The Year of the Flag?

���� This past Sunday, I had a rare day of having very little to do and decided to enjoy some NFL games.� Armed with my remote and the Sunday ticket, I flipped back and forth to almost every game played.� While I really didn�t focus on one particular game, I did notice a huge amount of yellow being dispersed by the officials.� I thought the number of penalties was high for one week (with teams on byes) and decided to take a look at it in little more detail.

 

Disclaimer:� These stats represent assessed penalties.� Each team having off-setting penalties or two penalties by the same team on the same play won�t be captured.

 

Week 5 Penalty Leaders:

 

Team	# Penalties	Yards Penalized	Result
Baltimore	21	147	Loss; shy one flag from tying the NFL record for flags in one game.� Two players tossed.
New Orleans	11	107	Loss
San Diego	11	104	Loss
Miami	18	102	Loss
Pittsburgh	9	100	Win
Jacksonville	10	98	Win
Cincinnati	12	94	Loss

 

Week 5 averages:

9 penalties per team for 70 yards.

12 out of 28 teams were penalized for 75 yards or more.

 

A look at the 2005-06 penalty chart (Beginning with the most penalized teams to date):

 

Team	Games	# Penalties	Penalty Yds	AVG #Penalties/Game	AVG Penalty Yards/Game
Cincinnati	5	57	443	11.40	88.60
Tampa Bay	5	53	443	10.60	88.60
Miami	4	52	397	13.00	99.25
New Orleans	5	51	383	10.20	76.60
Oakland	4	49	412	12.25	103.00
Jacksonville	5	47	393	9.40	78.60
New England	5	44	395	8.80	79.00
Baltimore	4	42	284	10.50	71.00
Arizona	5	42	288	8.40	57.60
Green Bay	5	42	328	8.40	65.60
St. Louis	5	40	330	8.00	66.00
Tennessee	5	39	317	7.80	63.40
New York (N)	4	39	311	9.75	77.75
San Diego	5	38	304	7.60	60.80
Minnesota	4	35	263	8.75	65.75
Buffalo	5	35	268	7.00	53.60
Philadelphia	5	34	254	6.80	50.80
Seattle	5	33	267	6.60	53.40
Atlanta	5	33	336	6.60	67.20
Carolina	5	33	273	6.60	54.60
Kansas City	4	32	262	8.00	65.50
Dallas	5	32	234	6.40	46.80
New York (A)	5	30	249	6.00	49.80
San Francisco	5	30	204	6.00	40.80
Washington	4	29	202	7.25	50.50
Chicago	4	28	271	7.00	67.75
Houston	4	28	225	7.00	56.25
Indianapolis	5	27	195	5.40	39.00
Denver	5	27	221	5.40	44.20
Cleveland	4	25	213	6.25	53.25
Pittsburgh	4	24	206	6.00	51.50
Detroit	4	22	169	5.50	42.25

 

���� So far each team has played 4-5 games.� Teams are averaging 8 penalties per game for 63 yards thus far.� On average each team is on pace to be penalized 128 times.� That is higher than the 2004-05 campaign and almost 25 more penalty yards per team than the 2003-2004 season.

 

Season	Average Penalties Per Team	Average Yards Penalized Per Team	Highest Penalized Team	Lowest Penalized Team
2003-04 (16 Games)	6.5	55	Oakland, 134 for 1120	New York Jets, 69 for 550
2004-05 (16 Games)	7	57	New Orleans, 129 for 1141	Seattle, 79 for 669
2005-06 (4-5 Games)	8	63	Cincinnati,� 57 for 443	Detroit, 22 for 169

 

���� One would expect the number of penalties to increase between the 2003 season and the 2004 season due to officiating crews putting more emphasis on illegal contact (five yard rule) and defensive holding.� There were insignificant rules changes and points of emphasis for the 2005 season.� One change was in the best interest of head coaches; getting a third challenge if you win the first two.� From last season to now, I can see no reason, via the rules, that penalties are on track to be higher than previous years, although not staggering, yet.� Officials are either enforcing more rules than normal or players are just making more mistakes are the two logical choices.�

 

��� As a teaching point, a point of emphasis means that an existing rule in the book is going to be watched closer; the illegal contact rule for example.� There are many rules in the NFL rules book and some are in effect more than others.� The Competition Committee makes recommended rule changes at the annual Owners Meeting and they vote.� Often rules requiring more emphasis result from an increase in injuries or the potential to cause injuries, coaches not liking the way a rule reads or has been interpreted during games, ect..

 

Philosophy (or a Lecture)

 

�When I first started officiating, I had a mentor give me some advice that I remember to this day:� �Nobody in these stands paid the price of admission to watch you.�

 

���� Being an NFL official is not easy.� The NFL requires an applicant to have 10 years of experience in which five have to be at the varsity collegiate level or other professional level (NFL Europe).� The NFL receives hundreds of applications annually and only selects around 8-10 per season.� The NFL Official�s Association has one of the best training and development system in sports.� The NFL has fired or disciplined many officials for poor performance.� An NFL official is often under the microscope more than other officials from other sports:

 

• He officiates in front of 65,000 people each week, most of which are arm chair refs drinking beer.
• They have to make a split second call in a relatively fast game and get it right.�
• Most stadiums have jumbo-tron screens that show the play over and over so the 65,000 assistant referees can make the right call.
• Football games are played weekly, giving all the sports analysts and fans time to stew over a call(s) until the next game is played, seven days later.
• Many fans follow High School, NCAA and the NFL.� Each group has significantly different rules but they are often lumped into one set of rules, thus a poor understanding of the rules by the fans.

 

���� I don�t intend to offer free passes to the zebras because as a consumer of the sport of football and a fan, I�m entitled to a fair and correctly called game.� In 2003, a 10 year NFL veteran official made $84,000.� Keep in mind, NFL officials, for the most part, have real jobs.� I will say I�ve often been impressed with the NFL officials.� For the most part they get the call right and are in the proper position to make a call.� I may also be na�ve to some by stating, I don�t think NFL crews are particularly bias.� Many say the Patriots never draw the flag.� Fact is they are currently the 7^th most penalized team and in the 2003-04 season they were the tenth most penalized team in the league.

 

���� One of my points in this piece is to discuss �judgment� and this is where I have issues with some of the calls as of late.� First, I 100% guarantee that the NFL officials have a mastery of the rules.� Many have played the game, taught at NCAA Conferences and can most likely recite any rule by page, section and paragraph. While the memorization of the rules exists, the application of the rules is where our complaining begins.

 

���� If you dive into any sport�s rules book, you will see certain black and white areas, such as out of bounds, number of players on the field, formations ect. It is pretty difficult to miss the black and white calls.� A good chunk of the rules is gray, meaning judgment can be applied.� There may be some suggestions or pointers.� Holding and control of the ball are good examples.� Judgment is needed in all sports and some are easier than others.� In order to apply judgment properly a high degree of knowledge and philosophy of the rule is required.� Often it is called the �Letter of the Rule� versus the �Spirit of the Rule.��

 

���� Let�s take a look at I�woma�s, Fair Catch Interference penalty since that has been the topic of much discussion.� Sproles clearly signaled for the fair catch.� By Rule 10, section 1, Article 4: �After a valid fair catch signal, the opportunity to make a catch does not end when a kick is muffed.� The player who signaled the fair catch must have a reasonable opportunity to catch the ball before it hits the ground without being interfered with by the members of the kicking team.� **No Halo Rule (five yards of protection) is in place for the NFL.

 

���� The verbiage �reasonable opportunity� now implies that the referee must utilize some type of judgment to determine reasonable opportunity.�

 

Letter of the Rule:� Try to make something as black and white as possible and rule.� Completely justified in the call they made during their huddle.� The kicking team�s player was intent on interfering with the play.

 

Spirit off the Rule:� What is the purpose behind this rule?� Simple:� protect the receiver when vulnerable when the receiver has no intention of attempting a return.� Situation:� 1. Receiver correctly signaled a fair catch; 2. Receiver muffed the ball; 3. Receiver now has a reasonable opportunity to catch the ball before it hits the ground as a live ball; 4. Did not appear that the receiver was trying to bat the ball forward (a penalty right there).� Twist:� Receiver�s teammate ran into him, not the kicking team.� That is not discussed under rule 10.� Solution:� Purpose of the rule is to protect the receiver.� An official undoubtedly thought Chidi I�woma was interfering.� During the official�s huddle, one would think that opportunity to catch would have been discussed since that is the issue of judgment as written in the book.� We have to assume it did and one official determined that he did not have a reasonable opportunity.� The referee listened and ruled.

Reality:� Doesn�t matter if we like the rule or not.� The officials got together to discuss a play that was not challengeable and ruled on their judgment.� We now have to live with the call.� All the bitching in the world won�t reverse it.� If Randle El would have muffed the ball and the same ruling would have been applied, we would have cheered �great call.�� Perhaps the Committee will re-look this rule at their next spring meeting.� Unusual twists like this are how rules are changed

TRIV:� My judgment says that Sproles used up his reasonable opportunity and was unfortunate enough to be hit by one of his own players.� That sent him going backwards and the ball going forward.� The kicking team, did not interfere, his blocker did.� This ball was not catchable.�

 

���� The officiating crew could have called this either way; penalty or Stillers ball.� Obviously they choose the former.� I had the luxury, like most of us, watching this play over and over.� This crew saw it live once and maybe a peek on the jumbo-tron.� I�m not a NFL Official and I saw things differently applying my sense of judgment and hopefully understanding what the spirit of this particular rule means. This wasn�t a horrendous call; it needed better explanation. There were many more egregious calls throughout Week 5 affecting several teams.� One unique thing about the Stillers/Chargers crew was on several occasions, multiple officials tossed their flag for the same infraction.� This indicates that they either saw the same infraction at the same time or one or two chimed in with the flag in attempt to sell a questionable call.� It can be difficult for a coach or player to argue a pass interference penalty when you have three flags converging on the same defender at almost the same time.

 

���� After preaching or lecturing, I�ve come to the following conclusions concerning what I think is an increase in penalties across the NFL:

 

• Players are making more mistakes.

or

• The NFL is now over-officiating games (using the Letter of the Law more) since the rules have changed very little from 2004 to present.

 

���� One thing that is certain though, is consistency is surely lacking.� Virtually every team has hired an ex-official to assist with challenges and consult the team on the rules.� I�ve been officiating for a number of years and I�ve learned and had to put up with many different coaches.� A lot of coaches complain and complain and make it known, Joe Paterno comes to mind first.� I also know many coaches that may be unhappy with certain calls but they focus on the task of winning and try to not to be put into a position in which an official can influence the outcome.� Joe Gibbs is a coach that comes to mind in this category.� Just this week, and he is sure to draw a fine from the NFL, came out and said he didn�t understand where some of these ghost calls were coming from.� When a typically quiet and legendary scholar of the game makes a statement like that (Mike Shanahan did as well in September), it should be a warning light to many officiating crews and the NFL.� Stuff is not being called consistently and some judgment is off kilter.� Apologies from the Official�s Association are nice but are also meaningless.� The Stillers have been the recipient of many league apologies.� I�ll further submit that a coach or player and even fan will tolerate and penalty called wrong as long as it is called the same all the time.�� How many times have we seen pass interference be called on a DB who was mugging a WR and then the next time he gets a fingernail on him and draws the flag?� This type of inconsistency will drive the blood pressure of coaches through the roof, upset players and confuse, thus irritates us fans.

 

���� Going back to my mentor�s advice, with five weeks under this season, an official has had to turn on his microphone and explain the yellow flag, 1,172 times.�� My top seven penalized teams for Week 5 had 92 explanations.� I�m all for a fair and safe contest, but to me, this is excessive and I�m paying decent money to watch a game and I�m starting to know too many of these officials by name.