the short fuse 
26-03-2024 14:04
26-03-2024 14:04
Tuesday Cannon Fodder: worst rules in sports
Good Tuesday morning, TSFers. Today’s CF is brought to you by a tweet I saw yesterday that said the possession arrow in college basketball was one of the worst rules in sports. I’m not entirely sure why the arrow created so much vitriol, either in the specific instance of that tweet or more generally. I’d be interested in any guesses the more basketball-minded of y’all have that might explain the sentiment.
So what are the worst rules in sports?
For the longest time, soccer had a clear winner in my book — the away goals rule. Thankfully, we’ve done away with that nonsense. I’ve got a number of pet peeves with the way matches are called and the Laws, but right now, the one that really sticks in my craw is the delayed offside flag. There are so many unnecessary plays (read: opportunities for players to get hurt) on passages of play that the linesman knows is coming back. If it’s clearly offside, put the flag up. Also, the automatic yellow for taking off your shirt celebrating a goal is dumb. Bring back players ripping off their shirts when they score.
The NFL has a clear winner, for me. Offensive fumble through the endzone is a touchback. There is no real difference between fumbling the ball out of bounds at the 1/10th yard line and losing it before the goal line and having it go out in the endzone. It is so incredibly punitive to the offensive team, discourages players from trying to reach for the endzone, and decreases scoring, generally. Make it a 5 or 10 yard penalty and loss of down.
In the NHL, the puck over the glass is a delay of game penalty rule makes me want to scream. Before I go in on the rule, I’ll acknowledge that there are instances where players would want to fire the puck out of play to get a break in the action when the offense has hemmed them into the defensive zone. So treat it like icing — no change for the defensive team and a quick faceoff. There are so many times when a player has no desire or reason to shoot it over the glass but the puck, for whatever reason, leaves the playing surface. It’s so silly to give the opposing team a powerplay for that.
As for baseball, I’ll go with the dropped third strike rule. It makes no sense that the batter can attempt to run to first after striking out. It’s especially silly because they pretty much always get thrown out. When was the last time you saw a batter reach base that way? There very well may be other rules in baseball that are worse — I’m not super familiar with the rules of America’s pastime.
What do you think are the worst rules in sports?
So what are the worst rules in sports?
For the longest time, soccer had a clear winner in my book — the away goals rule. Thankfully, we’ve done away with that nonsense. I’ve got a number of pet peeves with the way matches are called and the Laws, but right now, the one that really sticks in my craw is the delayed offside flag. There are so many unnecessary plays (read: opportunities for players to get hurt) on passages of play that the linesman knows is coming back. If it’s clearly offside, put the flag up. Also, the automatic yellow for taking off your shirt celebrating a goal is dumb. Bring back players ripping off their shirts when they score.
The NFL has a clear winner, for me. Offensive fumble through the endzone is a touchback. There is no real difference between fumbling the ball out of bounds at the 1/10th yard line and losing it before the goal line and having it go out in the endzone. It is so incredibly punitive to the offensive team, discourages players from trying to reach for the endzone, and decreases scoring, generally. Make it a 5 or 10 yard penalty and loss of down.
In the NHL, the puck over the glass is a delay of game penalty rule makes me want to scream. Before I go in on the rule, I’ll acknowledge that there are instances where players would want to fire the puck out of play to get a break in the action when the offense has hemmed them into the defensive zone. So treat it like icing — no change for the defensive team and a quick faceoff. There are so many times when a player has no desire or reason to shoot it over the glass but the puck, for whatever reason, leaves the playing surface. It’s so silly to give the opposing team a powerplay for that.
As for baseball, I’ll go with the dropped third strike rule. It makes no sense that the batter can attempt to run to first after striking out. It’s especially silly because they pretty much always get thrown out. When was the last time you saw a batter reach base that way? There very well may be other rules in baseball that are worse — I’m not super familiar with the rules of America’s pastime.
What do you think are the worst rules in sports?