Rule Changes

The following are rule changes that were passed at the league's annual owners meeting in March. All changes went into effect once the labor dispute was resolved.

• Changes were made regarding kickoffs to limit injuries. First, kickoffs will be moved from the 30 back up to the 35-yard line, repealing a 1994 rule change. In addition, players on the kickoff coverage team can not line up more than 5 yards behind the kickoff line, minimizing running starts and thus reducing the speed of collisions.Other changes were also proposed, but a number of players and coaches expressed concern they would actually significantly reduce, if not eliminate, the number of kickoff returns.Proposals that would have brought touchbacks out to the 25 instead of the 20, and eliminated all wedge blocks were not adopted.Despite this rule, the Bears kicked off from the 30-yard line twice in their preseason game against the Bills until the league forced them to stop.

• All replay reviews of scoring plays during the entire game can now be initiated by the replay booth official. Coaches will no longer have to use one of their challenges if a scoring play occurs outside of the two-minute warning.

• Nicknamed the "Boise State Rule", all playing fields must remain green, and not be in another color like the blue "Smurf Turf" at Boise State's Bronco Stadium, unless approval is granted by the league. This was passed in response to a few sponsors who requested to change the colors in a few stadiums.

The following rule changes were adopted at the NFL Owners' Meeting on May 24, 2011:

• Hits to the head of a passer by an opponent’s hands, arms or other parts of the body will not be fouls unless they are forcible blows, modifying the existing rule that any contact to a passer's head, regardless of the reason, is penalized as a personal foul (15 yards).

• Players will be prohibited from "launching" (leaving both feet prior to contact to spring forward and upward into an opponent or using any part of the helmet to initiate forcible contact against any part of the opponent’s body) to level a defenseless player, as well as "forcibly hitting the neck or head area with the helmet, facemask, forearm or shoulder regardless of whether the defensive player also uses his arms to tackle the defenseless player by encircling or grasping him.", and lowering the head and make forcible contact with the top/crown or forehead/"hairline" parts of the helmet against any part of the defenseless player’s body. Offenders will be penalized 15 yards for unnecessary roughness and ejected from the game if the contact is deemed flagrant.

A "defenseless player" is defined as a:

• Player in the act of or just after throwing a pass.
• Receiver attempting to catch a pass or one who has not completed a catch and hasn’t had time to protect himself or hasn’t clearly become a runner. If the receiver/runner is capable of avoiding or warding off the impending contact of an opponent, he is no longer a defenseless player.
• Runner whose forward progress has been stopped and is already in the grasp of a tackler.
• Kickoff or punt returner attempting to field a kick in the air.
• Player on the ground at the end of a play.
• Kicker/punter during the kick or return.
• Quarterback any time after a change of possession (i.e. turnover).
• Player who receives a “blindside” block when the blocker is moving toward his own end-line and approaches the opponent from behind or the side.

Game-day testing

• Game-day testing for performance-enhancing drugs. The NFL is adding game-day testing for performance-enhancing substances but not recreational drugs this season under the new collective bargaining agreement.