Article about the new "Hines Ward" rule and other potential changes made in rules.

A few months ago, when then-Baltimore Ravens linebacker Bart Scott was recounting all of the fines that had been levied against defensive players in the 2008 season, he turned his ire to the NFL at large.

"Look at the rules," said Scott, now a member of the New York Jets. "It’s garbage. You can’t touch this offensive player after five yards [beyond the line of scrimmage]. You can’t hit any of them in the head. You can’t hit this one below the knee. You can’t hit this one if he’s supposedly defenseless. You can’t hit them away from the ball. Everything is designed to protect [the] offense. The [NFL] could care less about defensive players. Was anyone out there saying ‘Oh boy, we need to protect [Cincinnati Bengals linebacker Keith Rivers] when he got his jaw broke and never saw [the hit] coming?’ No. People were all like ‘Oh, that’s tough play.’ Maybe if you are going to protect supposedly defenseless offensive guys, you should protect defenseless defensive players, too."