with Matt Flynn because "the Packers don't do business that way." So other than a probable late 3rd round compensatory pick at best, they get nothing for it. Matt Flynn free to pursue offers once free agency opens.

The NFL discourages this practice but we've seen that it's not really enforced. Inspired by an error I made talking about Flynn, my idea is to actually give some disincentive to this practice and compensate the player at the same time.

Currently, if a player is franchise-tagged and signs his tender, that amount is guaranteed by the team. However if it's a non-exclusive franchise tender and they negotiate a trade with another team (and the player agrees to the new team/contract, the old team winds up getting a pick or whatever. But they are also off the hook for the franchise money as best as I can tell. That doesn't discourage the practice.

The rule change I would put in place is that the old team would still be required to pay the outgoing player the franchise amount (or some considerable portion of it, say 75% maybe), and eat the dead money cap hit that year or spread 50/50 over two years. This is separate from whatever the new team offers.

This way the player gets something to compensate him for a little lost marketability, and teams would have a penalty to consider before doing this - even though they still have the option, which may still be worth the cost if they have some cap space and have developed a valuable player.

NFL, let the players celebrate after touchdowns. No in-your-face type celebrations allowed. Penalize those players celebrating passes and sacks. They are slowing the game down.

Force players to tackle using their hands. Throwing your entire body into the other player should be a penalty. Aikman thinks concussions will eventually hurt the popularity of football.

Take kickers out of football completely.

This too. Let them do whatever they want after a TD.

Then the game could no longer to called football.

Eliminate sudden death from overtime. Play an 8 minute quarter or something. As a compromise Id settle for the first team to score 9 points. Overtime in the NFL is way too luck based.

Competitive eaters should be forced to eat the hot dog with the bun on. Separately dunking them in water betrays the spirit of the event imo.

In the NFL; award a point to any kick-off going between the uprights.

NFL:

Eliminate the fair catch on punts and bring in the no yards penalty from the CFL (have to give returner a 5 yard bubble to catch the ball). Also make the punter or anyone lined up behind him onside, which means that they can recover punts.

LOLCanada I know, but the CFL has some rules that would work well in the NFL.

I agree. And I assume you mean dry, no dunking, with which I also agree. Obviously they wouldn't be able to do nearly as many, but it's much more in the spirit of the event.

Agreed on the intentional grounding,either you can ground it or you can't,what does being in the pocket have to do with anything? I remember when I was a kid and a QB wanted a clock stoppage they would have to throw it at a receiver's feet or over his head,making it look like an attempt to complete a pass,not this spike crap.

QBs need some protection in the pocket,but once they leave the pocket or cross the LOS I don't see why they deserve any more rights than a RB.

Illegal contact, facemasks, running into the kicker, 2 feet inbounds, touchdown celebrations, shorter playclocks

Baseball: I would make series matter during the regular season by playing only 3 or 5 game series and keep track of series W-L records for division winners. I would use total W-L records for wildcards so that all games still matter. I think this would make baseball more exciting to the casual viewer.

Football: No special protection to punters, QBs, receivers, punt returners, etc. If you don't want to get hit, punt faster, throw faster, and/or don't leave yourself vulnerable. At the same time, I would allow QBs to throw the ball away under any circumstance provided the ball lands ahead of the line of scrimmage and out of bounds. I would keep the current rules for grounding in the case the QB has to throw it in the field of play.

NCAAF: I would take only the top 40-50 teams and start a new division and conferences. Right now, the top tier teams play many 3-6 actual challenging games a year, what a joke! Make a league with only the top teams where you get nothing but great games. Throw in a playoff and you have yourself a regular season that is exciting while getting what would have to be an awesome playoff. Oh, and play the players a reasonable stipend for the love of god!

all terrible ideas, especially #1 which would have the reverse effect. only a fraction of the games would mean anything.

Grunch:

Great idea for a thread.

Volleyball: Go back to traditional scoring, new scoring doesn't make sense.

NBA: Too many timeouts, reduce to 2 or 3 per half. Eliminate mandatory man defense. Raise time clock to more than 24 seconds. Got to do something about fouling at the end of the game but dont know what. I know it would be more like college rules but I think that is a more pure game of basketball. Today's NBA bball is more like WWF.

NFL: Eliminate 2:00 minute warning. Take two of the timeouts and make them "stop clock" only timeouts. Eliminate any audio to the quarterbacks or anyone else on the field, eliminate the coordinator in a sky box. Keep everything (coaches, etc) on the ground and let the QB run the offense. Take away all technology during the game. Keep improving overtime which I think the new rule is pretty good. I also don't like the pass interference calls, I would make it more like the college rule. Reduce halftime length. Umpires do not verbally announce all calls to crowd or tv, just enforce and move on, we know if they move back five yards its a false start, just get there already. You can just flash the penalty in writing in the scoreboard both live and on tv. Eliminate the challenge rule. Keep the game moving basically.

Boxing: More 15+ round fights with bigger rings. Boxing is about strategy this would create more of a metagame. Some might say this would be more boring but to the enthusiast this would add more subtlety and back story over the longterm. Eliminate the "nose to nose" face off, it is bad for the sport to see two athletes act like snotty little brats.

UFC: If the fighters are down more than X seconds, make them stand up. Force more stand up. Let them grapple but dont let them stay down there too long. Similar to the clinch rule in boxing. Fighters up against the cage for too long should also be stood up or start them in the classic wrestling position in the center with one man down and one man on top after you break the "clinch."

Womens beach volleyball: bring it back!

Baseball: strictly enforce all steroid use, keep the integrity of the game.

You mean that a fraction of the games would become meaningful...