In response to the comments from former NFL G.M. Bill Polian that a wider field could make the NFL game safer, current NFL executive V.P. of football operations Ray Anderson says that it’s old news.
“It was an idea bantered about two or three years ago as part of a safety discussion,” Anderson tells Albert Breer of NFL Network. “It didn’t get much traction at all then, and it’s not on the agenda for this upcoming series of Competition Committee meetings. I don’t see that as something to be discussed anytime soon.”
We reported earlier today that, indeed, the subject isn’t on the Competition Committee’s agenda.
Anderson doesn’t know whether a wider field will reduce the impact of collisions. “I don’t know if a guy having 30 yards, rather than 20 yards, to run at another player is going to lessen the impact,” Anderson said. “I don’t have a firm opinion on it.”
The biggest benefit of a wider field could come from the premium more horizontal space would place on having guys who can move. Which could act as a practical weight limit, weeding out slow, fat guys who rely on the ability to throw their weight around in confined spaces.