# Sports Rule Changes that Didn't Work **URL:** \ **Category:** The Game Room\ **Created:** [November 21, 2008, 1:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sports-rule-changes-that-didnt-work/473756 "2008-11-21T01:01:44Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2008, 3:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sports-rule-changes-that-didnt-work/473756/21 "2008-11-22T03:13:16Z")
> [@Leaffan](#): > > The “in the crease” rule in hockey stipulated that goals would be disallowed if an offensive player was in the goal crease. This was to stop goal tender interference that lead to disputed goals. The literal interpretation of this meant that goals were being called back if even a skate blade was touching the crease. This really sucked on a lot of calls where the goalie was on one side of the crease, an offensive player was barely touching the other side of the crease, and the goal went in and was waived off. > . At least in modern times, there’s no doubt in my mind this is the thread winner. There has never been a worse rule change in a major North American pro sport in terms of the immediate and profoundly negative effect it had on the quality of the sport being presented to the public. The fact that he 1999 Stanley Cup Final result is tainted for all time was the icing on a very horrible cake. Incessant video reviews and the disallowance of a bazillion goals had slowed the game down and damaged its pace dramatically, and quite literally overnight; it was an instant change and entirely for the worse. ---
**Author:** ![Rysto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ecccb3/32.png) [@Rysto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rysto)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2008, 3:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sports-rule-changes-that-didnt-work/473756/22 "2008-11-22T03:30:40Z")
Yeah, the skate in the crease rule absolutely wins, unless we get to count the idiocies that the IIHF has come up with. Puck hits the goalie in the mask? Blow the play dead. Offensive player enters the crease? Blow the play dead. ---
**Author:** ![Hostile\_Dialect](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e495f1/32.png) [@Hostile\_Dialect](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hostile_Dialect)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2008, 3:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sports-rule-changes-that-didnt-work/473756/23 "2008-11-22T03:46:28Z")
This raises an interesting question: now that the skate-in-the-crease rule is obsolete, will the winning goal in the 1999 Stanley Cup eventually (say, in 40 years) be thought of as not at all controversial? That is, will hockey fans of the future fail to grasp the problem with it, as a whole? When ESPN SportsMillenium shows the goal and the commentator explains that it was wrong because all the other goals scored with a skate inside the crease had been called back, will people be shocked? (I hope I’m explaining my question well enough here…) ---
**Author:** ![Snarky\_Kong](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a183cd/32.png) [@Snarky\_Kong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snarky_Kong)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2008, 4:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sports-rule-changes-that-didnt-work/473756/24 "2008-11-22T04:18:48Z")
> [@Hostile\_Dialect](#): > > I’m not so sure the NASL’s rule changes failed. The league was pretty successful in terms of ticket sales, and brought a lot of people to soccer games who hadn’t even heard of soccer before. It was probably also responsible in large part as a catalyst for the youth soccer boom. I mean, a lot of people look back on the hockey-style shootout fondly. The reasons for the NASL’s ultimate demise were complex and I don’t think they had much of anything to do with rules changes. Actually the attendance was pretty horrible, the average never broke 15k and broke 10k only 8/17 seasons. Sure the Cosmos drew well, but they had freaking Pele and Beckenbauer. ---
**Author:** ![garygnu](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/garygnu/32/2924_2.png) [@garygnu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/garygnu)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2008, 4:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sports-rule-changes-that-didnt-work/473756/25 "2008-11-22T04:31:00Z")
> [@Hostile\_Dialect](#): > > …How is goalie interference called now? I was away from the game for a while and it’s confusing to me. Goalie interference is called when… the goalie is _actually_ interfered with. :eek: Shocking, I know. To be more specific: “Goals should be disallowed only if: (1) an attacking player, either by his positioning or by contact, impairs the goalkeeper’s ability to move freely within his crease or defend his goal; or (2) an attacking player initiates intentional or deliberate contact with a goalkeeper, inside or outside of his goal crease. Incidental contact with a goalkeeper will be permitted…” NHL [Rule 69](http://www.nhl.com/ice/page.htm?id=26480) ---
**Author:** ![furt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/439d5e/32.png) [@furt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/furt)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2008, 5:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sports-rule-changes-that-didnt-work/473756/26 "2008-11-22T05:38:50Z")
The “in the grasp” rule in the NFL is still in the books, but is now very, very rarely invoked, such that some people think it was repealed. ---
**Author:** ![Airman\_Doors\_USAF](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e36b37/32.png) [@Airman\_Doors\_USAF](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Airman_Doors_USAF)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2008, 5:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sports-rule-changes-that-didnt-work/473756/27 "2008-11-22T05:53:55Z")
In 1963 MLB changed the strike zone a few inches top and bottom to curb the offenses. I suppose you could say that it worked in that it sure as hell curbed the offenses. In 1968 Carl Yastrzemski won the American League batting title with a whopping .301 batting average, to this day the lowest batting average to lead either league. That was the fabled Year of the Pitcher, where Denny McLain won 31 games (the last 30-game winner in MLB), Bob Gibson had an incredible 1.12 ERA, and both won their league’s MVP and Cy Young Awards. Prior to the next year they dropped the mound height by five inches and reverted to the pre-1963 strike zones. I think we can all agree that it was a rule change that failed miserably in that it didn’t level the competitive balance, it simply switched it from one side to the other. ---
**Author:** ![Cyberhwk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/7993a0/32.png) [@Cyberhwk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cyberhwk)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2008, 6:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sports-rule-changes-that-didnt-work/473756/28 "2008-11-22T06:14:35Z")
> [@davidw](#): > > The MLB that the winning League of the All-Star game gets home field advantage in the World Series was a stupid fix to a extremely minor problem. Who cares if players don’t give 100% during the all-star game? Even worse than the tie, was having to listen to the bullshit about how “Baseball is different. Baseball players actually CARE about their All-Star game! It’s not just a beauty contest.” WTF?!?!?! That’s _exactly_ what it is. ---
**Author:** ![Munch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/munch/32/5281_2.png) [@Munch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Munch)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2008, 1:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sports-rule-changes-that-didnt-work/473756/29 "2008-11-22T13:32:27Z")
> [@ZenBeam](#): > > There was some penalty rule in college football for one season about three years ago. On a kickoff, if there was a certain penalty (kicked out of bounds?), the penalty had to be called. I remember Joe Paterno getting mad because the opposing team was repeatedly doing this near the end of the half, with time running off each time, to avoid letting Penn State get the ball back. > > Someone will remember what I’m talking about. Wasn’t the rule chance that the clock started immediately before the kick? That was incredibly stupid, and allowed the above the happen. That was in an effort to speed the game up, and included a few other ridiculous adjustments that fucked with the general time management strategy of the game. How about, say, reducing the number of TV timeouts the network is allowed to call?!? ---
**Author:** ![ZenBeam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/3ab097/32.png) [@ZenBeam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZenBeam)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2008, 3:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sports-rule-changes-that-didnt-work/473756/30 "2008-11-22T15:49:40Z")
> [@Munch](#): > > > [@ZenBeam](#): > > > > There was some penalty rule in college football for one season about three years ago. On a kickoff, if there was a certain penalty (kicked out of bounds?), the penalty had to be called. I remember Joe Paterno getting mad because the opposing team was repeatedly doing this near the end of the half, with time running off each time, to avoid letting Penn State get the ball back. > > > > Someone will remember what I’m talking about. > > Wasn’t the rule chance that the clock started immediately before the kick? That was incredibly stupid, and allowed the above the happen. That was in an effort to speed the game up, and included a few other ridiculous adjustments that fucked with the general time management strategy of the game. How about, say, reducing the number of TV timeouts the network is allowed to call?!? That may have been part of it, but I remember there was some kind of penalty that the receiving team couldn’t decline, so the kicking team could just keep kicking off, and run out the clock. ---
**Author:** ![John\_DiFool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_difool/32/19543_2.png) [@John\_DiFool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_DiFool)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2008, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sports-rule-changes-that-didnt-work/473756/31 "2008-11-22T18:54:42Z")
> [@SSG\_Schwartz](#): > > Restricter Plate Racing. It was bad when you had one car going 200+ mph and crashed, now you have 43 cars going 199mph inches apart from each other and needing to bump draft to pass. The Cars of Tomorrow are safer, the tracks are safer, let them race like in the old days. I have been predicting for several years that sooner or later we will have a horrific accident at a motor racing event which will kill dozens of spectators, making Le Mans 1955 look like a walk in the park, and forevermore changing the face of motorsport. You may recall Bobby Allison’s [catapulting wreck](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yt5XCCgwulA) along the fence at Talldega in '87, the event which prompted the use of the restrictor plates, but there was also Mario Andretti’s wreck at Indy when he was testing one of this team’s cars, where he literally came within inches of clearing the fence in the south chute. Murphy’s Law definitely applies, even though we have made tremendous strides in driver safety, esp. since Dale Earnhardt’s death in 2001. ---
**Author:** ![Knorf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/58956e/32.png) [@Knorf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Knorf)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2008, 7:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sports-rule-changes-that-didnt-work/473756/32 "2008-11-22T19:52:37Z")
Should I bring up the DH rule? _D&R_ ---
**Author:** ![EllisDee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ellisdee/32/4531_2.png) [@EllisDee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EllisDee)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2008, 9:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sports-rule-changes-that-didnt-work/473756/33 "2008-11-22T21:44:14Z")
> [@Hostile\_Dialect](#): > > Halo rule: > > (American) Football offenses punt away the ball when their forward progress looks hopeless. During these situations, according to the halo rule, there was a two-yard “halo” around the punt returner–the guy from the defending team who took the dropkicked ball and tried to run as far forward with it as possible–from the time the ball was kicked until the guy actually got a secure hold of the ball, during which time players from the kicking team couldn’t get within his personal space. The idea was to give kick returners more room to set up epic runs. > > The halo rule was in effect in college football from 1983 until 2002, and also applied to kickoffs. **Larry Borgia** , it was also used in the XFL. Good answer, but how could they possibly put a Halo rule in effect on a kickoff? Doesn’t that make onside kicks illegal? Unlike punts, kickoffs are live balls. Any player on the field is allowed to jump on a kickoff and they get possession. (Kicking team can’t advance it, though.) Punts don’t work that way; the defense can’t gain possession unless the ball is first touched by the receiving team. So on a kickoff, where the kicking team has just as much right to the ball as the receiving team, how could you have a Halo rule? And a quick nitpick; Punts aren’t dropkicks. In a dropkick, the ball bounces off the ground before it gets kicked. ---
**Author:** ![Omniscient](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/omniscient/32/3290_2.png) [@Omniscient](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omniscient)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2008, 1:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sports-rule-changes-that-didnt-work/473756/34 "2008-11-23T01:11:38Z")
> [@Leaffan](#): > > Trapezoid rule: Hockey. There’s a painted trapezoid behind the goal in which the goalie may handle the puck. He cannot handle the puck behind the goal line OUTSIDE of this area. Goalies were getting very proficient at skating into corners on “dump ins” and then firing the puck back up ice thereby eliminating the possibility of the offensive team setting up a play. The thought was that by limiting the area in which the goalie can handle the puck the offensive player might reach the puck first and get something going. But, it seems that races to the puck on the end boards have resulted in some injurious outcomes. I’m not a huge hockey fan, but I’m curious exactly how the trapezoid rule is a major factor in this. Teams have always employed the “dump in” and it’s always resulted in a race to the puck against the back wall. Whether or not the goalie is allowed to play the puck in the corner seems irrelevant. Certainly in the cases where a goalie is the first to get there it eliminates the collision but there were lots of occasions before the trapezoid rule where the goalie didn’t or couldn’t play it and the race and subsequent collision was there anyways. I suppose there’s an argument to be made that it increased the number of times that there was a collision, but the collisions are a result of the offensive strategy not the trapezoid rule. The fact that the trapezoid rule was created _as a response_ to the strategy pretty clearly shows that it was well entrenched prior to the rule. > [@davidw](#): > > The MLB that the winning League of the All-Star game gets home field advantage in the World Series was a stupid fix to a extremely minor problem. Who cares if players don’t give 100% during the all-star game? I might argue against this as an answer to the OP simply because it’s doing exactly what it was intended to do, make the All Star game have meaning. I agree with the majority who think this is an incredibly stupid rule with dubious goals, but it’s achieving the goals exactly as intended. No unintended consequences there, just stupid intended ones. > [@EllisDee](#): > > And a quick nitpick; Punts aren’t dropkicks. In a dropkick, the ball bounces off the ground before it gets kicked. Beat me to it. ---
**Author:** ![SSG\_Schwartz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9a140/32.png) [@SSG\_Schwartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SSG_Schwartz)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2008, 2:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sports-rule-changes-that-didnt-work/473756/35 "2008-11-23T02:05:29Z")
> [@John\_DiFool](#): > > I have been predicting for several years that sooner or later we will have a horrific accident at a motor racing event which will kill dozens of spectators, making Le Mans 1955 look like a walk in the park, and forevermore changing the face of motorsport. You may recall Bobby Allison’s [catapulting wreck](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yt5XCCgwulA) along the fence at Talldega in '87, the event which prompted the use of the restrictor plates, but there was also Mario Andretti’s wreck at Indy when he was testing one of this team’s cars, where he literally came within inches of clearing the fence in the south chute. Murphy’s Law definitely applies, even though we have made tremendous strides in driver safety, esp. since Dale Earnhardt’s death in 2001. I agree that Bobby Allison’s crash was horrifying and dangerous both to him and the fans, but it is my understanding that in the newer cars, at least in NASCAR, that getting airborne to that extent is not possible. The real danger is too many cars going fast all close to each other. Cars are going to get loose. A single car crashing into a SAFER barrier will cause the caution to come out for a few laps, a single car getting loose and causing a chain reaction and taking out 20 cars is going to get someone hurt. As a testament to the safety, look at [Michael McDowell](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nKcasmBxfLc) and his big crash during qualifying. While I’m on the subject, I don’t personally like the “Lucky Dog,” but I do agree that it makes the race safer. SSG Schwartz ---
**Author:** ![Hostile\_Dialect](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e495f1/32.png) [@Hostile\_Dialect](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hostile_Dialect)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2008, 2:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sports-rule-changes-that-didnt-work/473756/36 "2008-11-23T02:50:16Z")
> [@Ellis Dee](#): > > Good answer, but how could they possibly put a Halo rule in effect on a kickoff? The only way I can possibly respond to this is to say that when **Ellis Dee** is stumped about a football question, it’s safe to assume I’m double-stumped. > [@Omniscient](#): > > I’m not a huge hockey fan, but I’m curious exactly how the trapezoid rule is a major factor in this. Teams have always employed the “dump in” and it’s always resulted in a race to the puck against the back wall. I suspect the difference is that a significantly larger number of plays attract the attention of multiple skaters in those areas now. The idea being, it’s _always_ dangerous to have a bunch of people shoving each other around trying to get at the puck down there, and anything that increases the likelihood of that happening, causes more injuries than it’s worth. ---
**Author:** ![as\_u\_wish](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/6f9a4e/32.png) [@as\_u\_wish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/as_u_wish)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2008, 6:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sports-rule-changes-that-didnt-work/473756/37 "2008-11-23T18:57:44Z")
> [@](#): > > While I’m on the subject, I don’t personally like the “Lucky Dog,” but I do agree that it makes the race safer. > > SSG Schwartz While I don’t like the lucky dog rule, it does make for some exciting racing for the cars vying to be the first car a lap down. Like you, I love green flag pit stops, and I also find a fuel mileage race interesting. The big crashes at restrictor plate races seem to turn the whole race into a crap shoot (is there a better term?). So the sooner they drop the restrictor plate, the better. ---
**Author:** ![Quercus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/7ab992/32.png) [@Quercus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quercus)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2008, 3:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sports-rule-changes-that-didnt-work/473756/38 "2008-11-24T15:43:58Z")
> [@Snarky\_Kong](#): > > A lot of things were tried in the NASL and MLS to make soccer more appealing to Americans. They had a 30(?) yard line, shootouts, the clock going the other way, etc. The vast majority of people who watch want to watch soccer, not faux-soccer that’s marketed towards some abstract concept of an American sports fan. For the record, I believe I count as a true soccer fan, but I think hockey-style shootouts was a positive rule change that should have been universally adopted. No more random than penalty kicks, but much more interesting and more relevant to overall soccer skills. And I don’t think which way the clock runs is particularly important. ---
**Author:** ![borschevsky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/97f17d/32.png) [@borschevsky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/borschevsky)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2008, 4:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sports-rule-changes-that-didnt-work/473756/39 "2008-11-24T16:27:21Z")
> [@EllisDee](#): > > Good answer, but how could they possibly put a Halo rule in effect on a kickoff? Doesn’t that make onside kicks illegal? I believe that’s why kickers always bounce onside kicks rather than flying them. If the ball doesn’t bounce, then fair catch/halo rules would apply. Canadian note :D: This is different from CFL rules, and in the CFL onside kicks are usually kicked to fly to the sideline without a bounce. ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2008, 5:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sports-rule-changes-that-didnt-work/473756/40 "2008-11-24T17:19:49Z")
> [@Hostile\_Dialect](#): > > I suspect the difference is that a significantly larger number of plays attract the attention of multiple skaters in those areas now. The idea being, it’s _always_ dangerous to have a bunch of people shoving each other around trying to get at the puck down there, and anything that increases the likelihood of that happening, causes more injuries than it’s worth. I think the counterpoint was, though, that since skaters have always chased each other for the puck, the problem always existed. The trapezoid rule was created to reduce a problem of very recent vintage - super-mobile goalies that made the dump-and-chase difficult, resulting in less scoring. The solution to icing injuries, I hate to bring up again, is no-touch icing. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sports-rule-changes-that-didnt-work/473756.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sports-rule-changes-that-didnt-work/473756.md?page=3)