Rules in the NFL: Do they penalize the player? Or the game?

The more I watch the NFL, the less football I see. The defensive holding, the pass interference, the roughing the passer and “completing the process” are not football. This is a prominent issue in the NFL, and it needs to be addresses as soon as possible.

This year, the NFL implemented stricter penalties on the defense. It’s all designed to help wide receivers, and it’s unnecessary. There’s a lot of discretion to be used on these calls, and therefore people have lost track of what the rule is.

The referees have been overly energetic this year, particularly in the secondary. Every Sunday, yellow flags would light up the sky. Those same yellow flags drew lots of confusion, but a second look revealed the "penalty."

The replay pops up, and it would show a defensive back brush a wide receiver with his hand or forearm on, say, a crossing route, and the official tosses a flag. It didn't impede the receiver's progress at all, and ultimately had no affect on the play. But more often than not these flags come on third down. There were too many defensive holding calls (5 yards and an automatic first down) extend drives that should have been stopped.

There's a table closer to the bottom of this article, so if you keep reading you'll see just what I mean by referring to the officials as "overly energetic."

This was a call that one of the aforementioned officials made. Keenan Allen was flagged on this play for offensive pass interference. This is the same kind of "contact" that defenders have been flagged for all year.

Now back to defensive holding... A lot of people seem to not know the entirety of the rule, but that's because it's true definition has been lost over the years. But Sportingcharts.com explains it well (To visit their page click here).

"Defense players need to be physical with their opponents, and legally they can. There is a 5 yard area from the line of scrimmage where a defensive player can legally use his hands on an opposing player, but outside of that five-yard mark, if a player holds his opponent, the defense will be assessed a 5 yard penalty and an automatic first down. 

Defensive players are only allowed to use their hands outside the 5 yard zone to protect themselves from "impeding contact" coming from a receiver.

If a pass is deflected or batted down then it's free for defensive players to hold, use their hands/arms, etc."

This defensive "holding" call had an enormous impact on the NFL this year, and most fans and players are of the mindset that it cannot be allowed to continue. Wide receivers already have a huge advantage... They know where they are headed, and the defensive backs do not. That makes it incredibly difficult on the defensive back, and penalties like this prevent them from even touching receivers downfield. It's just overkill.

In an interview with ESPN's Greg Garber, the once star-cornerback for the Oakland Raiders and Philadelphia Eagles, Nnamdi Asomugha, shared his thoughts on the matter. "It's like an all-star game now. Fans want to see points. The higher-ups know that, and make life a lot harder on us. I think -- I don't think, I know -- the cornerback position is the most difficult to play in all of sports."

It's hard to compare positions from different sports, especially individually sports, but a lot of people have said that cornerback is the toughest position in football.

But he is right about one thing; the rules need to change. The scoring averages per game amongst the whole NFL are the highest since 1965, when there were just 14 teams. The main reason for this are these strict calls refs are being forced to make.

And speaking of strict calls, have you guys seen the roughing the passer penalties this year? It’s easier to play Jenga blindfolded than it is to hit a quarterback without being flagged.

The worst, and most pathetic rule to protect a quarterback is that a quarterback can never be hit in the head. No matter how they’re head is hit, or how hard they are it, whether incidental or on purpose, it is a crisp 15-yard penalty. For example, J.J. Watt was rushing Andrew Luck earlier this year. The Colts had the ball in Houston territory, and on a critical 3rd and long Watt was flagged for roughing the passer. He was a few yards away from Luck when the ball was released. Watt leaped forwards, swatted the pass, and his momentum and follow-through caused him to brush the side of Luck’s helmet. The Colts got the first down, scored on that possession, and later won the game.

This scenario is just one of many in which the quarterbacks head played too great a role in a game. But another scenario that is just as bad is the “Brady rule.” It’s another 15-yarder for illegally hitting the quarterback, but this one is for contact below the knees. Just because a tackle below the knees hurt Brady, no one can touch a quarterback below the knees or the flag is flying.

So the only place to hit a quarterback is his midsection. But you have to be careful! If you hit him too hard, it can be considered pile driving the quarterback, which, you guessed it, goes for 15 yards. If you slam the quarterback to the ground: 15 yards. If you lead with your head, it goes for 15 yards.

So you see what I mean?

Here’s a chart to show the penalties called in the entire NFL since 2006. These obviously aren’t all of them, but they are the ones that are facing the most objections from the fans and players.

(Click here for the full website and list of penalties).

Year	Total Number of Penalties	Defensive Holding	Illegal Contact	Roughing the Passer
2006	3046	261	82	102
2007	2930	226	79	60
2008	2867	234	72	58
2009	3031	251	85	67
2010	3100	258	68	86
2011	3288	281	68	100
2012	3213	304	62	93
2013	3135	313	37	89
2014	3386	386	102	98

Things started to take a turn for the worst in 2009, after the “Brady rule” was implemented. Roughing the passer shot way up because of that, and because the numbers haven’t gone down, it shows that the refs are allowed too much discretion, and the defenders aren’t allowed enough leeway when tackling the quarterback.

But the defensive holding calls… It’s unbelievable. The number of times it’s been called has seen a significant rise every year except 2006-07. But none of it, comes close to the abomination of this year’s officiating. 386 defensive holding calls?! That’s 73 more than last year, and that doesn’t even include all the times that it was offset by an offensive penalty, and the times it wasn’t accepted because the catch was made anyways. If you factor all of that in, the number is closer to 450.

And the Illegal Contact penalty saw a dip every year since 2009, until it reached an all-time low, 37 flags in 2013. But wait! It was called an all-time high, 102 times this season, an increase of 65 flags thrown! These numbers speak for themselves, and in my mind, it all boils down to the same thing: Roger Goodell needs to go.

Youtube user Brian Tuohy made a compilation of NFL calls in 2013, and threw in different headlines that expresses the current state of NFL officiating, and the rulebook itself. To check out his video click here. Even though it's all from last year, it's still applicable in most aspects as to what's happening this year.

Bottomline: penalties have too much of an impact on the game of football. Respected NFL Insider Adam Schefter said it perfectly yesterday in a tweet.

“Never good when a rule, not a player, helps decide the game."

And he couldn’t be more accurate.