Too many reactionists with egos trying to be faux intellectuals unfortunately in manufactured positions of impact/power.
These people are supposed to be the caretakers of the integrity of the game, instead they all feel entitled to leave their mark and have this vainglorious attitude that they somehow have the right to a ‘legacy’ on the game, which they in fact don’t. They should be ashamed of themselves, but they are caught up in their desperate scramble for relevance and some sad version of immortality.
Rule changes used to be carefully considered, consulted and trialled.Now it’s just a free for all knee jerk reaction fest by a self appointed small group who have hijacked the game.
The beauty of the game was the freedom and space which opened itself to a variety of possible tactics and counter tactics. Now tactics are all rule change driven and rule interpretation driven instead of working within a consistent and predictable set of of rules that should be applied the same way for all, all the time, for extended periods/eras.
So now all the teams essentially have to play the same way with the same team dynamics and profiles and skillsets. Very little differentiates team characteristics and they all need to model themselves the same way. There are some nuances, but they don‘t vary too much. They can’t because of the changes. They are reactive to rule changes rather than creative within known rules.
Let the coaches and players naturally evolve the game with new and creative tactics, rather than force-shaping it with new rules that are pretty much bat sh!t crazy, or motivated by some isolated opinions of what someone thinks the game should ‘look like’.
If leaving the rules alone means the scoring goes up and down, then so be it. It’s not a perfect game, that’s what makes it great. Stop trying to make it perfect because it will ruin that beautiful element of it.
