NFL Exploring Changes in Discipline for Illegal Hits, Excessive Celebrations

Troy Vincent, the NFL's vice president of football operations, tweeted on Wednesday that the league's competition committee is examining ways to take dangerous hits out of the game.

He also noted that the NFL will be further clarifying the rules regarding proper celebrations on the field:

The competition committee is expected to formally propose a number of recommendations to owners in next week's league meetings. On Monday, Kevin Seifert of ESPN.com reported the committee will recommend that the NFL begins to hire full-time officials starting in 2017.

Other reported proposals:

• Allowing referees the discretion to warn players about questionable celebrations rather than immediately penalizing them.
• The NFL officiating department would take over video review duties from the league office.
• Prohibiting players from jumping over the line of scrimmage on field goals and extra points.
• Reducing overtime to 10 minutes in the preseason and regular season, per Judy Battista of the NFL Network.

As for the crackdown on illegal hits, referees are already permitted to eject players for dangerous hits and blows to the head, though they have rarely exercised that right in games. This would be the latest step to legislate dangerous plays out of the game, following last season's new rule that punished players who committed two personal fouls in a game with an automatic ejection.