Sports Rules Fans Hate: Turning Festivus Grievances Into 2026 Sports Resolutions

If you’re a sports fan who pays attention year-round and not just when final scores are posted, you have grievances. Every one of us does.

They might be about rules that make no sense, players who get away with nonsense, league decisions that feel disconnected from reality, or broadcast choices that leave you yelling at your TV.

Some of these grievances are big-picture issues. Others are tiny annoyances. But all of them stick with you because once you notice them, you can’t unsee them … and that can drive a good fan crazy.

Since it’s Festivus season — the made-up holiday from Seinfeld dedicated to the airing of grievances — it feels like the right time to lean into this energy. But instead of just complaining for the sake of complaining, let’s try something slightly more productive.

Let’s turn our grievances into New Year’s resolutions. No demands and no ultimatums, but things we’d genuinely love to see change in sports next year.

So, join me while I break out my Festivus pole and, as my feat of strength, turn my top three grievances into workable resolutions that those in power may consider (but probably won’t) adopting in 2026.

1. NFL Tush Push Controversy: Why Fans Want the Play Changed

Ok, I admit this first item is a little click-baity as I don’t really want the NFL to ban the so-called Tush Push.

The Philadelphia Eagles have perfected this one-yard-and-a-cloud of dust play, and after adding a few wrinkles that make it a little less predictable, I don’t think they should be penalized for pulling it off better than any other team.

That said, I could get behind a ban if the league doesn’t adopt a simple tweak: all Tush Push-like plays are subject to automatic review.

As networks have done a better job of posting cameras along the line of scrimmage whenever a Tush Push call is likely, players and fans have learned something interesting. Replays have shown that Philly linemen often get away with false-starts on the play, giving them a distinct advantage over the defense.

I don’t blame the officials for missing this.

When nearly every player on the field is lined up within two or three yards of the ball, ready to collide into a massive scrum of 300-pound bodies, officials have a lot to look at. It’s a wonder officials can even spot the ball correctly.

This brings me to a key point in my argument. As the rules exist today, teams can challenge the spot of the ball. But if a coach correctly sees that, say, an Eagles o-lineman jumped before the ball was snapped … well, tough luck.

Letting the officiating crew in New York automatically review these plays, though, would enable the league to take control back from a play that’s nearly impossible to officiate from the ground.

2. MLB Hall of Fame Debate: Steroid-Era Players Deserve Induction

Waiting for Pete Rose to die before lifting his lifetime ban from baseball, thus making him eligible for the Baseball Hall of Fame (HOF), is a sports league’s version of cruel and unusual punishment.

Regardless of where you stood on his ban when he was alive, Pete’s death didn’t change a thing he did as a player or as a manager. So, waiting for him to pass away before offering a level of grace for his actions made the entire issue feel less like an ethical stand and more like a personal grudge.

Likeable or not, Pete was a HOF player, and the league did him dirty. Let’s not make the same mistake for superstars who dominated during baseball’s steroid era.

I’m talking about guys like Roger Clemens and Barry Bonds, both players who dominated the sport before it was ever shown they took steroids, HGH, or other illegal substances. 

Others like Alex Rodriguez, Rafael Palmeiro, Mark McGwire, and Sammy Sosa played within the bounds of a league where anywhere from a quarter to three-quarters of players were on performance enhancers, based on various reports. And for a while, MLB did little to police this.

As the saying goes, “Chicks dig the long ball,” so throughout the 90s and into the early 2000s, we had the Steroid Era. Players knew their teammates were juicing, fans began to suspect it, and the league enjoyed the home runs that led to headlines which led to ticket sales and big TV contracts.

And unfortunately, this forced a lot of players to make an agonizing career decision: go along or move along.

It’s time we step down from our moral pedestal and judge these players within the context of the era and stop pretending that MLB was some innocent bystander that just happened to be fooled. The Hall of Fame exists to tell the story of baseball. By honoring the greatness of these players, we’re simply acknowledging reality … not rewriting it.

3. NBA Traveling Rule Controversy: Why the “Gather Step” Confuses Fans

The inconsistency of travel calls in the NBA has been an issue for such a long time that it feels like just bringing it up deserves an “OK, Boomer”-like response.

Yet, whenever superstars like LeBron James or Giannis Antetokounmpo get away with another patented five-step layup, social media erupts. And the WTFs seem to be multi-generational.

That’s because one of the most fundamental statutes in basketball — a rule that was hammered into our heads as kids playing pickup games in our driveways — is you don’t walk with the basketball.

It’s just that simple. Or is it?

According to current travel rules, a magical time exists where a player dribbling the basketball goes from having possession of the ball to only sorta having possession of the ball — a time when rules allow him to keep moving as he decides whether he plans to stop, pass, or shoot.

It’s called a “gather,” loosely defined as the time it takes for a player to gain control of the ball before shooting or passing.

“But Ben,” you say, “how long does it take for a professional athlete to grab a basketball that he himself is dribbling?” Currently, the answer to that seems to depend on how long a player needs it to take.

These are some of the greatest athletes in the world, and through they years, they’ve learned how to turn the “gather” into one, two … even three steps at times by coaxing the ball forward in what’s become known as a float dribble. Then they get two more steps once officials deem they’ve gained full control over the basketball, leading to multi-step scores like this.

If this seems just a little too lenient to you, as if this additional flexibility has taken away from the spirit of the game, I offer the NBA this simple resolution: eliminate the gather altogether.

Instead of dribble, gather, then two steps, start counting players’ steps as soon as he picks up the dribble. And if two steps seem to Euro for American basketball, give them three steps. I don’t care. Just make it more consistent.

It doesn’t take an NBA player more than a step to control the basketball after a dribble, so let’s resolve to stop pretending the “gather” is a legitimate process that’s up to continual interpretation.

4. NFL’s Automatic First Down on Defensive Holding

Few rules in modern football generate as much quiet resentment as the automatic first down attached to defensive holding. On paper, it sounds reasonable — punish defenders for illegal contact. In practice, it often feels like a get-out-of-jail-free card for offenses that failed on their own.

We’ve all seen it: third-and-17, a quarterback throws short of the sticks, the defense does its job… and then a small tug at the line of scrimmage wipes it all away. Five yards, automatic first down, drive alive. Suddenly, a stop becomes seven points, and fans are left wondering how a marginal infraction outweighed 40 yards of defensive success.

The frustration isn’t that defensive holding shouldn’t be penalized — it absolutely should. It’s that the punishment feels wildly disproportionate to the crime. A five-yard foul shouldn’t carry the same weight as a personal foul or a blatant attempt to prevent a touchdown. Yet under the current rule, it often swings games more dramatically than either.

This grievance isn’t about nostalgia or “letting them play.” It’s about balance. In a league obsessed with competitive fairness, the automatic first down on defensive holding tilts the field too far in one direction. A simple fix would restore sanity: five yards and replay the down, unless the hold clearly prevents a receiver from making a legitimate play on the ball.

Consider this our Festivus resolution for 2026. Keep the rule. Keep the enforcement. Just lose the automatic bailout. Let offenses earn their first downs — and let defenses keep the stops they deserve.

A Festivus Wish List for the Sports New Year

The beauty of sports grievances isn’t that fans love to complain — it’s that they care enough to want things to be better. Every rule that sparks outrage, every replay that leaves us yelling at the screen, and every head-scratching enforcement comes from a shared investment in the games we love. These aren’t casual annoyances. They’re the growing pains of sports trying to balance tradition, fairness, entertainment, and modern realities all at once.

As calendars flip and leagues barrel toward another year of innovation, expansion, and “points of emphasis,” maybe that’s the real takeaway from our Festivus airing of grievances. Fans don’t want perfection. They want consistency. They want logic. And above all, they want outcomes decided by players, not paperwork.

Whether it’s redefining what constitutes a travel, rethinking how penalties impact drives, or finally admitting that some well-intentioned rules have created more frustration than solutions, the path forward doesn’t require blowing everything up. It just requires listening — to players, to coaches, and yes, to fans who spend their time, money, and emotions on these games.

So here’s to 2026: a year of cleaner rules, clearer enforcement, fewer “Wait… what?” moments, and just enough controversy to keep sports fun without making them feel broken. And if nothing changes? Well, at least we’ll have Festivus again next year — grievances pole and all.