SEC officials move aside: NFL refs calling ridiculous amount of penalties through 2 weeks
SEC officiating is not the only group under fire in football across the country. NFL officials are facing their own backlash, and there are numbers to back it up.
Long-time sportswriter Rick Gosselin, now of Sports Illustrated’s Talk of Fame network reported: “There’s a red flag for NFL officiating: through 17 weeks in 2020, there was never a weekend when 200 penalties were assessed. The high was 198 penalties in Week 2. This season, officials assessed 214 penalties in Week 1 and 221 more in Week 2. This trend needs to be reversed.”
Beyond officiating in general, fans and media have highlighted the enforcement of the taunting rule this season. Based on a report from Mark Maske of The Washington Post, the NFL doesn’t appear to be making an adjustment to how it calls the games, rather officials will count on players and coaches to change their behavior.
Even without intervention by the competition committee, the NFL’s officiating department could direct officials to apply the taunting rule differently, if it wants. But there’s no indication that’s in the works at this point, either. For now, it’s on teams and players to adjust. https://t.co/OsHkX1MxzG
— MarkMaske (@MarkMaske) September 22, 2021
