John T. Reed's Football Think Tank
Boring football plays that should be eliminated

a) make a touchdown count seven points, eliminate the opportunity to kick a one-point field goal after a touchdown, and change the number of additional points for a run or pass P.A.T. to one or
b) make the team that scored a touchdown choose whether they want the ball on the 25-yard line at which location they could kick a one-point field goal from the 25-yard line or go for two (fake field goal play) or put the ball on the two-yard line in which case they could not kick a one-point field goal but could run or pass for a two-point conversion

a) stop the clock immediately after a play in which an offensive ball carrier takes a knee behind his own line of scrimmage This would reduce the entire take-a-knee period from about two minutes now, if the defense has no timeouts left, to about 12 seconds total worst case.
b) add 15 second back on the clock every time an offensive player takes a knee behind his own line of scrimmage during the last two minutes of either half and stop the clock until the next snap as soon as the play ends This would end the take-a-knee play as well as my quarterback-sweep-slide play which is a take-a-knee that takes about ten seconds per play rather than three seconds per play as in the take-a-knee play. Until the rule is changed, my Football Clock Management book has a whole chapter on the take-a-knee and quarterback-sweep-slide plays.
c) or use Arena Football League rule that says the clock stops whenever the offense fails to gain positive yardage in the last two minutes of the game

Make the rule the same as a free kick, that is, either team can recover it once it goes ten yards.

Although the rule allowing this if the quarterback is outside the box and the ball crosses the line of scrimmage just came in, take it out. It is a non-competitive play now and, as such, should be eliminated. If you want to protect the quarterback, make the rule say he is sacked if he is one-hand touched by a defender

Eliminate touchbacks if the ball touches the ground in the end zone and make kicking the ball out the back of the end zone on the fly the same penalty as kicking off out of bounds.

Start it at the end of the previous play as they now do in the NFL and shorten it to 30 seconds. At present, referees vary the time they take to start the play clock which is unfair to the team hurt by deviations from the average time. Who wants to watch a bunch of guys standing around doing nothing until the end of the play clock. Until they change that rule, my Football Clock Management book has a whole chapter on the slow-down offense.

Eliminate it but restore whatever halo rule will let the returner secure the ball and protect himself before.

Doug Flutie's 2005 drop kick was a meaningless stunt. As my article on the subject indicates, the only possible legitimate use of the drop kick would be at the youth level below age 12 and maybe as a surprise field goal if someone could master the technique. Otherwise, it should be eliminated from the rule book.

Eliminate. Visitors receive first. Analogous to visiting team batting first in baseball.

Make penalty for such situations more costly so that no offense ever deliberately takes such a penalty.