With the NFL’s 2016 rule book published and the flow of the news fairly slow, I’ve been spending too much time making sense of the new provisions in this year’s version of the stuff on the inside of the cover of the board game. (Obviously, they’d need a much bigger box cover to hold the NFL’s rules.)
When it comes to the issue of a team taking a second timeout in the same dead-ball period, one specific change has been made. For situations other than an attempt to freeze a kicker, the erroneous granting of a second timeout in the same dead-ball period will result in a five-yard penalty. Generally, however, the officials are expected to decline to grant the second timeout, without a penalty.
In other words, a team isn’t penalized for trying to called a second time out in the same dead-ball period. The team is penalized only if it gets the second timeout.
The change was sparked by last year’s Seahawks-Cowboys game, in which Seattle was given a timeout to stop the clock and another timeout because it had too many men on the field. Seattle got both timeouts, but there was no penalty imposed.
The same approach applies if a team has no time outs left in a given half; the officials should not grant the request, but if they accidentally do, a five-yard penalty applies.
That’s different from the existing rule that applies when a team tries to freeze a kicker. In that case, a second timeout in the same dead-ball period triggers a 15-yard penalty for unsportsmanlike conduct -- even if the timeout isn’t erroneously allowed.
The new rules also reiterate that only players in the game or a head coach may call a timeout. If, however, an assistant coach calls timeout and the request is erroneously granted, the timeout stands, without any penalty or other consequence.
