Can you believe that some professional athletes have been so strong and so good at their respective sports that they have been the cause of rules being altered in their leagues? That’s right! Read below to see some of your all-time favorite athletes being so skilled that they have made rules change throughout the sports.
George Mikan
Nearly seven feet tall with an ambidextrous soft touch, George Mikan caught the basketball world entirely off guard when he debuted. Because of his size and skill, it was impossible to stop him from scoring once he was deep in the post with the ball and he led the NBA in points per game during his first three years in the league. To keep him from consistently receiving the ball close to the net, the lane was widened from six feet to twelve, effectively making him stand further away, but he was still very effective. His defense also forced the introduction of new rules into the game since goaltending didn’t use to be illegal. Officials realized that it was tremendously unfair to let him stay under the net and swat shots away before they got to the goal, so the act was subsequently banned in the game.
George Mikan
Morris Stroud
Speaking of goaltending, the NFL has a specific rule that prevents swatting field goal attempts down at the posts. Morris Stroud was doing okay as a pro football player despite having never played college football, but he made a long-term impact on the league thanks to how coach Hank Stram used him. Specifically, the coach instructed Stroud to line up with the goalposts rather than at the scrimmage line so that the former center could “block” attempts which came near the crossbar. He never actually succeeded, though, since most kicks sail too high for the jump and block thing to work. The NFL still decided that allowing defenses to set up like this was “palpably unfair”, and banned it the following season.
Morris Stroud
