The original change (which dates back to before WW1 in college football) was explicitly to make the game less like rugby - and get rid of a play that was causing an enormous number of injuries (Teddy Roosevelt apparently convened a White House meeting to demand rule changes). In rugby, you really only see mauls at a fairly high level of play, because they are far more technical and difficult to coach than the rugby layman might think.
Those rule changes legalized the forward pass, required 6 attackers to start the play set on the line of scrimmage (thus ending the possibility of the flying wedge), and created the neutral zone at the snap. Pushing and pulling the ball carrier to assist was banned. In 2005, due to the difficulty of figuring out who was pushing in those situations, the rule was modified keeping the ban on pulling, but ruling that incidental pushing when lines were fighting for short yardage was acceptable. It has taken almost a generation for someone to really work out what the consequences are.
To stop it, defenses would need to form their own scrum and get defenders stacked behind the defensive tackles pushing, but that would seem to open the D up to a fake with a throw, so they probably won’t do it. I think next year it goes away.
I love watching NFL games that area happening in the snow and cold. For some reason it just looks so much better.
I will admit that Buffalo are taking it a bit far right now, with the fans having to dig out their own seats from the snow, but it looks awesome on TV.
we got some dry snow over the weekend, so I pulled out my Milwaukee 18V blower and was able toclear my car off without pulling out the brush. so much easier.
