{"id":831634,"date":"2026-03-24T20:48:19","date_gmt":"2026-03-24T20:48:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/831634\/"},"modified":"2026-03-24T20:48:19","modified_gmt":"2026-03-24T20:48:19","slug":"nfl-considers-rule-change-after-dk-metcalf-incident","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/831634\/","title":{"rendered":"NFL Considers Rule Change after DK Metcalf Incident"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"categories\"><a href=\"https:\/\/steelersnow.com\/nfl\/\" rel=\"tag nofollow noopener\" data-wpel-link=\"internal\" target=\"_blank\">NFL<\/a>\u2022<a href=\"https:\/\/steelersnow.com\/steelers-news\/\" rel=\"tag nofollow noopener\" data-wpel-link=\"internal\" target=\"_blank\">Steelers News<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<img width=\"788\" height=\"444\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/12-21-2025-Steelerrs-v-Lions-3609-e1774381867145.jpg\" class=\"attachment-medium size-medium tpd-force-16x9-aspect-ratio wp-post-image\" alt=\"Pittsburgh Steelers WR DK Metcalf\" decoding=\"sync\" loading=\"eager\"   fetchpriority=\"high\"\/>Pittsburgh Steelers wide receiver DK Metcalf during a game against the Detroit Lions on Dec. 22, 2025. &#8212; Ed Thompson \/ Steelers Now\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>The NFL competition has proposed a rule change that might have seen Pittsburgh Steelers wide receiver <a href=\"https:\/\/steelersnow.com\/tag\/dk-metcalf\/\" data-wpel-link=\"internal\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">DK Metcalf<\/a> get ejected from his team\u2019s game against the Detroit Lions last year.<\/p>\n<p>The competition committee put <a href=\"https:\/\/media.nfl.com\/content\/dam\/communications\/football-communications\/2026\/news\/2026%20Playing%20Rules,%20Bylaw%20and%20Resolution%20Proposals.pdf\" data-wpel-link=\"external\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"external noopener noreferrer nofollow\">forward five potential rule changes<\/a> and three bylaw changes on Tuesday. Those changes will be voted on by the NFL owners at their annual meeting in Phoenix next week.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>One of the five rule changes would allow the NFL league office to consult with on-field officials about potential ejections for flagrant football or non-football actions, whether or not the play was flagged by the officials. Currently, the league office can only consult on plays where a flag is thrown by the on-field officiating staff.<\/p>\n<p>Metcalf shoved Lions fan Ryan Kennedy in the first half of a game between the Steelers and Lions on Dec. 21, after Kennedy had been heckling Metcalf.<\/p>\n<p>The was not noticed by on-field officials at the time, despite being caught by TV cameras. Metcalf was allowed to finish the game before being handed a two-game suspension.<\/p>\n<p>If this rule change passes through the competition committee, Metcalf could have been ejected after the league office reviewed the television footage.<\/p>\n<p>Metcalf was <a href=\"https:\/\/steelersnow.com\/nfl-hands-out-harsh-suspension-to-steelers-wr-dk-metcalf\/\" data-wpel-link=\"internal\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">suspended<\/a> for the final two games of the regular season for the incident, forfeiting over $550,000 in salary. He appealed that suspension to NFL commissioner Roger Goodell, but his <a href=\"https:\/\/steelersnow.com\/nfl-upholds-dk-metcals-two-game-suspension\/\" data-wpel-link=\"internal\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">appeal was denied<\/a>. The Steelers could have chosen to void his future guaranteed salary, but <a href=\"https:\/\/steelersnow.com\/steelers-decline-to-void-dk-metcalf-contract-guarantees\/\" data-wpel-link=\"internal\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">declined to do so.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Kennedy has field a lawsuit, naming the Metcalf, the Steelers, Lions and Ford Field as defendants, and is seeking $100 million in damages, alleging assault and defamation. As of February, Detroit Police were <a href=\"https:\/\/steelersnow.com\/report-police-still-investigating-incident-between-dk-metcalf-lions-fan\/\" data-wpel-link=\"internal\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">still investigating the incident<\/a>, but no criminal charges have been filed.<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tMentioned In This Article: <a href=\"https:\/\/steelersnow.com\/tag\/dk-metcalf\/\" rel=\"tag nofollow noopener\" data-wpel-link=\"internal\" target=\"_blank\">DK Metcalf<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/steelersnow.com\/tag\/nfl\/\" rel=\"tag nofollow noopener\" data-wpel-link=\"internal\" target=\"_blank\">NFL<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/steelersnow.com\/tag\/pittsburgh-steelers\/\" rel=\"tag nofollow noopener\" data-wpel-link=\"internal\" target=\"_blank\">Pittsburgh Steelers<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/steelersnow.com\/tag\/steelers\/\" rel=\"tag nofollow noopener\" data-wpel-link=\"internal\" target=\"_blank\">Steelers<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NFL\u2022Steelers News Pittsburgh Steelers wide receiver DK Metcalf during a game against the Detroit Lions on Dec. 22,&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":831635,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2055],"tags":[2870,7,6,520,57,2360,426],"class_list":{"0":"post-831634","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-pittsburgh-steelers","8":"tag-dk-metcalf","9":"tag-football","10":"tag-nfl","11":"tag-pittsburgh","12":"tag-pittsburgh-steelers","13":"tag-pittsburghsteelers","14":"tag-steelers"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116286123948698241","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/831634","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=831634"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/831634\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/831635"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=831634"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=831634"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=831634"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}