Rule change I'd like to see re: penalties

[Stads]

I also hate the automatic first down on a defensive hold, even if it was on a 3rd and 25 play.

[SouthernMan]

How about the contradictory penalties (or non penalty)? A QB can be called for grounding the ball to avoid a sack, yet spiking a ball to stop the clock is allowed? Spiking seems like a backdoor way to get an abbreviated timeout - at the expense of a down of course, but still, it doesn't seem within the spirit of the game. When did that become allowable? My other pet peeve? The referee hand signal for an endzone safety. It's super gay! Make it the finger across the throat or something else more fitting for creaming the QB or runner in the endzone.

[ganesh]

Here's a rule change that I would like to see: no more half the distance penalties. If you are at the 15 and you get a holding penalty, then you go back to the five. If the total yardage would put you in the end zone then you go back to the one. I really don't get the logic for half the distance.

 

It is cool for the Ref. to announce it that way "Half-the Distance to the Goal....Repeat First Down"...Some charm to it.

[reddogblitz]

How about the contradictory penalties (or non penalty)? A QB can be called for grounding the ball to avoid a sack, yet spiking a ball to stop the clock is allowed? Spiking seems like a backdoor way to get an abbreviated timeout - at the expense of a down of course, but still, it doesn't seem within the spirit of the game. When did that become allowable?

I never understood this rule change either. In the old days they'd throw a pass to a guy near the sidelines but over throw him. Makes more sense than just throwing it into the ground.

[ganesh]

How about the contradictory penalties (or non penalty)? A QB can be called for grounding the ball to avoid a sack, yet spiking a ball to stop the clock is allowed? Spiking seems like a backdoor way to get an abbreviated timeout - at the expense of a down of course, but still, it doesn't seem within the spirit of the game. When did that become allowable? My other pet peeve? The referee hand signal for an endzone safety. It's super gay! Make it the finger across the throat or something else more fitting for creaming the QB or runner in the endzone.

+1. Good one. And why don't defensive players actually touch the QB and get a sack on that play ? After all, the QB and the ball are behind the Line of Scrimmage.

[Nanker]

I think any loose ball behind the LOS should be a live ball. Yes, even laterals that aren't caught.

[ThurmasThoman]

You cant force the refs to judge run or pass play (it's not always obvious at the time of the penalty), so instead they should make it a five yard penalty from the spot of the foul. That way it's generally a 5 yard penalty for runs and a 5-10 yarder on pass plays.

 

why do the refs have to judge whether its pass or throw?

 

holding doesn't result in the play being blown dead, it continues til the whistle.

 

as for what I would like to see: on offense, any penalties inside your own 10 that result in "half the distance to the goal" should instead be added to the amount of yards you have remaining to pick up a first. so a holding on the 1 that results in 3rd and 11.5 yards to go, should instead move the chains out to 3rd and 20.

[Cash]

I think the pass interference call at the spot of the foul is way too punitive. That can result in 25 plus yards of penalty yardage. A ten yard penalty is plenty IMHO.

But then playing the receiver would be the safer play if the ball is thrown more than 40 yards down the field, making deep completions less likely

 

Right. I don't want to incentivize DBs to tackle WRs on bombs. When you have those jump ball deep passes that AJ Green specializes in, why wouldn't you just tackle him and take the 15 yards? Particularly if it's a late game situation and time is running out for the offense.

 

I have long argued that holding should be a 5 yard penalty across the board. I never thought of making it different if it's a run or pass. I still say make it a 5 yard penalty across the board and take out more subjectivity. I'm glad to see I'm not the only one who thinks 10 yards is too stiff on a call that can be made every play. How many times do you see a team inside the 5 or 10 yardline trying to run it in and get called for a 10 yard holding penalty? Those are game-changing calls, and holding could be called every play.

 

Along with the other suggestion to make all holding a 5-yard spot foul, I kind of like this. I don't like the refs having to make a subjective call about the play's intent (what about holding on a toss sweep? that can easily get blown up for a 7-8 yard loss), and the NFL hates subjective judgments by officials too. But 5 yards from the spot of the foul kind of solves the OP's problem in an objective way. Currently, holding is a spot foul if it occurs beyond the line of scrimmage, but 10 yards from the line of scrimmage otherwise. If we make it 5 yard from the spot, it'll wind up pretty close to 10 yards from the LOS for most pass plays, and about 5 yards back for most runs.

 

Here's a rule change that I would like to see: no more half the distance penalties. If you are at the 15 and you get a holding penalty, then you go back to the five. If the total yardage would put you in the end zone then you go back to the one. I really don't get the logic for half the distance.

 

I support this.

 

I also hate the automatic first down on a defensive hold, even if it was on a 3rd and 25 play.

 

Easily solution: don't commit holding. If you don't have the automatic 1st down, then you highly encourage teams to hold on 3rd or 4th and longs. Be super-physical with the WRs, hope the refs consider it incidental or don't notice it, but even if you get nailed, they still have to deal with a 3rd and 20.

[The Wiz]

I still don't understand what this rule is or why it was put in place but it makes no sense to me.

 

[Cash]

I still don't understand what this rule is or why it was put in place but it makes no sense to me.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dOZHwsYu0Bo

 

Rule is that in the last (2 minutes?) of the half or game, a fumble can only be advanced by the guy who fumbled it (or the other team, naturally). The reason it exists is to prevent exactly the type of play you embedded -- i.e., a guy is getting tackled, so just fumbles it on purpose, possibly forward. It is kind of arbitrary/no fun, because if you intentionally pitch the ball backwards, but it isn't caught & hits the turf, your teammate is still allowed to pick it up & advance it. The only decent argument for the rule is to prevent intentional forward fumbles being used as illegal forward passes. Overall, I think we'd be fine without the rule.