Alright, folks, we’ve made it. We’ve made it to the point of the offseason where we are writing about potential rule changes that will probably never happen. Well, that’s not completely true. A few of the rule changes I’ll be suggesting do have somewhat of a chance of being put into motion someday.

What we’re here to do is to try to make the game better; either for the players, for the fans, or for the integrity of the game itself. While we do it, we’ll have a little fun.

Football at the professional level is meant to be the purest form of the game at its highest level of competition. For years, the NFL has ruled the American sports world—but just because something is at the top doesn't mean it cannot be improved.

Given that phrase of wisdom that I most certainly did not come up with myself and stole from someone else, here are three rule changes to the NFL game that would make the game better.

Fumbles Out of the End Zone

I hate this rule, I really do. I get it, but I hate it.

If an offensive player fumbles the ball and it goes into the end zone and out of bounds, the defense is awarded the ball and now takes over the ball on its own 20-yard line. This drastic change of possession does not occur anywhere else on the field. Anywhere else on the field, if the ball is fumbled and goes out of bounds, the ball just stays with the team that is on offense, but the team does not get the yards the ball traveled without possession. Possessions are so important; they drastically and directly help determine who will be victorious at the end of the game. Given that, this punishment of possession is far too great.

The main argument against changing this rule is that there should be a penalty for not taking care of the ball. But there is a way where there can be a penalty and yet have the punishment actually fit the “crime.” What you could do instead of changing possession is have a loss of down and place the ball at the 20-yard line. This still allows the offense to be in the red zone, still have a chance to get three points on a field goal, yet makes both conversions and kicks appropriately more difficult because of the ball-possessing carelessness.

Maybe that isn’t the exact way to do it, but it’s a better starting point than losing possession entirely; a rule that is inconsistent with similar plays of its nature and creates a punishment that does not fit the crime.

XFL Extra Point Rule

This one seems too spicy for the NFL to actually implement, but it’s a rule that I loved watching play out, so I’m going to list it.

After scoring a touchdown in the XFL, you had the option of going for one point from the 2-yard line, two points from the 5-yard line, or three points from the 10-yard line. This eliminated extra-point kicks and replaced them with actual football plays. This didn’t totally eliminate the importance of kickers, as there were still plenty of chances to gain three points for field goals. But after touchdowns, not only did it force a team to defend the offense again to gain points, it also gave way for teams to complete larger comebacks at the end of games.

Some would argue that it would create an imbalance, and you wouldn’t want to make it easier for teams to come back and win late in games. My response to that: How about you stop them? Why are points scored at the beginning and middle of games held in higher regard than ones at the end? That seems silly.

Now, there is plenty of strategy that would get altered which would affect how the game is played before and after extra point attempts down the stretch, but I think that would all still just make teams play the game with their foot on the gas for longer instead of parking the bus with a big lead. It changes strategy, but anything that gives us more offense versus defense for points, I’m usually for.

Overtime Rules

I think it’s dumb that overtime can begin and one team could not even touch the ball on offense once and still lose. I liked the change in the rule where you couldn’t win in overtime off just a field goal on the first possession, but I think that should be expanded to touchdowns, too. Even if the team that won the toss scored a touchdown on their first possession, the opposing team should get one possession to match.

To me, this is just common sense. Any points after the first possessions for each team should be fair game to end the game. After all, both teams had four full quarters to win the game in regulation and did not do so. But each team should get one shot in overtime, regular season, and playoffs. And if the team that gets the ball first scores a field goal and the team that gets the ball second scores a touchdown, the team that scored the touchdown should win.

It doesn’t have to be so difficult.