The NFL is hoping to clarify the definition of “Roughing the Passer” in a newly-released video with an in-depth breakdown of the infraction.
“Roughing the Passer” has been a controversial penalty for the better part of the past 15 years as the league tries to maximize its protection of quarterbacks. Here in 2023, there certainly hasn’t been a shortage of questionable calls that have led to widespread criticism.
The NFL Football Operations X (formerly known as Twitter) account posted a video to try and clear up the rule of “Roughing the Passer” for coaches, players and fans. Here’s what the account wrote on X:
“Because the act of passing often puts the quarterback (or any other player attempting a pass) in a position where he is particularly vulnerable to injury, special rules against roughing the passer apply. The Referee has principal responsibility for enforcing these rules. Any physical acts against a player who is in a passing posture (i.e. before, during, or after a pass) which, in the Referee’s judgment, are unwarranted by the circumstances of the play will be called as fouls. The Referee will be guided by the following principles:”
The problem is that like just about any judgement call in football, officials are hardly consistent with “Roughing the Passer”. You’ll see many instances where they fail to throw a flag on an dirty hit to the head on a signal-caller, yet they’ll throw flags on routine sack plays like this one:
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That’s the problem with judgement call penalties like “Roughing the Passer”. It is never enforced on a consistent basis, and far too many times, the questionable calls or non-calls will impact the outcome of a game.
It just feels like the NFL will never fully improve its state of officiating unless they two one of two things: a) hire full-time officials and/or b) use a sky judge who can help on-field officials clear up mistakes.
