NFL approves rule changes for roll-up blocks, replay

The NFL approved three proposed rule changes Tuesday at the NFL owners meetings in Orlando. The first two include increasing the amount of protection on roll-up blocks and allowing officials to consult the league office during replay reviews, according to SB Nation's Ryan Van Bibber. They also elected to change the rules regarding post-touchdown celebrations, according to Paul Pabst of the Dan Patrick Show.

In a conference call last week, Atlanta Falcons president and NFL Competition Committee chairman Rich McKay explained the proposed rule changes.

"We granted what we call ‘roll-up' protection or protection from players rolling up the back of a player's legs -- we're going to extend that protection from the back to the sides," McKay said. "We saw some plays on tape that we just felt like we needed to expand that protection."

St. Louis Rams head coach Jeff Fisher explained the proposed rule change to the replay system.

"It is going to allow the referee to consult with members of the NFL officiating department during replay reviews," Fisher said. "The referee will go to the booth and talk to the observer, but during that process, our command center in New York headed by Dean Blandino will already be reviewing the play. At the end of the day, what's going to happen is we're going to make sure that every single review is correct."

The third rule passed is the aforementioned rule regarding the celebration of touchdowns. To this point, dunking over the crossbar of the goal posts has been allowed as an exception to the league's policy on using props in touchdown celebrations, but the NFL's head of officials, Dean Blandino, told the Dan Patrick Show that such a move will now be a penalty going forward.

That's a big blow to the celebrations of New Orleans Saints tight end Jimmy Graham, who does that just about every time. Last season, he broke some equipment on the crossbar while doing this and the game had to be stopped for repairs, which is considered the catalyst to this rule being passed.

It's unclear if the NFL Competition Committee has agreed to pass any other of the proposed rule changes at this point, but it sounds as though they aren't going to pass most of them, including a rule proposed by the New England Patriots that would have moved the line of scrimmage for extra points to the 25-yard line.