The 9 Most Impactful NFL Rule Changes Of All Time

Every sports league is constantly tinkering with its rulebook to address the various issues that arise over the course of a season. That includes the NFL, which has introduced plenty of tweaks that ended up having a fairly dramatic impact on the game.

The NFL has come a long way since it was founded over a century ago, and the football games that were played in the immediate wake of its inception looked very different from how they do today thanks to the number of rule changes the league has instituted over the years.

Many of those adjustments were largely unremarkable in the grand scheme of things, but there are a number of others that ended up having a pretty major impact on how the game is played.

Moving Back The Goal Posts

One of the most jarring aspects of footage from relatively ancient NFL games is the location of the goal posts, which were initially placed at the goal line of each endzone (they were moved to the back in 1927 but that change was abandoned in 1933).

That presented a few issues; the uprights were essentially an obstacle that players had to take into consideration when passing, defending, and running routes, and it also decreased the distance you needed to advance to get into field goal range.

That all changed in 1974 when the NFL pushed the goal posts back 10 yards while replacing the H-shaped model with the uprights it still uses today to decrease the number of field goal attempts and give teams extra incentive to try a score a touchdown instead of settling for three points—a move that paid off.

The Two-Point Conversion

The NCAA adopted the two-point conversion in 1958, and while it was also A Thing in the AFL, the NFL declined to adopt it when the two leagues officially merged in 1970.

It finally took the plunge in 1994 to introduce an extra element of intrigue by giving teams an additional chance to tie things up or even take the lead in the waning moments of a game if they’re feeling extra daring.

If you’re curious, Browns punter Tom Tupa was the first person to score a two-point conversion in an NFL game, which is a fact you’ll probably never need to know but could come in handy at bar trivia.

Moving Back The Extra Point

The extra point was essentially a formality when kickers were tasked with attempting one that was snapped from the two-yard line, as those kicks split the uprights around 99% of the time before the NFL decided to switch things up in 2015 by moving the ball back to the 15.

That means kickers now have to convert an attempt that amounts to around 33 yards, and the success rate is now closer to 92%.

That number is still pretty high, but the decreased odds have the potential to throw a very interesting wrench into things.

Legalizing Hurdles

Saquon Barkley was responsible for the unrivaled highlight of the 2024 NFL season when he pulled off a reverse hurdle at the expense of Jaguars DB Jarrian Jones to gain some extra yards after deploying a spin move to get a first down.

However, that play would have drawn a flag prior to 1978, as offensive players were forbidden from leaping over their opponents while in possession of the ball before the NFL shifted its stance.

The league did sadly opt to ban players from leaping over the line to try to block a field goal or punt in 2017, which was probably the right call from a safety perspective but still eliminated a very entertaining play.

Removing The Force-Out Rule

Every sport has rules that are seemingly designed to infuriate fans thanks to the subjective judgment the officials tasked with enforcing them have to grapple with.

That was certainly the case with the rule that formerly applied to plays where a defender forced a receiver out of bounds after making a catch before they were able to land with both of their feet.

Refs were allowed to credit the receiver with a catch if they believed they would have been inbounds if their opponent hadn’t forced them out, but the NFL mercifully abandoned that approach ahead of the 2008 campaign.

The Bump-And-Run Rule

Most leagues have instituted at least one rule change that can be directly traced back to the behavior of a single player, and Steelers CB Mel Blount is essentially responsible for the one that had a dramatic impact on how receivers could be defended.

Blount had a reputation for getting very physical with opponents while they were attempting to run their route after the ball was snapped, and it became an issue to the point where the NFL instituted the “bump-and-run” rule that prohibited players from making contact more than five yards away from the line of scrimmage in 1978.

Letting Offensive Lineman Use Their Arms

The Mel Blount Rule was the only change that made life easier for NFL offenses in 1978, as the league also overhauled its approach to pass-blocking ahead of the season.

Prior to that point, offensive linemen weren’t even allowed to extend their arms in their quest to prevent defenders from getting to the quarterback, and they were essentially resigned to boxing out opponents with their bodies.

However, they were suddenly able to take advantage of the revolutionary ruling that allowed them to use their arms and hands to shove and grab defenders, which ushered in a new era for QBs and the big guys tasked with blocking for them.

The Hash Marks

When the NFL first got off the ground, its rules stated that every snap would start from the exact spot where the ball was marked at the end of the previous play (it would be placed around a yard away from the sideline if a player had gone out of bounds).

That gave the defense an advantage on plenty of occasions and also routinely led to teams wasting a play in an attempt to get the football closer to the middle of the gridiron to set up a field goal.

In 1933, the league addressed the issue with the hash marks that were initially located 10 yards from either sideline. That distance was increased to 15 yards in 1933, and in 1972, they were relocated to their current spot exactly 70 feet and nine inches away from the border of the field.

 

Overtime

Fans of the sport most of the world refers to as “football” are accustomed to games ending in a tie, but there aren’t many Americans who like to watch teams go at it for hours on end only for nothing to be decided when the contest wraps up.

However, NFL games routinely ended in a tie before the league decided to welcome overtime into the fold ahead of the season in 1974.

It has tinkered with the format of the extra period (games can also still end in a tie during the regular season), but you’d be hard-pressed to find many NFL fans pining for the time when it didn’t exist.