Here’s How NFL Rule Changes Will Affect Chiefs (and Fans)

Fans might love a few more tweaks the NFL made. Here’s how they could affect the Chiefs.

Replay officials have more reign

Dr. James J. Cochrane, professor of applied statistics at the University of Alabama, crunched the numbers over the last 15 NFL seasons for ESPN.com: The Chiefs – or any other team – do not benefit from impact penalties. Cochrane’s research determined that teams actually lose more often when they benefit from big-time, controversial penalties.

That won’t stop the haters, though. But at least when controversial penalties do surface in Chiefs games, the replay official can now step in. Owners expanded that job description to now include hits to the head and neck of defenseless players, horse-collar tackles, facemasks, tripping, and roughing or running into the kicker.

So, if referee Carl Cheffers flags Chris Jones for contacting Justin Herbert illegally on Friday in São Paulo, Brazil (7 p.m. CT, YouTube, KSHB-TV 41, 96.5 The Fan), and video shows the defensive tackle didn’t make that contact, it can be overturned.

What can’t happen, however, is the replay official calling down to tell Cheffers to drop a flag that should’ve been called. The flag has to be thrown first.

Overtime

Buffalo fans have repressed it from memory, along with the Chiefs’ three straight Super Bowl berths , but the 13-second game forever changed the NFL rulebook. After Patrick Mahomes orchestrated a 44-yard drive in the final 13 seconds of the 2021 AFC divisional playoff, setting up the game-tying field goal to force overtime, the Chiefs won the ensuing coin toss and quicky scored a sudden-death touchdown. Afterward, the league changed the rules to ensure both teams at least one overtime possession. That is, in postseason games only.

Now, the postseason rules are the same as regular-season rules. Rather than the first overtime touchdown ending the game, both teams will get at least one possession. However, on the clock, regular-season overtime remains only 10 minutes while postseason overtime is still 15 minutes.

Two years ago in Las Vegas, the Chiefs were the Super Bowl beneficiaries of Kyle Shanahan’s questionable decision to take the ball first after winning the overtime coin toss. Now, expect more teams to elect defense first when they win the regular-season overtime toss.

Celebrations

The Chiefs have plenty of emotional players, and they play an emotional game. And after losing the Super Bowl on Feb. 9, head coach Andy Reid has told his team this offseason to let its personality show. Patrick Mahomes has said the team wants to have more fun.

Hopefully, they douse that fun with a little self-control during games. NFL officials will now flag behavior as unsportsmanlike because certain celebratory acts were on the rise last year. Taunting was up 55 percent, according to ESPN.com’s Kevin Seifert. Gestures deemed unsportsmanlike accelerated by 133 percent.

So, memo to the younger and emotional Chiefs players: No throat slashes, gun-firing simulations or brandishing guns, sexually suggestive or offensive gestures. Even the nose-wipe movement, which some have misinterpreted as throat slashing, is outlawed this year. The No Fun League has evolved into, more than ever, the league that wants its players to set good examples for the next generation of stars.

Mahomes and the Tush Push

Some head coaches were outspoken opponents of the Tush Push this offseason. The Chiefs were strangely silent. The Eagles have perfected it, and the league narrowly voted to keep it legal. Could the Chiefs be planning to unveil their version of the play, with Mahomes carrying the ball over center Creed Humphrey.

“Well, I'm telling you that we're not in the Tush Push World,” Kansas City offensive coordinator Matt Nagy said last month, “but maybe we are and you don't know it. So, I'm just not going to say it right now. And that would be pretty sweet … Now, you don't really know. So maybe we come out the first third-and-1 and do it. That'd be pretty cool.”

Whether they do it or not, the Chiefs will see it early in the season. Their Super Bowl rematch with the Eagles is Week 2, Sept. 14 at Arrowhead Stadium.