NFL sees no problems with its enforcement of roughing the passer penalties
BOSTON -- By far, the strangest image coming out of Super Bowl LVII came when Chiefs defensive lineman Chris Jones wrapped up NFL commissioner Roger Goodell in a massive bear hug, before Goodell got in close to Jones' neck and told him, "I don't care how you hit the quarterback."
It was ... odd. To say the least.
Now a couple of weeks removed from that moment, the NFL is taking the public stance that the league has no problems when it comes to its roughing the passer penalty.
You may have watched football this past season and feel otherwise, but you are wrong. All is good. Nothing to see here.
That's according to NFL Network's Judy Battista, who reported that the NFL's competition committee looked at 80 instances of roughing the passer from last season and found that only three of those calls were questionable. Yes, you read that correctly: Just three all year.
The competition committee couldn't even admit that some calls were flat-out wrong. Just that three were ... questionable.
Of course, such dishonesty is tough to pull off in an era where video footage is available in the quickest of Twitter searches.
There's also plenty of evidence of plays that could or should have been flagged but weren't.
If you spend your Sundays -- and Thursdays, and Mondays, and sometimes Saturdays -- watching NFL football, then this confused state of roughing the passer can be quite distressing. Viewers typically want to have a firm grasp on the rules, so that they know what to expect from the players and the officials. That understanding creates a sense of order. The clear lack of consistency throws it all into a state of chaos.
Sometimes, landing on a quarterback is fine. Other times, it's not.
Sometimes, throwing a quarterback to the ground is fine. Other times, it's not.
Sometimes, you can go ahead and smash your head into the quarterback's helmet. No problem. Other times, it's illegal.
It's all fine. Don't worry about it. Only three calls all year were questionable ... and even those were probably right. Don't question it. It's all good, and it will continue to be close to perfect next year. Isn't that just wonderful?
