With another week down in the NFL, it’s hard to believe that another miserable NFL rule is exposed (one that I’m not even sure was called correctly in the first place - another shocker). In the 2nd quarter of last night’s Eagles/Giants game, Vince Young completed a 50 yard pass from his own 2 yard line to Desean Jackson. Jackson, never one to celebrate or taunt, tossed the ball to coach Perry Fewell on the Giants’ sideline. Jackson, aka The Jitterbug, was flagged for a personal foul unsportsmanlike conduct (taunting) penalty, which is a dead-ball, 15 yard penalty. That’s all well and good, but here’s where the nonsense comes in:
So, we know that the 15 yard penalty is marked off at the end of the play, bringing the ball from the Giant 48 to the Eagle 37 yard line - simple enough. There’s a wrinkle in this play, however. On the play, the GIANTS were flagged for illegal hands to the face, a 5 yard automatic first down penalty. Official Mike Carey (who owns a ski/snowboarding accessories company, who knew?) signalled both penalties, called them offsetting, and they replayed 1st down. Now let me get this straight -- With a Giants’ penalty, the Eagles have the ball, 1st and 10 at their own 2. Without a Giants’ penalty, the Eagles have the ball, 1st and 10 at their own 37. By committing a penalty, the Giants GAINED 35 yards of field position? How does that make any sense?
Boggled by this, I checked out the rulebook to see if the ruling was correct. No surprise here, there was no clear example of the rule and the ambiguity was out of this world. Frustrated, I checked out Mike Pereira’s twitter. Mike Pereira is the guy on the FOX broadcasts with the thick-rimmed glasses that kind of looks like a younger Martin Scorsese. He also was the head of NFL officiating for some time and is now the rules analyst for FOX. According to him, Carey’s call was correct (he never disagrees with referee decision anyway). He stated that, in the NFL, there is no distinction between dead-ball (i.e. unsportsmanlike conduct) penalties and in-play penalties like the illegal hands one in question here. Thus, the penalties can offset. In college, the calls are differentiated between post-play and din-play, so the taunting penalty would be enforced after the declination of the illegal hands penalty. Doesn’t this make a hell of a lot more sense and seem much more logical?
The point of offsetting penalties and replaying a down is so that if both teams try to get an advantage during a particular play, then the play is nullified and is redone. Taunting gives the team no advantage and has no bearing on the particular play and thus should be a completely separate penalty. However, the illogical NFL can’t see this. When questioned about the spirit of the rule, Pereira replied with a something like (and I’m paraphrasing): why shouldn’t they offset? just because one happens after the play and one happens during? It’s this blind faith in the illogical and ambiguous rules in the NFL that I really dislike (see: receiver possession rules, pass interference, other personal fouls)
The worst part of the rule itself is that Pereira went on to tweet that if it is a scoring play or a change of possession play (i.e. an interception), that the original penalty is enforced/declined and the taunting penalty is enforced either on the kickoff or to the field position of the team that now has the ball. So, you’re telling me (and this is a funny hypothetical to illustrate how asinine this rule is) that I am at my own 2 yard line. I throw a 97 yard pass with a defensive holding call on the play. My receiver spikes the ball into the ground in frustration because he tripped at the 1 yard line and gets called for a delay of game penalty (which you often see in the league). In this situation, the entire play is nullified and I have to go back to my own 2? The delay of game (or even if he got up and taunted, it’s no different) had no bearing on the play, but I would lose a 97 yard play only because the OTHER team tried to cheat?? On the other end of the spectrum, I dive in from 1 yard on a play where the other team jumps offsides, and my team then gets a celebration penalty when my teammates all do the dirty bird. The offsides is declined and I now kick off from the 20 instead of the 35.
I sure hope this situation sparks some discontent and pushes a rule change. How does the NCAA have a much more logical and progressive way of dealing with things like this than the NFL does? Pretty sad if you ask me.
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