The new USFL put a lot of thought into its rulebook ahead of its inaugural season. The league entrusted former NFL official Mike Pereira with helping to create and implement some of the major differences between the spring league and the NFL.
Pereira put a lot of thought into each rule, but he hasn't been afraid to change them a bit to benefit the league.
"Honestly, we are a spring league and it is a new league – making the rules, 98% of the rules are NFL. When you’re making some changes like this, there's no data," Pereira told USA TODAY Sports last week. "Therefore it’s the kind of league where it can be four weeks into the season and you make the change."
Case and point, the "Jeff Fisher rule." Ahead of Week 5 of the 2022 USFL season, the league made a minor change to its rules about the extra-point selection process. Here's why the change happened and how Fisher, the coach of the Michigan Panthers, inspired it.
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What is the Jeff Fisher rule?
The so-called "Jeff Fisher rule" stemmed from what Jeff Fisher thought was an unfair procedure in the USFL's original rulebook.
Fisher called a timeout in Week 4 after the Panthers scored a touchdown against the Tampa Bay Bandits. Why? He wanted to try a 2-point attempt instead of a 1-point attempt on the point after.
However, the USFL's original rulebook stated that coaches cannot change their minds about going for one, two or three points even after using a timeout. Fisher didn't think that made any sense and let Mike Pereira know.
"And he said 'Well who wrote that rule?' and I said, 'Well I did.' And he said 'Well can I propose a change?' I mean, it does make sense to me," Pereira said.
So, ahead of Week 5, Fisher wrote a proposal to allow coaches to change their minds about their extra-point selections. Pereira convened a group of USFL executives to consider the rule change on a conference call.
"And the next thing you know, over a Zoom call, everybody raises their hands and it’s passed," Pereira said. "I like that. I think that’s the way it should be."
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Other midseason USFL rule changes
The Jeff Fisher rule isn't the only midseason rule change that the USFL has made. The league also made a notable one to shorten games after Week 3.
Pereira explained that the USFL wanted games to take less than three hours to complete, but that wasn't happening in the early stages of the league's season.
To combat this, the USFL decided to keep the clock running after incompletions in the first and third quarters. As a result, three of the four Week 4 games took less than three hours to complete.
Pereira believes that having the flexibility to change the league's product is a major asset for the USFL.
"I’m sure we’ll be open-minded like this going forward," he said.