What Were the Sweeping NFL Rule Changes...

April's gridiron history is rich with transformative moments, including a season of changes and numerous draft days. A celebrated tackle's journey began, ultimately leading to gridiron immortality.

April 25, 1974 - Sweeping NFL Rules reform  The Newspapers.com Football History Headline of the day comes from the April 26, 1974 edition of the Miami Herald, which has a boldface heading, "NFL Brings In Sudden Death; Changes Rules For Field Goals!" The Herald Wire Service is talking about an April 25 NFL rules meeting in New York City where the League responded to criticism of safety and sagging offenses. The sweeping changes were to first move the goalposts from the goal line to the end line and adopt sudden-death overtime for all regular and exhibition games. Another rule that made a difference was that a missed field goal would either be returned to the 20-yard line or to the previous line of scrimmage, whichever was further from the goal line for the next series to start. Walking out of the meetings, Commissioner Pete Rozelle said, "I am extremely pleased. I felt the coaches were doing too good of a job with defenses. This should make things interesting."