NFL owners Tuesday passed zero important playing rules for 2023.
Well, other than permitting the jersey number zero (0) to be worn for the first time in the league’s 104-year history.
As the league’s annual meeting wrapped in Phoenix, owners approved nine of 17 playing-rules proposals. All but one — er, all but zero? — were mere were hair-splitting fixes, or language cleanups.
By far the most noticeable change for the average fan is that players now are able to wear the number zero.
One player, Jacksonville Jaguars wide receiver Calvin Ridley, already tweeted out Tuesday afternoon that he’s “excited to be the first @Jaguars player to wear zero!”
So the change does matter to some. To others? Like me? I have zero feelings on it, one way or another. Or should that be zero feelings on it, zero ways or another? Hmm.
There actually is a logistical reason for this change. NFL competition committee chairman Rich McKay told reporters that with teams, in addition to their 53-man active rosters, now able to carry 16-man practice squads during the season — which is up from the pre-pandemic limit of 10 — and despite the expansion of jersey-number ranges for players in various position groups, “we have real challenges in the number world right now.”
So adding a 100th eligible jersey number will help, believe it or not.
Now, bear in mind, it’s still impermissible to wear as a jersey number a fraction, a punctuation mark or a chemical compound with full-size letters and tiny exponential numerals — all of which were sported by the Three Stooges in their 1930s short about football.
Maybe they’re next. N’yuk, n’yuk, n’yuk.
College players in the United States, by the way, have been permitted to wear the number zero since 2020.
Beyond playing rules, owners Tuesday did pass three new bylaws and three resolutions, which govern off-field game and roster administration. Again, most were hair-splitters.
The most meaningful was a resolution to reduce the number of preseason cut-downs from two to one — meaning teams now may carry up to 90 players throughout training camp, and right up until 4 p.m. EDT on the Tuesday following the final preseason weekend of games.
All at once, then — this year on Aug. 29 — nearly 1,200 players around the league suddenly will be cut loose, with only 512 being brought back on somebody’s practice squad over subsequent days.
Pro scouts across the NFL are going to earn their late-summer pay more than ever.
@JohnKryk
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