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The NFL has managed to create a little controversy in the offseason, passing a pair of rules that are sure to generate some scrutiny from fans over the next several months. 

For starters, the league has decided to make it illegal to pull off the old “leaping field goal” move, by which a defender times the snap and leaps over the heads of blockers in order to block the kick. 

This has been a thing for a while, thanks to the supernatural instincts of Troy Polamalu, who rarely made a mistake flying over defenders with his athleticism. It has been especially popular the past few years after Seahawks safety Kam Chancellor busted it out twice against the Panthers in the playoffs.

The NFL made it illegal to step onto the back or head of a someone engaged in blocking or snapping the ball, but that didn’t prevent people from leaping over the line. See: Shea McClellin leaping over the Ravens line last season.

But now even that will be illegal, and leaping over the line will no longer be allowed. 

So the NFL has effectively taken away a super-athletic and exciting play in a game predicated on athleticism. That should go over really well. Several Seahawks players weren’t thrilled about the league taking away a play that many consider fun and exciting.

Coaches, including Arizona’s Bruce Arians, have also complained previously that leaping was a bad thing.

Here’s how the rule will read now:

Running forward and leaping in an obvious attempt to block a field goal or Try Kick, unless the leaping player was originally lined up on the line of scrimmage when the ball was snapped. 

So you can stand still and leap over everyone but you can’t run forward and try to time the leap. 

The second rule change will be even more controversial. The league wanted to allow referees to eject players who commit egregious hits to the head. And according to NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport, that proposal passed.

This is, for all intents and purposes, targeting. It’s a rule that has been highly controversial in college football and has now filtered its way up to the NFL.

Throwing someone out of a game for making a hyper-aggressive move to hit another player in the head is one thing. But there’s a pretty subjective area of intent here, especially given how fast the action is in an NFL game. Here’s a full list of the proposals adopted by NFL teams on Tuesday:

But the NFL is dead-set on increasing player safety by “taking the head out of the game” and it shouldn’t be a surprise that the league is going to put something else on the officials’ plate during the game. Hopefully there will be a final say situation coming from Dean Blandino in New York when deciding whether or not a player should be ejected from the game after making a hit.

Expect a lot of controversy during the first year on this one.