NFL Changes Injury Policy to Require More Disclosure

The NFL has changed its policy on the disclosure of player injuries and will now require teams to disclose whether or not an injury kept players from practicing, according to a Pro Football Talk report.

Under the old policy, teams only had to list players as "probable," "questionable," "doubtful" or "out." The new policy will keep those four categories but will also force teams to say whether a player did participate in practice, had limited participation in practice or did not participate in practice.

There are two types of fans who find this particularly interesting: fantasy players and gamblers. The NFL has fully embraced fantasy football, and the league might tout this policy change as something that will benefit fantasy players.

Gambling is a stickier subject. The NFL's basic view toward gambling on football is that it doesn't exist: They simply won't talk about it other than to say no one in the league participates in it if he wants to stay in the league. But they want to disclose injury information as readily as possible because they don't want gamblers trying to get inside information from NFL locker rooms.

Bottom line, more disclosure is a good thing, and although most fans won't even notice it, this policy is the latest example of the league taking positive steps under Roger Goodell's leadership.