Jason & Travis Kelce Passionately Reject NFL’s New Rule Changes
Travis Kelce, NFL Referees Credits: USA TODAY Network
The upcoming NFL season will be interesting, with the league bringing in a host of rule changes. They banned the controversial hip-drop tackle, made changes in the kickoff rules, gave the teams an additional challenge, amongst others. And now it seems, they are keen to introduce another change, this time removing the chain used to measure the first down and the Kelce brothers are not a fan of this.
During the latest episode of the New Heights podcast, Jason and Travis expressed their discontentment regarding the rule change. The NFL plans to introduce an electronic system to measure the first down, signalling an end to the old chain technology, which was less than reliable and highly prone to human error.
Travis sentimentally called the chain system an integral part of the game much like a ceremonial kickoff. And Jason although recognized its flaws but felt that the system was perfect and should not have been tampered with.
Travis notes emotionally, “There is something about the chains. It’s like a ceremonial kickoff, it’s part of the game.” To which Jason responds, “It’s an imperfect system. The chain gang isn’t perfect, the refs are perfect but it’s perfect. I don’t why are we messing with this. There is nothing more direct than measurements on the field. For me just a fan of the game, I like the officials having an impact on the game, and I like human errors. That is part of the game and both teams have to overcome that.”
The Kelce brothers are fed up with a barrage of rule changes and feel too many changes change the nature of the game.
Kelce Brothers Ask the NFL, “Where Does It Stop?”
Jason asserted there is a limit to rule changes and changes in technology. He stated that he condones cheating and taking advantage of the rules on the field. The goal is winning and doesn’t matter how you win. Bending the rules is just a player being savvy and outsmarting your opponent with intelligence is just part of the game.
They compared the situation to changes in baseball where they introduced a tech to correctly identify the strike zone after series series of bad calls where a player was struck out when the replays showed he wasn’t. The Kelce brothers said,
“Where does it stop? It’s the same thing with Baseball. They are doing the ball strike zone, they are trying to do it electronically. I always like being maybe, because I try to get any advantage any way I could. Whenever we are doing a competition in the weight room I cheat. You are taking away an advantage, a savvy player has to manipulate things. I would try to cheat everything.”
The changes are part of the game. This is how a game evolves. No one likes human errors deciding the game. But technology is also not perfect. Take soccer; to eliminate potentially game-changing errors out of the game, they introduced Video Assistant Referee. But they haven’t been able to perfect it because still the decision is made by a human.
Human errors are part of the game. All a player or a team can do is move on from that and give their best. As the elder Kelce brother said, it is the responsibility of both the teams to rise above all the human errors and show outrightly that they cannot be denied victory.
