If you could add any new rule to a sport or game you enjoy, what rule and why?
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Banning is certainly possible. Just that it would make no differance. Never has banning something stopped it. It would just hide it.
If betting is allowed, you can see trends in the market to find smth sus to find fixing. If if isn't, what happens behind the scenes is anyone's guess. We do it want anymore fixing controversies in cricket. No other sport is as susceptible or as commonly accused of being fixed by the fans themselves as cricket is.
I mean there was a fake league made with actors as players for illegal betting purposes in India! The league was in Indonesia or somewhere (bit actually was in India too). Players were given scripts ball by ball. Cricket is insane.
Also even if you ban em, they will come up as smth else. As a sports app or smth, same company but acting like they aren't a betting company.
So say cricinfo sponsors a team saying we just show news and scores but there heavily advertises their betting app. (This is an example, not literally true) although other companies have done so.
The athletic have gone in depth about this, would suggest checking it out.
Or again, Jarrod Kimber.
I agree its nearly impossible. But even I'd it were done it would survive.
Yeah I don't really want to ban gambling itself. It's completely impractical, but even if you could do it successfully, I don't want to police people's vices. What I have a problem with is how normalised it is and how much it has become a part of the culture of sport. Children should not be exposed to the idea that gambling is completely normal just because they want to watch their favourite pros playing their favourite game.
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American football:
Universal:
- No TV timeouts. The game is already insanely stop-start. Get your shit together, TV broadcasters, and make it work as-is.
- No "wounded duck" pass interference penalties on poorly thrown balls. Defenders in pass coverage should be entitled to their existing vector of motion.
- Players leaving for injury must be out for 4 plays or more, maybe the length of the existing drive. Something though. One play is not sufficient to dissuade simulation for tactical advantage.
Stuff to try in college or the spring league:
- No radio communication. American football can be too regimented sometimes, and old men treating young men like chess pieces is part of that.
- Limited substitutions per play if there is no is no change in phase. You come out, fine, but you're not going back in until the next time your team is on offense/defense/special teams. This will also enhance numbers 1 and 3.
- Even shorter play clock. Keep it moving. Adjust when the clock runs if you want to keep the number of snaps consistent.
- Remove kicking entirely. They're vestigial minigames at this point that could be replaced with throwing the ball. Workshop it in the offseason to see how small the goalposts need to be to replicate current play balance.
- College only: Admit they're professionals, make them employees with enforceable (and purchasable) contracts, and route enough money into the non-revenue sports to keep them viable. It is what it is; don't let the creeping in of sensible labor practices destroy the sport. Use the inevitable anti-trust exemption you'll get to mandate some sort of nexus between the players and the schools (lifetime tuition waiver? part-time enrollment?), but stop acting like the already snobbish and laughable "amateurism" of the NCAA is even a viable concept.
Stuff to bring in that would make the game weird to modern eyes but might help reduce head injuries:
- Mandate wide splits on the lines, two-point stances, and a wider neutral zone so that players are not exploding into each other head-to-head. A snap should look like a sumo match, not two horny rams on a hillside.
- To allow for number 1, make "1 yard to go" the minimum for a given offensive snap.
- Remove most/all of kicking again, though with the idea of reducing high combined-velocity impacts rather than just because it's anachronistic. Treat an incomplete pass on fourth down like it was a punt. Give up on the idea of kickoff returns. Field goals could stay, but subject to the same scrimmage rules as other plays.
- Consider whether every play from scrimmage should require the Offensive Line's first step should be backwards or lateral. They already are on many passing plays, but making it mandatory would further encourage upright play that's often ineffective technique today. The running game will be severely affected, but it is what it is and "every run play looks like a draw play" is a small price if we want to save American football over the long term.
- Revamp tackling rules. Make it rugby style and penalize hits above the shoulder harshly. Consider whether big hits resulting in heads thumping against turf are common enough to be banned altogether.
- Consider removing helmets so players have a sense of preservation over their own heads, but if not that, then go with something much lighter and more ice-hockey style so the helmet is not as tempting as a weapon and doesn't encourage a false sense of invulnerability. It was for all the wrong reasons, but the "Extreme Football League" (nee "Lingerie Football League") uses this type of headgear.
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Sports in general need to make it illegal to dive to draw an undeserved penalty (or actually enforce the existing rules)
This is the nub of it - lack of enforcement of existing rules. People are always clamouring for this new rule or that new rule, when in fact there's already one in place.
Eg football
At present, if a goalie has the ball in hand then they have 6 seconds to release it, or it's meant to be an indirect free kick to the opposition inside the goalie's team's 18 yard box. Very dangerous situation to defend, so you'd think it'd be a deterrent. However I can count on 2 fingers the number of times I've actually seen it enforced.
So now there's a change to the rules coming - if they have it in hand for 8 seconds, it's a corner to the other team.
So, it's a less punishing punishment, and they have 2 extra seconds' leeway. It makes absolutely no sense.
It makes absolutely no sense.
You think the referee's job is to have the game be fair and follow the rules. This is wrong. The referee's job is to make the game entertaining and as dramatic as possible for the fans.
Once you accept that, a lot of these situations make a lot more sense.
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This post did not contain any content.wrote on last edited by [email protected]
I'd completely remove the icing rule from hockey. I don't really understand the point of stopping the game just because the puck went back to the other side of the rink. It's not like it stops the defending team from dumping the puck out and purposely starting a face off.
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It works in american sports bc there is no promotion or relegation. Can’t work in a sport with it. I know the big bash has no more teams than the few that participate and cricket economic model is even worse.
That's certainly part of it. It is also relevant that American leagues are a legal cartels that can control player movement subject only to collective bargaining with the players unions, as this removes the unbalancing effect of external compensation. They are also generally the highest level of their sport (though sometimes by default because only Americans care), meaning the threat of losing players to outside entities is minimal, though until they accepted significant revenue sharing (generally runs close to 50% of revenues), the emergence of competitors was always possible.
The weird outlier in the US is MLS, which must compete in the global market. They benefit from (1) having a squishy-AF salary caps, and (2) playing in the middle depths of the global market for professional footballers, meaning that skillful organizations can replace talent more or less like-for-like. As an aside, MLS franchises are much better at doing this than they used to be, and there are as many players passing through on their way up as down.
Yeah I don't know enough about american sports to talk as in depth as I have about other matters here.
But yes thats the point I was trying to make too. I agree with basically all you said.
Now i know a lil about the mls. And I tried to understand their player registration rules and its all a mind fuck. Absolute mind fuck. So many ridiculous rules that need to be fulfilled making squad building an absolute headache. Still a lotta money in the mls which makes them valuable. And the college system helps too.
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MMMMMMMULTIBALLLLLLL
Any sport, doesn't really matter. Periodically during the game more balls start getting added into the playing field to spice things up, a la pinball tables.
Tennis, Football, Volleyball, Baseball, Basketball etc etc
wrote on last edited by [email protected]imagining the absolute chaos that would result if an announcer shouted out "MULTIPUCK!" and extra pucks rained down on an NHL game
I'm for this.
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Yeah I don't really want to ban gambling itself. It's completely impractical, but even if you could do it successfully, I don't want to police people's vices. What I have a problem with is how normalised it is and how much it has become a part of the culture of sport. Children should not be exposed to the idea that gambling is completely normal just because they want to watch their favourite pros playing their favourite game.
The history of sport and gambling is heavily intertwined. I don't like gambling either but I really have no clue what to do about it.
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- From what I can see, that first link is addressing the front foot. But your original comment, and what I was confused about, is why the back foot placement needing to be inside the return crease is an issue.
Well first of all I'd like to just scrap Odis, they no longer serve a purpose in the sport. T20s have replaced them.
Ha. Interesting. Personally, I mostly only care for tests anyway. The ODI World Cup is far superior to the T20 World Cup though. I'd keep ODIs around for that reason if no other.
I actually wouldn't mind banning T20i entirely. If T20 has to exist, let it stay domestic.
Your stuff about scheduling and pathways reminded me of something. ICC already has rules for full membership and test-playing status. One of those rules is that a country must have a women's team to qualify. They need to enforce this rule. It's ridiculous that the Taliban gets to sports-wash via the ICC just because the government they overthrew was making genuine progress.
Agree strongly that BCCI's influence over the ICC is detrimental to the game, and your ideas around revenue sharing and other management stuff are good ones.
Eliminate stupid NOC requirements
As long as it is never allowed for players to choose to play a T20 rather than a test match.
- Bowlers with wide “open” actions naturally plant their back foot outside the return crease to maintain alignment.
Forcing them inward (to stay within the return crease) alters hip and shoulder alignment.
Bowlers may adjust their run-up angle or foot landing to stay legal which is bad for em too.
Banning t20i is impossible and ridiculous! I know many dont like it, me included, bilaterals in particular. But its unnecessary, impossible and brings barely any benefit
YES. IVE BEEN HARPING ABOUT REMOVING AFGHANISTANS TEST STATUS FOREVER!
Players should absolutely have the right to play what they want! Unless they are centrally contracted. In which case, do your job
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imagining the absolute chaos that would result if an announcer shouted out "MULTIPUCK!" and extra pucks rained down on an NHL game
I'm for this.
I'm all in for crazy hockey. Boosters, bumpers, multipuck, moving goals, tilting ice, pucks made of different materials, sticks made of different materials, boxing gloves appear at centre ice giving the player who grabs them 30 second free pass for roughing.
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Yeah I don't know enough about american sports to talk as in depth as I have about other matters here.
But yes thats the point I was trying to make too. I agree with basically all you said.
Now i know a lil about the mls. And I tried to understand their player registration rules and its all a mind fuck. Absolute mind fuck. So many ridiculous rules that need to be fulfilled making squad building an absolute headache. Still a lotta money in the mls which makes them valuable. And the college system helps too.
wrote on last edited by [email protected]But yes thats the point I was trying to make too.
Fair enough. Pro-Rel has certain direct consequences that make a salary cap untenable, but I can see how it's the whole system of a pyramid that includes pro-rel that you were getting at. I am actually fairly protective of the American system as a completely alternative system of professionalization that emerged fairly organically here and actually has some advantages to go with its disadvantages, but you can't just pick and choose pieces of them to insert into the other. A salary cap in UEFA is laughable. FFP is already eye-rollingly abused.
Absolute mind fuck.
Yeah, it's absolutely byzantine. The legal structure of MLS is bizarre as well. Technically, it's still a single entity, though de facto the "investor operators" now work almost as independently as traditional American franchise owners, but the roster rules absolutely reflect their legal origin as intracompany transfers and "funny money" credits, all filtered through a traditional US-sports collective bargaining agreement, and goosed whenever a sufficiently big star wants to play out a few years here.
And the college system helps too.
The number of players coming up to MLS through college has shrunk quite a bit over the years, and the number of impactful players doing so has cratered in the men's game. It's basically now a place to fill out a few spots on the bottom of the roster and the reserve team, and as an occasional pleasant surprise among the late developers whose pro prospects at 18 were bleak enough that a college degree seemed the prudent choice. Once MLS realized they could make player development pay for itself with academies sitting on top of the already lucrative American youth setups college soccer was doomed to be an also-ran. Really only American football and men's and women's basketball depend heavily on the College system, where those sports are financially self-sustaining, so in exchange for not getting players brought up in your own style of play, the pro leagues get 100% free player development, including bearing the risk for injuries. Baseball too, though to a lesser extent and "minor league baseball" as a development path for teenaged players from across baseball-playing countries is still perfectly viable. I am less well-versed in Ice Hockey, but it seems like a hybrid system of independent youth clubs, some college, and European clubs.
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College football: when you win the coin toss, you have 2 choices: kick or receive. No more deferrals.
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Baseball: no more home runs. If it goes out of the park it's a foul. It will force a much more dynamic infield game and get rid of boring ass pop flys.
Edit: exception for grand slams because that shit is pretty exciting.
Maybe something like you get as many bases as you have runners on base, plus one. Leave it in the game as a universal positive, but make it anticlimactic unless you've got guys playing small ball first.
Baseball in general just seems like it's as close to a "solved game" as you're going to get in an athletic contest. Analytics were just too powerful for a game so focused on discrete events with limited active participants.
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But yes thats the point I was trying to make too.
Fair enough. Pro-Rel has certain direct consequences that make a salary cap untenable, but I can see how it's the whole system of a pyramid that includes pro-rel that you were getting at. I am actually fairly protective of the American system as a completely alternative system of professionalization that emerged fairly organically here and actually has some advantages to go with its disadvantages, but you can't just pick and choose pieces of them to insert into the other. A salary cap in UEFA is laughable. FFP is already eye-rollingly abused.
Absolute mind fuck.
Yeah, it's absolutely byzantine. The legal structure of MLS is bizarre as well. Technically, it's still a single entity, though de facto the "investor operators" now work almost as independently as traditional American franchise owners, but the roster rules absolutely reflect their legal origin as intracompany transfers and "funny money" credits, all filtered through a traditional US-sports collective bargaining agreement, and goosed whenever a sufficiently big star wants to play out a few years here.
And the college system helps too.
The number of players coming up to MLS through college has shrunk quite a bit over the years, and the number of impactful players doing so has cratered in the men's game. It's basically now a place to fill out a few spots on the bottom of the roster and the reserve team, and as an occasional pleasant surprise among the late developers whose pro prospects at 18 were bleak enough that a college degree seemed the prudent choice. Once MLS realized they could make player development pay for itself with academies sitting on top of the already lucrative American youth setups college soccer was doomed to be an also-ran. Really only American football and men's and women's basketball depend heavily on the College system, where those sports are financially self-sustaining, so in exchange for not getting players brought up in your own style of play, the pro leagues get 100% free player development, including bearing the risk for injuries. Baseball too, though to a lesser extent and "minor league baseball" as a development path for teenaged players from across baseball-playing countries is still perfectly viable. I am less well-versed in Ice Hockey, but it seems like a hybrid system of independent youth clubs, some college, and European clubs.
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Yeah I can't imagine a world where financial rules can make anyone happy in Europe.
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Imn notncaught up on the history of the mls as a structure. Will check that sometime.
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Again not very caught up on american sports enough to make a comment here. But that is insightful. I know the Spanish system inside and out but this is interesting (in a bad way)
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For any pro sport known for rowdy, destructive fans - the clubs get to pay for the police and insurance expenses.
Oh, this would bankrupt the clubs, I hear you say? Oh no. Anyway...!
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Something I'd like to see on every hard cap league is a cap relief calculation for team drafted players, going up the later that player was drafted. Maybe 5% per found, maybe 7.5%?
So many times teams are basically forced to move on from role players that are fan favorites because it's literally impossible to pay a team of veterans under the cap unless you have no star players and I think it would be genuinely interesting to provide a benefit on the cap side to keeping drafted players in house past their first or second deals. Part of why it's so hard to be a fan is knowing that anyone but the absolute TOP stars are just consistently going to be moving on in a few seasons.
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In basketball, you must always have two limbs touching the ground when you have the ball, unless you are standing, shooting, or jumping. Why? I don't like basketball and think it would be funny as he'll.
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Basketball: sooo boring but if you made it like street hoops…
Just bringing back the 90's rules would make the game a lot better since it would bring back better defense.
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The beer is priced high to keep from having to deal with a critical mass of drunken idiots. No one gets wasted on $16 beer.
I know, but even $8 for a Budweiser is a lot. $16 is egregious.
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- Bowlers with wide “open” actions naturally plant their back foot outside the return crease to maintain alignment.
Forcing them inward (to stay within the return crease) alters hip and shoulder alignment.
Bowlers may adjust their run-up angle or foot landing to stay legal which is bad for em too.
Banning t20i is impossible and ridiculous! I know many dont like it, me included, bilaterals in particular. But its unnecessary, impossible and brings barely any benefit
YES. IVE BEEN HARPING ABOUT REMOVING AFGHANISTANS TEST STATUS FOREVER!
Players should absolutely have the right to play what they want! Unless they are centrally contracted. In which case, do your job
Is it possible to have such an action as a fast bowler? I associate the wider action with spin, which, as previously mentioned, tends not to be associated with injuries.
- Bowlers with wide “open” actions naturally plant their back foot outside the return crease to maintain alignment.
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Soccer: yellow card for faking injuries
Yellow card for simulation is already a rule. It's just not applied all that consistently, possibly because it's very hard to be sure that someone definitely wasn't fouled and also was deliberately feigning anything, as opposed to genuinely being hurt or at least being knocked over by a nonetheless fair challenge.
Microphoned ref is becoming a thing now, but I absolutely hate it. Just like VAR it slows the game down horrendously and is not needed. Refs have the tools they need to run the game (including hand gestures and red cards, as you said). They don't need to explain every last thing verbally.
I've maintained that for VAR, if they can't figure out if there's a mistake in the call within 30s then just uphold the prior decision. I can't think of many situations where this would be enough of an issue
