It seems like every year, commissioner Roger Goodell and his lackeys tweak the game just enough to really issue an efficient middle finger to players and fans alike. Last year, they decided to crack down on head shots and targeting defenseless receivers. They said it was for player health, but realistically nobody in Roger Goodell’s crew even remotely cares about the players themselves. They just want to stop getting sued. Disagree all you want, but I’m right, and it’s time to move on. While some seriously malicious hits saw the offenders penalized, vastly more legitimate hits drew unnecessary penalties.
But enough of what these cretins were up to last year. They have made some new NFL rule changes this year. One new rule says that no NFL equipment (like the goal posts) may be used for a celebration. Fine, one dunk bent the goal post and it had to be remedied, but dunking through the uprights is a classic and will be missed. In addition, the Navorro Bowman rule will now make all loose ball recoveries reviewable. This is a good rule change.
Every now and again a blind squirrel finds a nut. Even a broken clock is right twice a day. These are just creative ways of saying that no matter how incompetent and borderline contemptuous a group of people are, sometimes they will get it right. I’m not saying the NFL is run by a gaggle of incompetent or contemptuous fools, but I will say that Goodell’s inner circle is most definitely populated by some squirrels with vision problems and some severely damaged time keeping devices. But enough of their rare and elusive successes. On to this year’s travesties.
The drooling mouth-breathers in charge decided that this was the year to crack down on jersey grabbing and hands to the face. There are more rule tweaks, but these are the main two that have produced the highest amount of penalties per game we have seen in a long time. The fact of the matter is, these “offenses” happen on every football play. As such, they are being called with the highest frequency fans have ever seen. The game is becoming unwatchable because in some games, one in five plays ends with players wading through a swamp of flags. I’d say “let them play the game,” but then one of Goodell’s doe-eyed, brainwashed supporters would shoot a hand into the air and exclaim: “but Chris, cracking down on illegal actions enables players to play the game.” No, stop that. They play the game either way, and fans enjoy the product more when it isn’t stopped for a zebra convention every thirty seconds.
The basic fact of it is, the more these minor infractions are cracked down on, the slower the game gets and the more gets left up to the discretion of every individual referee. They’re human, and as such they make mistakes. The more responsibility you put on their plate, the more they will botch calls. Continuing to tell these poor guys to toss flags for every jersey tug, misplaced hand, or improperly executed high-five is only going to hurt the game. Thus far in the preseason, flags have been obscenely overused and it is time for this nonsense to stop. Cracking down on these minor and frequent infractions is a great idea in principle, but putting it into practice adds to the already overwhelming jobs of officials and slows the game down.
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