Late last week, Yahoo Finance broke the news that the NFL is once again changing its social media policy.

They report that a memo created by the NFL, and sent to all teams, lays out changes to the controversial rules governing how American football teams can post videos to social media during games.

The changes mean that the social media accounts for NFL teams can now post a maximum of 16 videos per social media platform per ‘game window’ – that is, from kick off until an hour after the game has finished. They also mean that teams’ social accounts can post footage from non-gameplay aspects of the game, that is, footage such as videos of cheerleaders, half time ceremonies and the fans.

This is, essentially, an admission of a bad policy from the NFL. Teams were threatened with $100,000 fines for posting live footage of games on their social accounts, and that led to anger amongst the NFL community as well as some hilarious – and ridiculous – reactions from social media managers across the league.

But whilst the changes will be welcomed, we wonder if they really hit at the underlying problem. With TV ratings dropping, and as the NFL are reportedly considering the future Thursday Night Football edition, perhaps adapting to the new media rather than trying to regulate it closely is the better approach.

In July, Sky Sports in the UK struck a deal with Twitter to show footage of Premier League goals on the social media platform just after they were scored – that is, during the game. It was a signal that at least some of the rightsholders of major sporting events understand both the threat and the power of social media when it comes to sport.

The TV audience to both the Premier League and the NFL have been dropping, and that’s surely – at least in part – down to the fact that you simply don’t need to watch the entire football game. Last season, you could watch the highlights on Twitter from a grainy video uploaded to vine and, sure, you’d have to watch it a few times before you saw the goal properly, but you’d be able to see the relevant content and get back to whatever else you were doing. Now, Sky have provided their audience with a polished, high quality video of the goal and, crucially for them, one with their branding all over it.

Perhaps it’s time for the NFL to do the same and let their teams post videos of their best plays to their social accounts. They’ll get their branding out there, they’ll show off their product when people are paying attention, and they’ll be embracing the new media, not pretending it’s not important.