Peyton Manning Isn't a Fan of the NFL's Umpire Alignment

After last week's illegal snap penalty against the Indianapolis Colts, quarterback Peyton Manning has sounded off (sort of) against the new position of the umpire.

For those of you who don't know or haven't noticed yet, the umpire is no longer positioned in the middle of the defense.

For his protection, the league has moved him behind the offense.

This new positioning is a hindrance to the hurry-up style of offense that the Colts use. The offense has to wait until the umpire (who sets the ball) is in position before they can snap the ball.

Because the umpire has to go through the offensive line and line up behind and off-center of the quarterback, it takes a few more seconds than before, when he'd set the ball and jog back a few steps.

Last week the Colts snapped the ball in the midst of their hurry-up and were flagged.

Manning had this to say about the new rule:

"If we had this rule last year there's no way we catch up in that New England game. We were down, what, 21 points in the fourth quarter? We wouldn't have had enough time to run enough plays to catch up.

"But forget about that game. Let's chart all the comeback wins where a team runs the hurry-up in the fourth quarter. How many of those games would have ended up the same way or would the quarterbacks have had enough time to run enough plays to come back and win?"

He has a point here. When a team is trying to make a comeback, every second counts, and with the new rule it takes the umpire a few more seconds to get into position.

Even NFL Vice President of Officiating Carl Johnson admits that the new rule has unintended consequences. He spoke with Sports Illustrated's Peter King about it:

"The way the new mechanic of the umpire positioning is, I don't have a resolution to that.  It's going to take a couple extra seconds to spot the ball. There's no way around that."

I'm all for keeping the officials safe (after all, they don't wear pads), but I don't want the integrity of the game hurt in the process.

So far the only negative consequence has popped up in the preseason and hasn't affected a meaningful game's outcome yet, but we've already seen a crack in this new rule. Because of this the NFL should take a look at it to make sure it doesn't cost a team a chance at winning or tying a ball game.

Until next time, loyal readers, you can follow me on Twitter for article and NFL updates as I get them @jomac006.