Playoffs
Hall of Fame
The Unwritten Rules of the NFL
Ty Schalter
Ty Schalter
NFL football is played by two sets of rules.
There are the official playing rules and casebook, available for anyone to freely read at NFL.com; the guidelines on everything from air pressure to zebras are contained within. The scoring rules, penalties and accepted interpretations thereof fill 120 electronic pages.
Then, there are the rules that aren't written in any book. They aren't downloadable from a website or watchable via any streaming app. Sometimes, ex-players talk about them on TV when one is broken—but fans are never really sure what they are, how many they don't know about or if they're even real.
On the field, in the locker room, even on the team plane, NFL culture is all-encompassing. The only way to get along is to live by the rules, and that's why veterans take it upon themselves to teach every rookie class what you do, and what you don't do, in the NFL. Sometimes, though, the only way to learn the rules is to break them.
Bleacher Report talked to active and former NFL players to figure out where the unspoken lines are drawn, how they're delineated for newcomers and what happens to those who cross them.
It Ain't What It Used to Be
Several players made sure to point out the sport has changed a lot in recent years.
Cellphones are everywhere, players are managed more like movie stars than football players, and the Internet-driven news cycle never stops. Practices are lighter, shorter, less frequent and far less often padded. Training camps are mostly held at team facilities rather than far-off college campuses, and every NFL game is monitored by a forest of high-definition cameras.
Now, more than ever, the NFL culture is public. Many old secrets aren't so secret. A lot of the unwritten rules have been put into words and enforced by the league. There isn't much room for out-and-out thuggery or eye-for-an-eye policing of it. Older fans might say important parts of football culture have been lost.
Former All-Pro guard Steve Hutchinson, a breath after disparaging the work ethic of today's players to Bleacher Report, laughed and admitted complaints about the changing facts of football life have been going on since long before his time.
"This is an ongoing debate," he said. "You talk to guys from the '60s, and they'll say, 'You know, when I played, I walked uphill both ways in the snow!'" But there are still plenty of must-follow rules fans and media never hear about. Most of them deal with the day-to-day reality of playing football for a living: games, practices, meetings and travel.
Every rookie eventually gets with the program—or gets out of the NFL.
First, Do No Harm—At Least Not On Purpose
Every player Bleacher Report talked to agreed on this point: The No. 1 rule, whether it's practices or games, teammates or opponents, is to not purposely injure another player.
"This is our work," Cincinnati Bengals tackle Eric Winston told Bleacher Report. "This is how we feed our families. We're compensated very well for it, but if you try to take that away from someone?" Winston, like many other players, stressed that hard, clean hits are part of the game—and injuries happen. But using dangerous techniques or going after defenseless players is beyond the pale.
"Those shots where players blatantly go after guys in a way that could really hurt someone, after the play, after the whistle? Even the most hardened guys that are considered the real tough guys in the league are like, 'You don't do that.' It's a fine line, but there's a way to be the toughest guy out here—the strongest, most physical—that's not like, 'I'm blatantly trying to hurt somebody.' It's hard to describe, but it's there—and everybody knows it's there."
Crack-back blocks, peel-back blocks and many other such techniques that target the knees or head have been banned by the league office. Hutchinson cited Warren Sapp's 2002 leveling of Chad Clifton as the kind of line-crossing stunt that used to get policed on the field but now gets policed by Roger Goodell.
"The head coach of Green Bay, [Mike] Sherman," Hutchinson said, "ran out onto the field and got in Sapp's face. I mean, you just don't do that. Was it illegal at the time? No. Is it illegal now? Yes." Were a player to do what Sapp did in 2002 today, Hutchinson said, "I'm sure he'd get a letter with a pretty hefty fine in it on Wednesday."
Rookies Should be...
There are the official playing rules and casebook, available for anyone to freely read at NFL.com; the guidelines on everything from air pressure to zebras are contained within. The scoring rules, penalties and accepted interpretations thereof fill 120 electronic pages.
Then, there are the rules that aren't written in any book. They aren't downloadable from a website or watchable via any streaming app. Sometimes, ex-players talk about them on TV when one is broken—but fans are never really sure what they are, how many they don't know about or if they're even real.
On the field, in the locker room, even on the team plane, NFL culture is all-encompassing. The only way to get along is to live by the rules, and that's why veterans take it upon themselves to teach every rookie class what you do, and what you don't do, in the NFL. Sometimes, though, the only way to learn the rules is to break them.
Bleacher Report talked to active and former NFL players to figure out where the unspoken lines are drawn, how they're delineated for newcomers and what happens to those who cross them.
It Ain't What It Used to Be
Several players made sure to point out the sport has changed a lot in recent years.
Cellphones are everywhere, players are managed more like movie stars than football players, and the Internet-driven news cycle never stops. Practices are lighter, shorter, less frequent and far less often padded. Training camps are mostly held at team facilities rather than far-off college campuses, and every NFL game is monitored by a forest of high-definition cameras.
Now, more than ever, the NFL culture is public. Many old secrets aren't so secret. A lot of the unwritten rules have been put into words and enforced by the league. There isn't much room for out-and-out thuggery or eye-for-an-eye policing of it. Older fans might say important parts of football culture have been lost.
Former All-Pro guard Steve Hutchinson, a breath after disparaging the work ethic of today's players to Bleacher Report, laughed and admitted complaints about the changing facts of football life have been going on since long before his time.
"This is an ongoing debate," he said. "You talk to guys from the '60s, and they'll say, 'You know, when I played, I walked uphill both ways in the snow!'" But there are still plenty of must-follow rules fans and media never hear about. Most of them deal with the day-to-day reality of playing football for a living: games, practices, meetings and travel.
Every rookie eventually gets with the program—or gets out of the NFL.
First, Do No Harm—At Least Not On Purpose
Every player Bleacher Report talked to agreed on this point: The No. 1 rule, whether it's practices or games, teammates or opponents, is to not purposely injure another player.
"This is our work," Cincinnati Bengals tackle Eric Winston told Bleacher Report. "This is how we feed our families. We're compensated very well for it, but if you try to take that away from someone?" Winston, like many other players, stressed that hard, clean hits are part of the game—and injuries happen. But using dangerous techniques or going after defenseless players is beyond the pale.
"Those shots where players blatantly go after guys in a way that could really hurt someone, after the play, after the whistle? Even the most hardened guys that are considered the real tough guys in the league are like, 'You don't do that.' It's a fine line, but there's a way to be the toughest guy out here—the strongest, most physical—that's not like, 'I'm blatantly trying to hurt somebody.' It's hard to describe, but it's there—and everybody knows it's there."
Crack-back blocks, peel-back blocks and many other such techniques that target the knees or head have been banned by the league office. Hutchinson cited Warren Sapp's 2002 leveling of Chad Clifton as the kind of line-crossing stunt that used to get policed on the field but now gets policed by Roger Goodell.
"The head coach of Green Bay, [Mike] Sherman," Hutchinson said, "ran out onto the field and got in Sapp's face. I mean, you just don't do that. Was it illegal at the time? No. Is it illegal now? Yes." Were a player to do what Sapp did in 2002 today, Hutchinson said, "I'm sure he'd get a letter with a pretty hefty fine in it on Wednesday."
Rookies Should be...