The Athletic: Officials are now throwing flags on penalties that simply do not exist. What the heck is going on?

Cotton

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Tucker: Officials are now throwing flags on penalties that simply do not exist. What the heck is going on?
By Ross Tucker Nov 26, 2019

I hate criticizing officiating.

I really do.

Blaming the officials is typically used in a context that is the opposite of accountability. Whether it is a coach or player after a game or a fan the next morning on talk radio it has always struck me as being nothing more than an excuse.

First, officials are human just like the rest of us, so they are going to make mistakes. To expect them to be infallible is ridiculous.

Secondly, it is just a crutch that fans and even some in the media lean upon. Having a daily show for almost a decade now it is a Monday rite of passage that fans would call in to vent about the call or calls that went against their team and led to them having a persecution complex that the NFL was out to get their franchise for some reason.

Lastly, players are taught to play so well that you can overcome officiating mistakes and to not allow a bad call or two to be the difference in the game. In other words, control what you can control well enough that an error in officiating judgement doesn’t negatively affect the outcome of the game.

I still believe in all of that but there is a major problem in my beloved sport that has to be corrected as soon as possible — and that is the increasing trend of throwing flags for penalties that simply are not there.

This has been going on all season but a pair of phantom tripping penalties against the Cowboys in their marquee showdown against the Patriots on Sunday crystallized things.

For context, I had no dog in the fight. I truly did not care about the outcome of the game one way or the other. That’s important to note because this is not an emotional reaction to the final score of a game that clouds the judgement of so many when discussing officiating. I really just wanted to see a good, clean, fair contest and enjoy the game.

Unfortunately, the officials chose to throw a flag that was completely absurd against the Cowboys not once but twice. I could try to describe the plays but by now most of you have probably seen them and the point is that neither one could possibly be construed as tripping by any human being on the planet. In fact, in both instances, the Cowboys offensive lineman’s leg was driven up and out of the way by the defensive lineman which is in fact the exact opposite of tripping. Both penalties hurt the Cowboys badly with the second one on All-Pro center Travis Frederick taking away a key first down conversion on what ended up being the last drive of the game for Dallas.

Lest you think it was just that game or a Cowboys thing, there was another critical penalty against Packers cornerback Kevin King in the Sunday night game against the 49ers in which analyst Cris Collinsworth said “I guess there’s an illegal hands to the face in there somewhere” which was a nice way of saying no, there absolutely was not.

What the heck is going on? How did we get here? Why did we get here?

Did the NFL’s Competition Committee decide the game needed to be over-officiated or that too many fouls were going uncalled? Did NFL Senior Vice President of Officiating Al Riveron tell his charges that if they think maybe they saw something they should throw the flag?

This isn’t even about instant replay or pass interference even though both of those things have gotten a lot of attention. This is about the basic premise, at least in my mind, that a flag should not be thrown unless an official is extremely confident that a foul has been committed.

Does anybody like a flag-filled game? Was anyone clamoring for more stoppages? Are there people out there who would prefer flags be thrown in any questionable situation as opposed to letting the players play?

That’s what is so crazy to me about this. These aren’t even questionable or debatable calls. There is no call to be made.

The counterargument to “letting them play”, at least as it relates to defensive holding and pass interference, is that defenses would get more and more aggressive and try to take advantage of that standard to the point where passing and scoring would go down. I think that’s a reasonable argument but that’s not even what we’re talking about here. We’re talking about tripping and hands to the face penalties that simply did not occur.

The other layer of this, that is probably a much longer topic for another day, is that when you are throwing flags for no reason it calls into question the very integrity of the game. In the era of sports betting proliferation that’s a major problem for the NFL. There is somewhat of an understanding or at least an argument to be made for no-calls in which the officials let the guys play a little bit. That simply does not exist when it comes to throwing flags for phantom penalties.

Ultimately, this falls on Roger Goodell. Whether this is a competition committee thing or a Riveron thing he must know that this is not good for the game. There are 14.4 accepted penalties per game which means we have a very real chance to break the post-1970 merger record of 14.5 per game set in 2005.

Is that the type of record that Goodell wants to break? I don’t think so. Which is why he needs to do something about it.

As soon as possible.
 

bbgun

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It's clear that Belichick worked the refs before the game while our Ivy League coach was taking a siesta. It's funny how they can see tripping but not pass interference.
 

1bigfan13

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Did the NFL’s Competition Committee decide the game needed to be over-officiated or that too many fouls were going uncalled? Did NFL Senior Vice President of Officiating Al Riveron tell his charges that if they think maybe they saw something they should throw the flag?

This isn’t even about instant replay or pass interference even though both of those things have gotten a lot of attention. This is about the basic premise, at least in my mind, that a flag should not be thrown unless an official is extremely confident that a foul has been committed.
I think it's pretty clear that the game is over-officiated. There are way too many rules and unnecessary stoppages in play for penalties that either didn't occur, like those two tripping penalties, or for penalties that may have technically been legit but had absolutely no impact on the result of the play.

If they really want to fix officiating they should set the standard that flags are only thrown when the refs are extremely confident that a play altering infraction has occurred. I think everyone is tired of seeing flags and stoppages in play just because a CB's pinky toe was lined up in the neutral zone on a run play that didn't go to his side of the field.
 

Simpleton

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The integrity of the game is most certainly in question whether there is something nefarious going on or not. You have billions invested in every season from the individual teams to players to media to fans, and ultimately the fact that every single week the outcome of several games are being decided by completely phantom calls (i.e. Lions at Packers) cheapens the game significantly.

To me, each officiating crew needs to have a designated official in a booth or tent or whatever at the stadium, who is watching the TV feed of the game and is in constant contact with every ref on the field. They can confer/huddle on idiotic calls like that tripping penalty in real time with no review and the refs can simply pick up the flag within 15-30 seconds and move on with the game.
 

UncleMilti

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I agree with this. These fucking refs have just about ruined what’s left of the NFL. Ticky tack bullshit called every game and honestly a CB can’t even touch a WR anymore. It’s so ridiculous what the game has become.
 

lostxn

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The integrity of the game is most certainly in question whether there is something nefarious going on or not. You have billions invested in every season from the individual teams to players to media to fans, and ultimately the fact that every single week the outcome of several games are being decided by completely phantom calls (i.e. Lions at Packers) cheapens the game significantly.

To me, each officiating crew needs to have a designated official in a booth or tent or whatever at the stadium, who is watching the TV feed of the game and is in constant contact with every ref on the field. They can confer/huddle on idiotic calls like that tripping penalty in real time with no review and the refs can simply pick up the flag within 15-30 seconds and move on with the game.
I would strongly consider removing the refs from the game completely except you need people to blow whistles to halt the mayhem. Otherwise, they could do a better job from the safety of a TV screen. But yes, an official in New York or wherever who could overrule bad calls or badly missed calls (NO interference) would do the game tremendous benefit. Then take away coaches challenges. No challenges. Refs control everything but they gotta play it straight. No more covering for each other.
 

Cowboysrock55

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I agree with this. These fucking refs have just about ruined what’s left of the NFL. Ticky tack bullshit called every game and honestly a CB can’t even touch a WR anymore. It’s so ridiculous what the game has become.
I've been saying it for a long time. It feels like refs decide games more than ever before. I don't care so much about non calls. But they shouldn't be changing games with calls that didn't happen or are ticky tack.
 
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