Two of the less controversial rules proposals brought up at the NFL Annual Meeting on Tuesday have quickly passed, NFL.com's Ian Rapoport reported.
Teams will no longer be allowed to have more than six players on either side of the snapper at the snap of a point after or field goal attempt. This "overloading" one side strategy was deemed to be unsafe and unnecessary. You can no longer hit an offensive lineman low, and the snapper now is considered a defenseless player.
This was a fairly simple fix. A slightly more complicated rule passed Tuesday banning "peel-back blocks," making those low-blocks illegal even if they occur in the tackle box. This likely will be known as "The Brian Cushing rule" after the Houston Texans linebacker suffered a serious injury on a peel-back block in 2012.
The league has yet to vote on the four other rules proposals, which include changing "The Tuck Rule" and a controversial proposal on making it illegal for running backs to initiate contact with the crown of the helmet if the runner is outside the tackle box. Those rules could be voted on later Tuesday or possibly Wednesday.
Follow Gregg Rosenthal on Twitter @greggrosenthal.
