Time for a change! 44 ideas to improve sports

They should completely eliminate the intentional grounding penalty and instead spot the ball where the QB is when he throws an incomplete pass. Throwing the ball away is the most boring play in football. Furthermore, defenses that are able to pressure the QB deserve to be rewarded for their efforts.

Basketball has a fundamental problem in that the defense is actually rewarded for fouling a player on the offensive team. The reward comes in the form of stopping the clock and, more importantly, preventing the offensive from trying to complete the play and likely scoring a basket. For example, soccer and hockey have rules to discourage fouling while still allowing the play to continue until the offense either scores or the play is deemed to have been effectively brought to a halt by the team that caused the foul. In soccer, it's called the "advantage rule" because the defense should never be allowed to gain an advantage by fouling. In hockey, the referee raises his hand to show that a penalty has ocurred but the play is allowed to continue until either a goal is scored by the offense or the defense touches or gains control of the puck. In both cases, the player who committed the foul is still penalize--but not until the official finally blows the whistle when the offensive team has lost its opportunity to score. No sport should reward fouls. That's why they call them "fouls." Basketball needs to adopt a similar rule to discourage so much fouling, especially at the end of the game. Fouls cheapen the sport, disrupt the flow of play, and reward teams that lack the athletic ability to compete head to head.

No more blows to the head by anybody!!  This includes stiff arms from running backs.  If it is illegal to head slap on defense or on offense and it is illegal to "touch" anybody above the shoulder pads anymore, why is it legal for a 260 lb full back to punch a db or lb in the face when he's trying to tackle??

Soccer--do away with the offsides rule--end up with more fast breaks.  Do away with the goalie--more goals.

Football--the clock stops with a timeout, injury, or penalty, only.

Baseball--get rid of Bud Selig.  Institute hard salary cap.

The last two minutes of college games simply take too long to play. Two minutes can turn into 10 minutes. Too often teams that are behind by insurmountable leads just delay the inevitable by continuing to foul.

Here's my idea - when a team that is behind in the last two minutes fouls a player the team that is ahead has the option of shooting free throws or taking 5 seconds off the game clock. Of course if a game was neck and neck most coaches would take the free throws. However, if a team was ahead by more than 10 points they might just take the time off the clock.

Get the politics out of sports.  Our national leaders have much more important things to discuss then whether or not Sammy Sosa is shooting up.  If a sports star is "juicing" and we can prove it, kick him/her out of the league, sue him for financial loses and call the cops.  Let him spend time in prison like any other common junkie.  Let him/her lose his future, pay hefty restitution to the sport and throw him in prison!  With horse racing, punish the owner/caretakers with Animal Cruelty. 

Let our national leaders worry about the national debt and the war in Iraq.  Stop wasting their time with common criminals.

Play the college football Championship game on a weekend.. Who wants to watch the biggest game of the year on a Thursday night!?!?!

Teams that sell out to another city should be required to keep the team name and all related records. The Indianapolis Colts are not the Baltimore Colts. The Arizona Cardinals have no real "record"or relevant history connecting them to Chicago. The LA Rams should not be linked to the St. Louis Rams. They are really different entities. The Browns got it right -- the name, the record, the history, stays with the city. You want a franchise, you build it from the bottom up.

I got one.

Stop calling world champions to whomever wins in the finals of a United States of America Sports leagues.

Ok, you can keep World Champions of Football. But that's it. Basketball, Baseball, Hokey, also exist in other leagues in the world (create a final between USA and Europe's Teams).

I love the soccer commentary! I'm an avid fan and play every weekend.

What I hate most about the sport is this: when players go down, they have this new thing where they throw their hands over there face as if someone has sprayed them with acid. It doesn't matter where they were fouled, they throw there hands up as if it were the most excruciating pain ever inflicted!

I think several things should happen.

1) As the player is writhing on the ground, there should be someone reviewing the play on video to determine if the player is obviously faking. If so, he should get red carded. That would stop the foolishness immediately.

2) If the player who supposedly fouled him gets a yellow or red card and the "injured" player immediately gets up from his agony and trots back on the field, the ref must stop play immediately. The "injured" player must then stand there as the carded player gets to kick him in the crotch.  

3) If the "injured" player is obviously waisting time writhing on the ground and the replay shows no legitimate contact which would cause such pain, the fans of the opposing team get to come onto the field and put the player out of his misery.

4) If any player ever gives a "knowing grin" after said performance, the opposing team gets to hack him for the rest of the game with impunity.

They should have some form of relegation in both the NFL, MLB and Soccer similar to what they do with soccer in England.  In other words the Lions should drop from the NFL and be replaced by some other team in some other city.  Each year the teams at the bottom are dropped from the league and replaced by new teams.

When are they going to legitmize hockey and do away with the fighting?  There is absolutely no room for and no excuse for fighting in any organized professional sport.  Until they do, it's barely one step above the WWF, which is sad because I think hockey players are amazing and extremely talented in what they do on the ice.  My friends defend it as similar to a bench-clearing brawl in a baseball game but that's a lame comparison.  Except for professional boxing, no professional athelete should be allowed to hit another player with his fist, period.  Yes, I know all you hockey fanatics will disagree.

Speed up baseball.  Make the pitcher pitch and the batter bat.  Years ago tennis reached a point where the defender would delay being ready to receive serve and the server would delay serving.  They put a clock on the process and allowed the umpire to warn and then penalize.  Do the same with pitchers and batters.  Why should a batter be allowed to step out of the box? Eliminate warmup pitches for mid-inning relievers.  They are out in the bullpen warming up.  Why do they need warmus after they get to the mound?

For the NFL, it is time to let players play and coaches coach.  Turn off the headsets, stop the hand signals.  When the game starts, other than detemining subsitutions for injuries, the coaches need to stand and live with the player preparation they made during the previous week.  Let the players play the game not be dictated to from the sidelines.

Adopt some form of the yellow and red card from soccer.  To many times you see flagrant fouls (face masks that yank a players head around) and the fouler just smiles as 15 yards are lost.  If it is unsportsmanlike, then get him out of the game until next week.

For Basketball - when was the last time anyone called traveling?  When did basketball become a full body contact sport?  Unsportsmanlike conduct, send them home, teach the kids there is a penalty for abusing the rules.

Get rid of the offsides rule in Soccer.  It holds down scoring resulting in too many boring or tied games.   The offside rule supposedly exists to stop goal hanging, where a player stands next to the opposing teams goal keeper in the hope that someone can get the ball to him.  This is no different then in basketball where a player could hang back for a long pass but you don't see this happening because teams adjust for it and it weakens your team at the other end.  An offensive player should be able to get an advantage by breaking away from defensive players through speed or stealth. 

In the NBA start enfocing the rules, like traveling and stop with all the brakes for the big guys - make it basketball again -  I have not watched a game in over 5 years and there are a lot of other people that have stopped.  Look at the ratings  - getting down to hockey level. 

Basketball needs to live with one time-out per half. Currently, they have more time-outs than they do drawn-up plays for the situation.
NO Shootout for Hockey. None. Zero. Zippo. Nada.
Same goes for the DH in baseball. Batters cannot leave the box once they step in unless they are brushed back. Pitchers stay on the mound.
Football needs to get rid of their OT. Home team gets the ball (or defer) and the visitor gets an equal opportunity to score. Plus, eliminate all domes. Football needs to be played outdoors. How about forcing the team scoring a touchdown needing to touch the ball on the ground in the endzone, thereby setting up where they kick the extra point (like Rugby). Widen the hash marks to within ten yards of the sidelines.

All sports - there is nothing wrong with a tie.

NBA - THEY MUST START PENALIZING FLOPPERS!!! (capitalization intentional) 

It may seem like one innocent play amongst literally 100+ during a game, but when it takes points off the board...or places more points on it, it has a direct effect on the outcome of a game!  This is the single most frustrating thing to deal with in an NBA game!

NFL - Allow personal fouls (roughing the QB or roughing the kicker) to be reviewed.  I know, we've created a monster with our current review system (i.e. too many reviews/too much wasted time), but in the same vein as the NBA floppers, I get so frustrated at seeing a kicker get his big toe stepped on, and he's pulling an acting job that Jack Nicholson would be proud of!  Football is still football and players can still get hit . . . or can they?!

Offensive Pass Interference is handled with kiddy gloves. Steapen the penalty for the wide reciever who malls the D-back as he is in prime position for an interception. It makes no sense why they get so many yards and an automatic first down while get barely anything in doing the same exact thing.

If it takes place on the field, its 10 yards and loss of down. if in the end zone its a touchback and the other team gets the ball at the 20.

NFL:Please get rid of the tuck rule. A fumble is a fumble, no matter who is carring the ball. Why should a quaterback be treated any different than anyone else who has the ball? You almost never see it called. Why, because I think NFL refs know it's bogus. The NFL is stubborn and probably does not want to admit to Al Davis and the Raiders that the rule is dumb. It's so contribed, most people don't even know what the rule is. Doug Sepe

2 Words - Rollerblade Basketball

1. make the collegiate dunk one point

2. put the student back in student-athlete

3. put standard language in contracts to discourage "work stoppages" (the player does not get paid if s/he strikes, and the owner continues paying if there is a lockout).

4.  Share all TV revenue equally among all division-I schools, except those on probation.  Also, don't penalize "the kids" for something that happened before they got there.  Take away the TV monies instead.

5. College coaches should be salaried like a regular tenured professor.

6.  You can only replace a scholarship once a recruit graduates or eight years pass, whichever comes first.  Again, putting the student back in student athlete.

7. Find a way to play the last two minutes of an NBA game in less than 30 minutes.

8. Enact a zero-tolerance policy for performance enhancers.  "Test positive and you're out of baseball for life."  Either that or postive-testers can earn only league minimum.

9. Quit calling these young men who drive their sports cars at 110-mph who crash and die "hero" and "role model".  Stupid is more the word.

10.  Don't allow players to renogiate contracts.  If you're not happy, then why did you sign it?  The owners keep up their end, good or bad.

11.  Stop calling a game played in the West at 5:00 a hardship for the Eastern team.  Their body clock still thinks it 8:00 PM.  And for that matter, play all playoff games at regular local home team time.  For baseball, that would eliminate funny shadows.

12. Too bad for FOX if neither Red Sox or Yankees make it to the World Series.  Let's root for a Royals-Pirates World Series.

13. And finally, keep Jesse Jackson as far away as possible. 

NFL: Require that the ball carrier touch the ball down in the end zone while the player has possession and is in the field of play.  The rule now, awarding a touchdown to someone with long arms and who left the field of play 2 yards short of the end zone is stupid and puts too much responsibility on the officials and results in a lot of controversy as to whether the ball  "broke the plane" or not.

To Bettman and the NHL

The most important thing that the NHL can do to improve Hockey is to stop being greedy and get a serious network-TV contract.  It is pretty sad to see NBC advertising the “Game of the Week” when they should call it the “Game of the week when there is a blue moon”.  If the NHL really wants to grow its fan-base they need to bite the bullet and have a weekly, not a once every now and then, game night on national TV.  They just need to look at all the other Big sports the NFL, the NBA, NASCAR to see what they need to do.  Dear NHL: stop being greedy and get on a regular Network-TV.