ARLINGTON, Texas (AP) — In the latest innovative spring football league rule changes, the UFL will not allow punts until late in each half after a team crosses the 50-yard line and will make all field goals of 60 yards or longer worth four points.
The rules announced Tuesday include the elimination of the push-push, which technically means the player behind the quarterback cannot push him toward the line of scrimmage immediately after the snap.
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The UFL’s changes to the rules have raised eyebrows since the NFL made sweeping changes to kickoffs two years ago. The UFL is also adjusting its kickoff rules. The eight-team league will kick off on March 27.
The kicking team’s players will line up at the opponent’s 45-yard line (instead of the 40-yard line), and the receiving team’s blockers will also move 5 yards in the same direction to create more space for the receiving players. Defenders and blockers cannot move until the ball is caught or dropped in a designated area.
“It’s a huge sense of pride,” UFL official Dean Blandino said of the league’s influence on NFL rules. “I think it speaks to the need to have spring football. We’re not competing with the NFL, we’re working with the NFL. We’re preparing players, coaches, officials to take the next step and try and innovate things that the NFL can take advantage of.”
The new punt rule will not be enforced during the last 2 minutes of each half. Once enforced, teams that cross the 50 mark must keep trying on fourth down even if they lose yards to get back into their own territory.
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NFL teams are attempting field goals from 60 yards out more often, meaning they barely make it through the middle of the field. A team may punt if the ball is on the 50 line in the UFL but has not yet been crossed.
“At first glance, this feels like a major change,” Blandino told The Associated Press. “That’s how I looked at it when we started talking about it. And then you dig into the numbers and you look at last year’s NFL, the fewest punts per game in modern history, the most fourth downs per game in modern history. So that’s the trend of the game no matter what.”
The UFL’s reasoning goes beyond those numbers.
“We just thought, what do we want to promote?” Blandino said. “We’re trying to provide exciting plays. We’re trying to increase scoring and fan excitement, engagement, etc. So we don’t want to see a lot of punts that are just fair catches at the 10-yard line. It’s a no-action play.”
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In fact, the punt rule works simultaneously with a field goal of at least 60 yards and four points. The Dallas Cowboys’ Brandon Aubrey was a spring league member and his long kicks seemed almost routine.
Jacksonville’s Cam Little set an NFL record with 68 yards in November, 2 yards longer than Justin Tucker’s mark set in Baltimore in 2021. Last year, Little kicked for 70 yards in the preseason.
Blandino said Mike Repole, who became a major investor in the league last year, was adamant about rewarding longer field goals.
“We just thought, ‘OK, let’s add a layer to this,'” Blandino said. “Kicking a 65-yard field goal is much harder than kicking a 35-yard field goal. Why should they be the same?”
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Last year, the NFL rejected in a close vote a provision that would have eliminated the Philadelphia Eagles’ famous push move, often used by the Buffalo Bills.
“Some of our teams used it and we just felt everything, whether it was security, the difficulty with law enforcement,” Blandino said. “We’re going to give them an opportunity to see how to run the game, how to get it done. We just felt like that wasn’t the way we wanted to play.”
The UFL also adopted a college rule that requires a receiver to only have one foot in bounds to catch the ball. The NFL needs two feet.
For scoring after a touchdown, a punt of 33 yards is worth one point, a conversion from the 2-yard line is worth two points, and a conversion from the 8-yard line is worth three points.
In overtime, the two teams will take turns making 3 of the 5 conversion attempts. After that, they will continue to take turns until the tie is broken.
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