PITTSBURGH — The NFL has shown a penchant for reacting swiftly to incidents that have affected the outcome — even the competitive balance — of playoff games.
They have used the moments, fueled by the outcry from coaches, owners, media and even the public, to enact rule changes to hopefully prevent a recurrence, sometimes to their own detriment.
The objective is usually to preserve the integrity of the game. But it also involves trying to create, as much as possible, a level playing field for the competing teams, especially when an imbalance can drastically affect the league's most prized possession — the product.
And so it is with what happened in Sunday's NFC championship game between the Philadelphia Eagles and San Francisco 49ers.
What was eagerly anticipated as a matchup between the two top seeds in the NFC — the seemingly unstoppable Eagles offense against the impenetrable 49ers defense — turned into a lopsided, disinteresting affair when the 49ers' rookie quarterback, Brock Purdy, injured his elbow six plays into the game.
It was dulled even more when Purdy's replacement, Josh Johnson, a career nomad and the team's fourth-string quarterback, was knocked from the game in the third quarter with a concussion. That forced the 49ers to put Purdy, unable to throw, back in the game merely to hand off on running plays — not a good way to come back from a 21-point deficit.
Understand, of course, injuries are not to be used as an excuse for losing a game. After all, they are a part of the game and unpreventable. They are not always remedied by inserting another player, especially at the most important position in professional sports. That's why the best teams are usually the deepest teams — those that can withstand a key injury.
What happened to Purdy and the 49ers has created cries to bring back the third quarterback rule, which existed from 1991 to 2010 and allowed teams to designate a third quarterback who did not count against the team's active 45-player game-day roster. If that quarterback entered the game before the fourth quarter, the other two quarterbacks on the active roster could not return to the game. That was done to allow for injuries at that position.
Bringing back the rule would not be a surprise. The league has seen rules changes in two of the past four years as a result of critical moments or elements in playoff games that affected the outcome.
In 2019, NFL owners adopted a new rule that pass interference calls — or non-calls — could be reviewed by replay. That was a result of what appeared to be an egregious pass interference penalty that wasn't called against the Los Angeles Rams in the final two minutes of the NFC championship game with the New Orleans Saints — a no-call even the league admitted was a mistake.
It forced the Saints to kick a field goal and allowed the Rams enough time to score the winning touchdown in the final minute and advance to the Super Bowl.
Last year, in an exciting shootout between two of the best teams in the AFC, the Buffalo Bills lost to Kansas City in a divisional playoff game when the Chiefs scored on the opening possession of overtime. The outcry over the Bills not even getting a chance in the extra period caused the owners to amend the overtime rule for playoff games only, allowing each team at least one possession.
That change was a good one and is likely here to stay, unlike the ill-advised pass interference rule that lasted one year and was scrapped because — here is the key — the incessant delays dragged down the product.
This will — or at least should be — the same.
However, remember this:
The third quarterback rule never really disappeared.
In 2011, as part of the collective bargaining agreement, the league decided to expand the active game-day roster from 45 to the current 46 players, effectively allowing for a third quarterback. But the extra player did not have to be a quarterback. It could be a player at any position. The league left it to each team to decide which extra position player they wanted to dress.
When the league owners meet in March, it is likely they will react to what they witnessed Sunday at Lincoln Financial Field — a game that became more unappealing than an epidural. Maybe they will do what they did last year: institute a rule that applies only to the postseason — in other words, reinstitute the third quarterback rule for playoff games only.
It may not affect the outcome of a game. But it will help keep the product from dissolving into what everyone witnessed in Philadelphia.
Steelers were impressed by Purdy
Speaking of Purdy, every team in the league passed on him before the 49ers took him with the 262nd pick, the final selection of the 2022 draft.
That includes the Steelers, who even drafted a quarterback in the seventh round, Chris Oladokun, 21 picks ahead of Purdy.
But that doesn't mean the Steelers weren't intrigued with his ability.
In fact, their coaches were impressed when they interviewed Purdy at the scouting combine and saw how he could go back and re-diagram a play they gave him minutes earlier. They actually thought Purdy might even go earlier in the draft, like the fourth or fifth round.
Nonetheless, they passed on drafting him, just like every other team. Instead, they drafted Oladokun, who got very little work in training camp, never took a snap in a preseason game and was quickly cut.
The Miami Dolphins also passed on Purdy when they used their seventh-round pick (247th overall) on quarterback Skylar Thompson. But, like Purdy, injuries forced Thompson to start four games for the Dolphins, including a playoff loss to the Bills.
Oh well, at least the Steelers found a quarterback at the top of the draft.
