Not many people realize this, but the Seattle Seahawks have either been directly or significantly involved in several NFL Rule Changes.

Most everyone remembers the Vinny Testaverde "phantom" touchdown against the Seahawks, which ushered in the return of instant replay, and the Excessive Crowd Noise rule, from the old Kingdome days, which is still on the books but rarely called. There's also the "Joe Nash" rule, requiring an "injured" player to sit out for at least one play a 10 second run off for an injury stoppage if you're out of time outs, which came into effect after Tom Flores' Chuck Knox's "brain child" for slowing down the Boomer Esiason Cincinnati Bengals hurry-up offense was to have Nash fake an injury after every other play!

But given the fact that the lackluster Seattle Seahawks seem primed to "win" the worst division in football for the fourth consecutive year, there are rumblings that another NFL Rule change may forthcoming.

Six Teams make the playoffs from each conference, the four divisional winners and the two Wild Card teams with the next best records. If the playoffs started today, the Cowboys (7-1), Packers (7-1), Bucs (5-4) and Seahawks (4-4) would be your division winners, with the Lions (6-2) and Giants (6-2) as the Wild Cards, and the Redskins (5-3) on the outside looking in.

Looking at the AFC, the Patriots (9-0), Colts (7-1), Steelers (5-2) and Chiefs (4-4) would be your division winners, with the Titans (6-2) and Jags (5-3) as Wild Cards, with the Browns (5-3) and Ravens (4-3) getting the green banana!.

That's three teams with better winning percentages than the Seahawks watching the playoffs at home on their TVs.

There are rumbings throughout the league for the NFL to change the playoff format, seeding the teams by their season record, without automatic bids for divisional winners, and possibly even disregarding the Conference balance.

Which means if playoff rosters were comprised of the top 6 teams in each conference, the Redskins would be in and the Seahawks would be the out. Similarly in the AFC, the Browns would be in and the Chiefs would be out.

Taking the top 12 teams in the league, regardless of Conference, wouldn't change the participants, but would change the seeding.

Seeding the playoffs this way would basically render the Divisions and their respective rivalries as useless, but the only thing that may keep this change from getting serious consideration might be the fact that the Chiefs, one of the "good old boy" franchises from the league's infancy, would be screwed out of a playoff berth.

Because Lord knows, if the league could find another way to screw the Seahawks, it would jump at the chance!





[Comments taken in SeahawkBlue Forums]

Labels: albaNY Hawker, NFC West, NFL, Rule Changes