All right football fans, armchair coaches, Monday morning quarterbacks and Belichick haters...let’s get together up and have a discussion.

With August comes the slow close of summer. Soon the leaves will change and with that, the NFL season will begin to unfold. Today, we are taking a look at some of the changes that you will see in the NFL this year. There have been a handful and even the NFL brand logo is different featuring eight stars representing the league's eight divisions and a football resembling the one on the Vince Lombardi Trophy. Not exactly ground-breaking, but still different.

In April, NFL owners met to vote on some proposed rule changes. Here they are for you neatly wrapped like a vintage Derrick Thomas sack:

>Defer the Coin Toss

“You MUST take the ball.” Every level of organized football has let you defer the coin toss to the second half. It wasn’t until 2008 -- 38 years after the merger -- that you can do it in the NFL. Coaches at the pro- evel will most certainly defer to receive the ball in the 2nd half as teams at the collegiate level do. Hell, I do it in Madden 2008 every single time. It’s good game management. Hence my 13-0 record on All-Madden. Eat that.

>Field Goal Replays

Is it in or out? No, that’s not what she said but that’s what a lot of people were asking last year when the Browns’ Phil Dawson kicked that much-replayed FG in overtime. Good or no good? Starting in 2008, the head referee will now be able stick his head under that ridiculous curtain and watch a replay of the field goal. The two back judges who stand under the goal posts during extra points and field goals just lost a little piece of job security.

>Defensive Communication Helmets

Oh, those Patriots. Every year it seems someone is trying to make a rule centered around the Patriots' on-field antics. This year it’s the defensive communication helmet where defensive signals can now be radioed to one player on the defense. Now those camera-happy New England Patriots can’t steal your signs! From everything I’m hearing around the NFL, not every team is jumping on board with this. So you will still see three guys on a sideline gesturing like high-testosterone mimes.

>The Force-Out Rule

Score one for the defense! The force-out rule no longer applies. No more “well, he would have landed in bounds so therefore, it counts.” That’s pretty subjective and probably requires that some of these line judges minor in mathematics and physics. The judgment call on the sidelines mad me crazy at times last year and now we can all move on. So if you are a DB, play the body. Pretty simple. Smack the WR in the mouth. Hell, even a little face mask might be all right! Speaking of that...

>5 Yard Incidental Face Mask

Have you ever slept weird and woke up with a neck that would barely move? Try wearing a helmet and letting me yank you to the ground by the face guard. It's called a face mask in football and now the rules around it have changed. The ol' neck cranking via the face guard just became a little more lax in terms of penalty. Previously, we had two types of a face mask infraction:

• 5-yard Incidental Face Mask – This penalty was called in the event of an accidental occurrence. A hand gets wrapped up in the face during the tackle but was not the sole means of the take down.
  
  
• 15-yard Intentional Face Mask – Occurs when a player was determined to have deliberately grabbed the face guard. This penalty is considered to be very serious in nature and can cause significant damage.

Now the 5-yard incidental will no longer be called. So as long as it's not a deliberate attempt to break a neck, you can have a little mask action. Team chiropractors are on call!

>Rules that didn’t quite make the cut

The long hair rule: Players can still wear their long flowing locks out of their helmet for stage effect. Why more of those guys are not tackled by their hair is beyond me.

Playoff re-seeding: Another proposal put forth by the Atlanta Falcons and a few other unnamed franchises would reseed the playoff structure and allow for Wild Card teams to host a playoff game if their record was better than a division winner’s. Ex. Jacksonville finished 11-5 in the AFC South but finishes in 2nd place behind a 13-3 Indianapolis Colts team. In the AFC Central, the Cleveland Browns win the division with a 10-6 record. The proposed rule would have Cleveland traveling South to Jacksonville for the Wild Card game. The current rule has Jacksonville heading to Ohio. The rule was voted down. Weak division winners rejoice!

One rule that needs to be changed is the Pass Interference call. Throwing a ball on a prayer, creating contact and picking up 30-40 yards on a play is just ridiculous.

So there you have it. A 2008 NFL discussion and there was no mention of Brett Favre! I thought that was a new rule this year as well...

Darryl Johnston contributes to Bruins blog Boston Rink Rats and is an avid lover of all things Boston sports, formerly running the now defunct blog Sorry About Your Barn. He recently had his fantasy football draft and was flagging twice for unsportsmanlike conduct.