Forget Suspending Aaron Donald, The NFL Needs to End Joint Practices Before Someone Gets Hurt

We need to talk about the NFL trend of joint practices.


If you’ve ever been to an NFL practice, and I’ve participated in hundreds and hundreds, you know what they’re about. 
Competition and physicality. 


And if you’re in the preseason, you can throw ‘desperation’ in as a descriptor as well.


And what happens when you’re desperately, physically competing?


Fights. 


Maybe the NFL moved in the direction of joint practices because the preseason has been cut from four games down to three, but it’s not like the number of practices increase when you add a second team to the mix. If anything, you’ve actually drastically reduced the number of reps you get to see as a coach and GM because while your offense is on the field running plays against another team’s defense, your defense is standing around watching. 


Couple that with having to make extended travel plans for an expanded roster, and it just seems like joint practices are more of a headache than a benefit.


Earlier this week, a debate broke out about whether the NFL’s best player, Aaron Donald, should be suspended for removing the helmets from two Bengals players and swinging them at everyone in sight. 


In my opinion, the Rams front office should suspend themselves for having the galaxy-brained idea to put their most valuable player, a notorious hothead, in a competition space where he’s going up against the players he just beat in the Super Bowl, leading into a preseason game where you’re definitely not going to risk an injury by giving him extended snaps. 


Training camp fights are part of the NFL, just like dropping the gloves is part of hockey. If Cam Newton is willing to risk it all to beat Josh Norman’s ass when they’re on the same team, do you really think that players aren’t going to go after guys that they don’t have to see in the locker room after practice?


A couple weeks ago, several New England Patriots were booted from practice after a brawl with the Carolina Panthers. Did the players learn their lesson? Hell no. The very next day, not only did the Patriots and Panthers brawl again, the fight went into the crowd.


Did anyone catch the third episode of Hard Knocks with the Detroit Lions? If you did, you probably agree that running back Jamaal Williams was doing everything in his power to kick off an all-out brawl between the Lions and Colts- and did that added emotion do anything to help Williams? No, he was out there over-emotional and dropping passes.
When a fight happens in training camp, that’s never the business of the NFL. That’s up to the team to handle, internally. But when you involve another team, and all of the sudden someone is swinging helmets, or falling into spectators, you’re inviting the NFL administration into a space it doesn’t belong. 


Nobody wants to see their favorite players suspended because the team owners and staff, the same people that preach the idea of going into literal battle to players on the fringe of the roster who are desperate to change their lives for the better, decide to treat the joint practice like a literal battle. 


Get rid of the joint practices, or the next time we talk about this, it could be because Roger Goodell had to step in and protect your players and franchise by getting rid of them for you.


Let that sink in.

The NFL Needs to Mirror College Football’s Overtime Rules

nfl Overtime Rules college football

On Sunday, football fans witnessed one of the most exciting NFL Championship Sundays ever. Both the NFC Championship game and the AFC Championship game went into overtime. There is nothing better than watching two teams fight it out so effectively that the game ends in a tie and is forced into overtime. Overtime is almost like a second game where both teams get an equal shot at becoming the victor. However, that is not exactly true for NFL overtimes.

A Coin Toss Decided the Outcomes of Both Championships

To no one’s surprise, the teams that won the two coin tosses won the games. The implementation of the “sudden death” rule on Sunday left many fans upset that each game was essentially decided by a coin toss. The games were decided by a coin toss as it was an almost certainty that the team that won the toss would take possession, score first, and win. Both teams did exactly that.

Although some may argue that the NFC Championship game was decided by a blown call at the end of the fourth quarter, the game still went into overtime.  The team that won the toss, the Los Angeles Rams, won the game without the New Orleans Saints ever getting an opportunity to score. In the AFC Championship game the team that won the toss, the New England Patriots, won the game without the Kansas City Chiefs ever getting an opportunity to score.  Accordingly, fans were upset that the NFC and AFC Championship games were essentially decided by a coin toss.

The NFL Needs to Change This, Especially for Championship Games

The NFL needs to change this. This is especially true as it pertains to championship games. The team that does not take possession at kickoff (usually the team who loses the toss) is essentially at an unfair disadvantage. Some may argue that there is no disadvantage because the defense should be able to hold off the opposing offense. This is a fair argument. However, it would be better if both teams were guaranteed a chance to perform on both offense and defense. Such a change would ultimately make the game more competitive. It would force both teams to prove they deserve to win offensively and defensively.

The NFL Needs to Adopt Some Variation of College Football’s Overtime Rules

The college football overtime rules are much better than the NFL’s. The NFL can certainly learn from college football in this area. Like the NFL, overtime in college starts with a coin toss.  Where it differs is in the fact that both teams are guaranteed a possession.  This means that both teams will have the opportunity to play both offense and defense. This is better because it forces both teams to earn the win on both ends of the field.  

If the team that gets the ball first scores, they must defend it and hold off the other team’s offense. The college overtime period starts at the 25-yard line.[i] If the game is still tied at the end of the overtime period it keeps going until a team wins.[ii] However, once the game reaches a third overtime period, the teams may no longer kick after a touchdown and are forced to attempt a two-point conversion.[iii] This goes on until a team wins.

Some may argue that this type of overtime makes for a long game.  That is true, a game could be extremely long if both teams keep scoring.  However, that is an extremely rare occurrence. Even with that possibility, the NFL needs to consider some variation of college football’s overtime rules.  Allowing who gets to advance to the Super Bowl to be determined by a coin toss is simply unacceptable.

[i] Chris Chavez, How Does College Football Overtime Work? Rule, NFL Differences Explained, Sports Illustrated (Aug. 14, 2017), https://www.si.com/college-football/2017/college-football-overtime-rules-explained.

[ii] Id.

[iii] Id.