Rule Changes That Need To Happen

Five Rule Changes That Need To Happen

You're either at the stadium with thousands of people wearing the same color clothes that you are, or watching on TV inside your house trying to keep your puppy from barking every time a dog appears on a commercial (OK, maybe that is just me and my family). You then see an NFL player dancing on the midfield logo, or a soccer player causing a five-minute delay after falling down because someone breathed on him. What do you do?

Most Americans probably just yell at the TV or post on Twitter how this is the worst thing ever. But there are many things associated with sports that everyone can agree are annoying. Something must be done to stop them, but what? How about changing the rules?! Here are suggestions for five major sports.

Soccer: If you blatantly flop or fake an injury, you have to go to the Oscars instead of the World Cup.

It has been said that soccer players deserve acting awards for their flops and fake injuries. Some games have more diving than a swim meet! Well, here is the solution. Imagine getting selected for the World Cup, the biggest soccer event in the world, and having to turn it down and go to the Oscars because you flopped on national television. Maybe that would make people think twice before trying so hard to trick referees into giving them a penalty shot.

Hockey: If you challenge for offsides and you’re wrong, the other team actually gets to be offside the rest of the game if they want to.

In the NHL, offside challenges are annoying and slow down the game. Maybe a skate is one-millionth of an inch ahead of the blue line, or maybe it isn’t. And if it’s that close, who cares anyway. Play better defense and it doesn’t matter. Right now a team that challenges for offsides and fails gets a two-minute penalty, which you might think would be enough to stop teams from doing it. Sadly that isn’t the case.

With this rule change, there would be no more of those random coaches' challenges because if they are wrong, then the opposing team could cherry-pick the rest of the game. How many teams would challenge for offside knowing that if they’re wrong, Jordan Kyrou will be standing right in front of the goalie for the rest of the night, ready to tap in a long pass or just annoy the goalie with nonstop bad jokes.

Football: We’ve all seen it. Some players celebrate after every play, even when they didn't contribute, their team is down by at least three touchdowns, the play they celebrated was barely a first down, or they’re doing so before the play actually ends and miss jumping on top of a fumble, for example. Who else finds this annoying? I'm not saying you can't celebrate at all, but you can't celebrate in any of those situations.

The consequence: Any team with a player that celebrates something like that has to sign Jackson Mahomes and let him do TikToks on the sideline. What's worse... seeing players celebrate a four-yard gain like they just won the Super Bowl, or seeing Jackson Mahomes do TikToks? For GMs and owners, getting rid of both is a win-win.

Baseball: If a pitcher throws to first base more than twice between pitches in an at-bat, the first baseman isn’t allowed to use a glove to catch any more pickoff attempts for the rest of the inning.

Who's been at a baseball game where the pitcher just throws to first base 17 times between every pitch? It gets boring, and you get to hear the boos from the crowd who are just hoping to get home before work or school the next day. With this rule, the boos are the last thing the first-basemen is worried about. He’ll instead be worried that his fingers will be pointing in all different directions by the time an inning ends.

Basketball: Each time a player doesn't hustle on defense, takes that play off, or yells at a referee, he has to referee one whole game of youth basketball.

NBA players constantly will take plays off for a variety of reasons. If they’re tired and trying to get subbed out, fine. But if they’re whining at the referee at the lack of a call on the offseason end, or waving at the player they’re supposedly guarding so they can race downcourt for a better shot on offense, that’s super irritating. Why don’t we fix that with this rule? Believe me when I say you would never see NBA players do that again. I have been that person to yell at a referee, and now I've refereed those games, and believe me when I tell you it just takes a game or two of wearing the black and white striped shirt before you vow to never yell at an official again.

(That only lasts until the next time your favorite team gets hosed by a bad call, however, I never said these rules were perfect!)