NFL Set to Eliminate Clock Loophole Famously Used and Abused by Bill Belichick

The NFL will have plenty on the docket next week during the annual league meetings. As is the case ever year, team owners will vote on changing, creating, or eliminating certain rules. This latest update won't make New England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick too happy.

NFL owners will vote to eliminate a loophole which allows a team to manipulate the running game clock by committing multiple dead-ball penalties.

Sorry Bill!

Belichick notably did this last season during a Week 7 matchup against the AFC East rival New York Jets. The Patriots took an excessive amount of intentional delay of game and false start penalties, which Jets head coach Adam Gase declined. Those, in turn, took a huge chunk out of the game clock, which caused Belichick to let out an uncharacteristic smirk.

Of course, the six-time Super Bowl winning head coach was bound to get a taste of his own medicine.

In the latter portion of the AFC Wild Card game against the Tennessee Titans, head coach Mike Vrabel instructed his special teams unit to commit the very same delay of game and false start infractions to kill time off the game clock in the fourth quarter. That left Belichick seething, and played a significant factor in the Patriots' shocking first-round elimination.

How glorious is it that will rule will likely now be eliminated after Belichick was the last one to get screwed by it?