NFL owners announce rules changes

Associated Press

PHOENIX

If it was good enough for football’s greatest running back, NFL owners figure, it should work in the 21st century.

Team owners passed a player safety rule Wednesday barring ball carriers from using the crown of their helmets to make forcible contact with a defender in the open field. Pittsburgh Steelers President Art Rooney put the change succinctly.

“Jim Brown never lowered his head,” he said with a smile. “It can be done.”

And according to the rules, it must be done beginning this season.

The second significant player safety rule passed this week to help protect defensive players came with much debate. Several coaches and team executives expressed concern about officiating the new rule, but Commissioner Roger Goodell championed it and it passed 31-1. Cincinnati voted no.

On Tuesday, the league took the peel-back block out of the game.

The changes were the latest involving safety, and head injuries in particular, with the issue receiving heightened attention amid hundreds of lawsuits filed by former players claiming that the NFL did not do enough to prevent concussions in years past. League officials have defended the NFL’s record and did so again on Wednesday.

“I have always thought that player safety has been at the forefront of our discussion for a long, long time,” said Atlanta Falcons President Rich McKay, co-chairman of the competition committee that recommends rule changes. “The game has gotten safer over time. Where we have really focused is on the big hits, the open field hits and hits where players truly can’t defend themselves. In this step that we are taking we are trying to protect the player from himself with respect to this rule.”

The tuck rule, one of the most criticized in pro football, was eliminated. Now, if a quarterback loses control of the ball before he has fully protected it after opting not to throw, it is a fumble.

The Steelers were the only team to vote against getting rid of the tuck rule. New England and Washington abstained.

Peel-back blocks had been legal inside the tackle box, but now players can’t turn back toward their goal line and block an opponent low from behind anywhere on the field.

Video review now will be allowed when a coach challenges a play that he is not allowed to. But the coach will be penalized or lose a timeout, depending on when he threw the challenge flag.

Bears, Urlacher parting ways

The Chicago Bears are parting ways with veteran linebacker Brian Urlacher after 13 years.

General manager Phil Emery said Wednesday that the team couldn’t reach a contract agreement with Urlacher, for years the heart and face of the franchise. He is now a free agent after missing the last four games of the season with a hamstring injury.

The eight-time Pro Bowler started 180 games from 2000 through 2012, recording a team-record 1,779 tackles.

Pro Bowl returning to Hawaii

The Pro Bowl will return to Honolulu next January and again will be played the week before the Super Bowl.

NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said Wednesday at the owners meetings that the all-star game he once considered scrapping has been scheduled for Aloha Stadium on Jan. 26. He added that Hawaii will be included “on some sort of rotational basis” in any future Pro Bowl scheduling.