Every year it seems like there is more and more rules to penalize NFL teams. I know that most people will say that “they are protecting the players”; but some of the new rules I think make it more difficult for the players to play the game. I did a blog earlier this year about the “Trent Richardson” rule, where an offensive or defensive player cannot lower their head and run people over anymore. The definition of a penalty is basically “somehow creating a disadvantage for the opposing team, or creating an unfair advantage for your team”. So some penalties like holding, offsides, pass interference, or a facemask makes perfect sense to me, but some of the new rules make no sense to me because it feels like they are making almost impossible for the players to just play football anymore.
Over the past few seasons I have seen an increase in the flags being thrown and the penalties overall for every team. One thing to mention is that some penalties now carry with them a fine. One of the rules that was added was “you cannot hit a defenseless player”. Now I can understand this one because there are plenty of time a receiver is going up for a pass and a defender will come and level them while they cannot defend themselves. But to add insult to injury is that the player delivering the hit will also be hit with a hefty fine. Some fines can be as low as $7,000, but they can go as high as $100,000. Even with the players making the amount of money that they do; I do not feel that it is fair to fine them for playing the game they are paid to play. Now if a player does a personal foul and it is intentional then I can understand fining them as well, but just for playing the game; you should not be fined.
Just in 2012 alone the Rams were penalized on average 8.1 times per game and in 2011 they were penalized 6.5 times per game. I bring that up because every NFL team saw an increase in their penalties. It feels like it is getting to a point where the league is not letting the guys play and most of the flags are subjective based on the officials. In 2012 the least penalized team was the Falcons only averaging 3.3 penalties per game. So it is obviously not out of control, but we have all seen games where it feels like the officials are always throwing their flags and the players are not able to get into the groove of just playing the game.
I know that penalties are important and they need to be enforced, but I really feel that the league needs to dial back on all the additional flags that they keep adding every season. Where it becomes difficult is when it looks like the penalties are effecting the outcome of the game. The officials are paid to keep the game fair, not to give additional help to either team. So my questions is; who is calling penalties on the people calling penalties? As long as the game is called fairly for both teams and there are not so many penalties that it makes it no fun to watch; or so the players cant play.
Football Junkie 