No Change to Controversial Replay/Flag Issue--Yet

Rules are a necessary fact of every facet of life from driving your car, buying a beer, or playing football. Typically they come with a purpose In the NFL they are intended to keep the game moving, keep the players safe, and insure no one has an unjust competitive advantage.

So what do you do when one of those rules goes wrong? You change it, of course. 

In light of Texans running back Justin Forsett's touchdown against the Detroit Lions in front of a national audience on Thanksgiving the NFL is looking into doing just that--just not right now.

Goodell has stated that there is a chance that the league could change the rule that saw the Texans score a TD that they shouldn't have on Turkey Day, but it will definitely not happen during the regular season. It could happen in time for the playoffs though. If it is not addressed then it will be reviewed when the competition committee meets in the off-season.

As much as I would hate to see this rule affect another game I have to say that Goodell is approaching this in the right fashion. I hate it when the league changes the rules as often as they do in the off-season. If the league were to start doing so during the season (even for the playoffs) a precedent could be set that no one wants the NFL to go down.

We don't want rules changed at the drop of a hat. Doing so is just bad for the game. It is better that they take a step back, review all the facts, and make sure that the intent of the rule is what is being carried out; without some unnecessary or wanted side affects.

It will totally suck should this rule affect another team, playoffs or not, but at least then we can rest assured that the change is needed and it will get done before next year.

In case you've been living under a rock the last week or so, Forsett was clearly down by contact after a decent gain, but somehow not a single official called him down so he got up and scampered the rest of the way into the end zone for an 81-yard TD run.

Disgusted that the refs didn't make the right call Lions head coach Jim Schwartz threw the challenge flag before Forsett even crossed the goal line. He was probably thinking that it was ridiculous that he had to do it, but at least the replay system exists in order to correct obvious oversights like this.

The schwartz wasn't with Schwartz in that moment. He forgot that the NFL was now reviewing every scoring play and turnover in order to make sure that no game was decided by a bad call that a coach couldn't challenge because he had already used his chances.

As a result of his mistake the team was penalized 15-yards for unsportsmanlike conduct (with the notion being that the coach is misusing the system to delay the game). An added incentive to make sure coaches don't screw up more then once is that the play that would have been reviewed no longer will.

Kind of a "well, I was going to do it but since you wasted my time I'm not going to anymore." [insert face with tongue sticking out]