The NFL is trying to spice the Pro Bowl up just enough to get more fans interested in watching the game. A player draft was one way to drum up some interest, another appears to be some wholesale changes to the way the clock is run on the field.
With the NFL All-Star game taking on the feel of something closer to a pick-up game out in the backyard this year, the league is trying out some new clock rules in the game. The list of new clock rules in the Pro Bowl are as follows.
1. All four quarters will include a two-minute warning. Possession will also change after each quarter.
2. Within the final two minutes of each quarter, if the offense doesn’t gain any yards, the game clock will stop like with a dead ball.
3. 35-second and 25-second play clocks will be used instead of the normal 40- and 25-second clocks.
4. The game clock will start on the referee’s signal after an incomplete pass, except when inside the last two minutes of the first half or the last five minutes of the second half.
5. The game clock will not stop if the quarterback is sacked.
The rules changes are clearly an attempt to add some more excitement and points — as if 97 points combined last year weren’t enough — to the game. However, it seems that the NFL might also be testing some of these methods out with the thought of possible implementation into regular-season games somewhere down the line.
Have a question for Luke Hughes? Send it to him via Twitter at @LukeFHughes or send it here.
