I agree that once the QB crosses the line of scrimmage they should be considered a runner and they should be given only the protections of any other runner. The QB has a choice to run or not to run.

I do not like instituting a flop rule. That would require the judgement of the official. I do not care for judgment penalties. I would rather officials to be trained to overlook any flop and not throw the flag. Once players see the flop will be ignored I would hope they would stop doing it.

Yes I would love to see more parity between offensive and defensive penalties. I would love to see less flags all around. Why does the NCAA average 2.2 penalty flags a game and the NFL averages 6.5 and the NCAA players are less experienced? Most of that can be attributed to DPI. The NFL has to learn to let them play.

That's life as we now know it in the NFL. I actually want Jordan Love protected, just not all those other QBs. HA! QBs are supposed to be the smartest players on the field, so expect them to figure out new ways to stretch and use rules. The flops shouldn't be that hard to regulate, especially when it's a punter or a kicker.

Actually have seen more hits out of bounds go uncalled this playoff season and was wondering about it.

The NFL is under scrutiny for interfering with games now.
We saw the acting jobs with Kickers.
Players are just going to have to make better choices.

The trouble is the inconsistency with the calls. Mahomes barely gets touched and gets a flag. Goff gets his head torn off and gets nada. In the Chiefs game they called everything. In the Ravens game they called nothing, even when a zebra got knocked down in a fight.

Nothing is ever going to happen with the crap officiating. Roger and his boss, Jerry, don’t care. Crap officiating causes conversation and media hits which they love.

Sorry, I agree with Cory. The protection the QB has been given is ridiculous. These guys are still FOOTBALL players. Most of them are men over 6 feet tall. Most are over 200 pounds, yet if a fingernail is placed on the head, shoulders, it's a friggen flag.

How many times have we seen a Packers pass rusher (or an opposing teams pass rusher) come off the edge and perhaps their hand or a few fingers glance the QB's helmet and BAMM, out pops the yellow flag for unnecessary roughness, roughing the QB. It's ridiculous.

The NFL is a multi BILLION dollar business. They PRINT money. Are you telling me the NFL can't hire and train NFL officials how to weed out the bullshit? Hell, teach the ones you currently have! At times games have become unwatchable and when Mahomes is involved it's damn right unfair.

Yes, the 35-31 games ARE more exciting to watch...sometimes. But If a team got screwed on one of the drives for a fingernail to the helmet, 15 yards, give me the 17-13 game every time!

Sadly, we all know it's only going to get worse. A few more years and we may be closer to a Pro-Bowl game type game, than a real football game. Wow, could you imagine a 18 week schedule of that kind of crap?

There must be change!

Blah
Blah
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Remember how pissed off so many other coaches were when Aaron Rodgers kept picking off their defensive players trying to get off the field and nabbing free plays for 12 men? Some call it cheating, some call it playing the fringes of the rules, and some call some of these things "innovating".

This is a silly article.
We all know that refs are under direction to protect QBs...why? Because if you take away the slide and you don't keep players away from their knees or from whacking them on the head, the quality of the NFL product goes in the crapper and people like us lose interest or don't watch. Take away the slide and you'll have lots of big money QBs in the concussion protocol...and a late slide is no different from a deke. Defensive players are aware.

ANY player can give themselves up with a slide or a kneel-down, by the way, and they are protected. Learn the rules, Corey.

Every officiating crew is different, and we're now getting crew previews for each game: this crew calls more defensive holding...this crew calls far fewer penalties than others...this crew has called the most personal fouls. It's part of scouting now and every coaching staff knows it. Yes, more consistency would be great--the hip-drop tackle on Dalton Schultz in the Houston-KC game was way more egregious than the hit on Goff, by the way--but there's always going to be variable officiating. Maybe if the officials were full-time employees rather than weekend warriors...hmm, there's an argument none of us have ever heard before (note sarcasm).

Nothing's going to change as long as the money is flowing.

Here to no fan of replays, but they are here to stay.What I like about HS ball game is played and no second guessing and also moves along!

"He runs around, turns into a running back by crossing the line of scrimmage and then at the very last second decides to slide. Defensive players don’t have a prayer in that situation. The moment the Texans tried to tackle him, Mahomes hit the deck, prompting a 15-yard penalty."

This was started by Russell Wilson. I remember how he would start to make it look like he would slide and see the defender let up and then keep going for a few extra yards. Once the defender got to him he would then slide SUPER later to get an extra 15 yard penalty. The league needs to stop this because players abuse this all the time. Not to mention officials are willing to throw flags for late hits that aren't (see Owens hitting Mahomes before Mahomes went out of bounds in 2023). Then you have that QBs are protected on INTs (see Goff INT return on Saturday). I'm glad the refs didn't throw the flag for that (even though according to the rules they should have). If the QB doesn't want to be blocked and take a hard hit after an INT then don't be in the area of the return. Goff was a couple yards away from the returner and was going in to try and push him out before the TD. He took a hard hit and if it was any other player but the QB no one would have cared. However, for some reason QBs are supposed to be treated as if they are thin glass and touching them will result in breaking them. This is crazy and I'm glad the penalty was missed.

The NFL has a major problem. Its not about the QB. Its about the officiating. They are way to inconsistent. Not even from game to game, but in each game they are inconsistent. For example, in the Packers last game, their OL got 3-4? holding calls. Yet, on that 3rd and 1 for the Eagles, when they tried to fake the tush push and throw deep, Evan Williams was absolutely tackled in the backfield and no call.

The major problem is that the game is starting to look rigged with the way these games are officiated. I'm not saying that the games are rigged, but it can start to look that way. Just look at how some of these games are officiated. They are making horrible calls every game. Yes some of this is due to the fact that humans are making calls and its not easy to officiate. But they have the technology to help officials and they are still getting it wrong.

Look at GB's last game alone. The opening kickoff Oren Burks got fined for his hit on Nixon. That confirms that the league said that it should have been flagged for an illegal hit. Refs missed it, which happens but shouldn't. And then that turned it into a fumble and there was a big pile with everyone going after the ball. Eagles came away with the ball. Yet replay clearly showed that Nixon had the ball, had control and was touched down. How they can review that and come away saying it was Eagles ball does not look good for the officials.

There are calls made every game that play a significant part in the outcome. And many that change the momentum of the game. Think of all the timely penalties. When there is a crap penalty called on a 3rd down when a team is stopped, and that team then gets a fresh set of downs and they go down to score. That bad call changed the game significantly. Or the opposite of that. The team gets a first down to be called back by a bad call. Instead of a first down, now its 3rd and long and they don't get it and have to punt.

The NFL has to figure out the officiating, because its getting worse, not better. They have the technology to have someone looking at everything and making sure the right calls are made. Its time they start using it.
And while we are at it. They need to figure out a way to use technology to spot the football. They are pretty good a lot but there are a lot of times they are way off. Its time to improve the game!

The money flowing into the NFL with the explosion of legal and illegal betting invites corruption. Many "fans" are not invested in a specific team winning every Sunday per se...but are in it for the weekly and seasonal wagers.

Giving refs even more discretion over "judgement" calls opens the door to corruption by them. People in EVERY profession fall prey to bribery.

I do not know what specific monitoring the NFL does on ref integrity after games and the season...but the league does not promote transparency nor trust when they never talk about ref integrity or give grades on accurate...and missed calls.

Recent example was the helmet to helmet fumble causing hit on Nixon to start the game last week that resulted in a fine AND easily should have been a penalty.

For better or worse, I expect AI is going to have an outsized role in officiating in the near term. It may be refs will be doing little more than spotting the ball and blowing whistles to start and end a snap.

The reality TV show that is the NFL must have stars to be successful. The average jersey buyer isn't tuning in to see Creed Humphrey execute a combo block. The stars will always be protected. That doesn't mean QBs can't be made to reconsider their good fortune. I remember Ronnie Lott telling a story of letting up on Warren Moon when he thought Moon was going into a slide, only to have Moon continue to run for a few more yards. As Moon got up, Lott told him if he pulled that shit again, Lott would hurt him. Problem solved.

Stay warm out there .

We have to ask what we're really arguing here:

Some are talking about quality and consistency of officiating--and I think we're all in favor of that.

Some are implying that QBs are getting treated special because they slide, and they want the protection of giving yourself up taken away. To be honest, I'd argue the rules don't say that and the eye test of watching games when other position players actively give themselves up in the field of play doesn't say that.

Are we really arguing that we WANT running QBs to get hit? As much as I'd like to see some particular QBs take a hit or two, open season on QBs would be bad for the game. I'd argue a "slide fake" is no different than a RB or WR who's running down the sideline and fakes going out of bounds to get a defender to let up (to avoid a late hit), only to eke out a handful of yards by staying in play. That's been going on since the invention of the sideline.

So what do we really want to argue?

The NFL officiating is “officially” and understandably under severe scrutiny. I firmly believe their integrity is at high risk.
Maybe it’s the $$zillion worth of bets placed each week. And as “Since ‘61” has previously mentioned, NFL is dripping with greed.
The internet is exploding with charges of an overprotected Chief’s team—and I happen to agree. The ref bias is overwhelming imo.
I’m not a Chiefs antagonist, but the evidence can’t be ignored. A minimum of three games the officials bailed-out the Chiefs; - vs Falcons; Bengals; Raiders —the Falcon’s gm was especially nauseating.
And this Mahomes flop — catch me, rape me, hope I stumble, has to end.
And regarding the Chiefs/Texans gm and I were Demeco Ryans—I would have marched my team off the field and initiated a hunger strike against the NFL.
One thing I do know, I don’t want the Chiefs to tie the Packer record of three consecutive championships.
And many so-called experts defending the officiating is very suspect.
Go Packers!!!

I think ALL penalties should be reviewed. But by the Booth official, not slowing down the game by the ref running over to the little TV set on the sidelines. The clock is already stopped because of the penalty. It shouldn't slow the game down as much that way, most will just be confirmations, completed as the ball is spotted. But the flops and phantom Pass Interferences, Holdings, and retaliation Personal Fouls, would be corrected.

If it turns out it does slow down the game too much, it can be tweaked. But at least it would start the process of correcting the uneven officiating situation.

I think having the calls corrected "off the field" would be less intimidating for the refs if a major penalty is reversed against the home team. You look at a venue like Philadelphia, where the fans are known for their rabid, violent antics, and I could see where refs would fear for their safety in a game changing situation.

I used to like watching the NBA but I can't watch it at all anymore due to the refs. I'd hate to see the NFL continue on that trajectory.