Cowboys Do-Overs Could Be Trouble

The NFL announced on Friday that nothing will change in response to a Titans punt hitting the low-hanging video board in the Dallas Cowboys' new stadium last week: Any play on which a ball hits the board will continue to be treated as a "do-over," and the Cowboys will not be required to raise the board.

In other words, the league isn't doing anything except hoping this issue goes away -- and ignoring the fact that the "do-over" rule could create all kinds of problems.

This is the NFL, not backyard football, and do-overs are not a viable long-term solution to the problem of the Cowboys' video board, which at 90 feet above the field is easily within reach of a punted ball, and maybe even a thrown ball.

I guarantee the eight special teams coaches who will visit Dallas this season are trying to think of scenarios where intentionally hitting the video board with a punt could give their team a competitive advantage. I'm assuming the Cowboys won't do anything to try to get any kind of advantage, as that would be highly embarrassing for Cowboys owner Jerry Jones, and Jones is a man who doesn't like to be embarrassed. Then again, Jones is also a man who doesn't like to lose. If the Cowboys' coaches can think of a way that hitting the video board could help the team, maybe they'd have Jones' blessing to do it.

So what kind of competitive advantage could be gained?

One possibility is using an intentional do-over to set up a fake punt: A team planning a fake punt might try to make the Cowboys think they're really punting by first lining up its punting unit and telling the punter to hit the board -- then running a fake on the do-over play, when the Cowboys won't be expecting it. Another possibility is that a visiting team could use intentional do-overs after the offense goes three-and-out to give the defense more time to rest.

Personal fouls will still be enforced, so you can't just tell your punter to hit the board and tell the other 10 guys to take all the cheap shots they want. But even there, problems could exist: What if the ball hits the board and one of the gunners on the punt team sees it and stops -- but a player on the receiving team doesn't see it and drills the gunner with a hard block? Should that block be flagged as a late hit?

And we haven't even gotten to the problems with a thrown ball hitting the video board. ESPN's Adam Schefter had several posts on Twitter Friday that explored those possibilities: What if a Hail Mary gets knocked down by the video board? What if a quarterback drops back, scans the field, doesn't like what he sees and chucks the ball 90 feet in the air to force a do-over? Would that be intentional grounding? Or intentional scoreboarding?

The bottom line is that the NFL and the Cowboys need to acknowledge they seriously screwed up: You simply can't have an NFL stadium with a giant obstruction hanging 90 feet over the playing field. Let's just hope they admit their mistake and raise the board before we see a game-changing do-over.

Follow me on Twitter @MichaelDavSmith.