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Completely unable to deny the danger of the sport, NFL executives, players, and coaches, after intense negotiations with the government, today announced an agreement to save the league by instituting profound rule changes to become effective next season.
Although critics fear that the very soul of the game will be destroyed by these changes, all parties acknowledge that player safety must be of highest priority. As a result, the central, most critical rule change to be introduced will be that flag football replaces tackling.
For the very safety reasons that children play flag football in physical education classes, so will the NFL move to protect its combatants. No longer will a ballcarrier’s progress be allowed to be stopped by a teeth-rattling, lights-out tackle.
Instead, any football-carrying player, outfitted with a belt holding 12-inch-long plastic strips Velcro-attached on each hip, will be considered stopped when a defender tears the flag off his belt (or he is forced out of bounds). To further maximize player safety, any and all aggressive physical contact with the ballcarrier will be severely penalized.
Since the referees’ penalty flags have traditionally been colored bright yellow, the new players’ flags will be different but still highly visible colors. Current plans call for visiting teams to wear pink flags, while home teams will wear chartreuse. All players will wear the flag belts, a necessity in the event of a fumble or interception. Premature deflagging will be penalized as well.
While the switch from tackling to flag football seems certain to vastly reduce the violent collisions which lead to severe injuries, all physical dangers associated with pro football admittedly will not be eliminated. Blocking will still be allowed, and as long as players continue to jump, run, twist, and turn, the occasional pulled muscle, sprained ankle, or skinned elbow will always be a possibility. That level of risk, OSHA says, has grudgingly been deemed acceptable.
So be sure to tune in when the new U.S. government-safety-approved pro football season kicks off next September. Heart-stopping excitement (figuratively speaking, of course) is certain to soar to new levels as the NFL begins its new, healthier life as the NFFL, the National Flag Football League.
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