Richard Sherman locked down Julio Jones on the Falcons’ final offensive play in Seattle’s 26-24 win over Atlanta. By which I mean Sherman grabbed onto Jones’ arm and physically locked it downwards, yanking his body backwards and leaving him with only one hand to catch the ball. He didn’t:
This was blatantly pass interference.
The NFL rulebook describes PI as when a player “significantly hinders an eligible player’s opportunity to catch the ball,” and goes on to elaborate with several examples of what this might be, including when a player “grab[s] an opponent’s arm in such a manner that restricts his opportunity to catch a pass.” Check and check.
If the referees had made the right call, the Falcons would’ve gained 33 yards on fourth down, giving them the ball in enemy territory with under two minutes to go. They would have been just a few successful plays from a potential game-winning field goal. Instead, there was no call, and the game was over after a few Seahawks kneeldowns.
Recently, Sherman had complained he didn’t know why he was called for so many pass interferences. Now, everybody’s wondering why he wasn’t called for this one.
While the Jones-Sherman encounter was an example of a prominent missed call, there was an egregiously bad call in the other direction too Sunday. This was ruled to be defensive pass interference on Giants defender Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie.
THIS IS OUTRAGEOUS. I WANT A PERSONAL EXPLANATION FROM @NFLCOMMISH AS TO HOW THIS IS DEFENSIVE PASS INTERFERENCE! pic.twitter.com/9TYfBK1xZW
— RegularSZN Ethan (@EthanGSN) October 16, 2016
Nobody is really sure how this was ruled defensive pass interference. And it set the Ravens up a few yards from the goal line with under three minutes left in a one-possession game, leading to a go-ahead touchdown. The Giants won anyway, because of Odell Beckham, but, most teams don’t have Odell Beckham.
These plays can change the course of games. Earlier this year, the Lions earned what may have been the largest penalty of all time when they allowed 66 yards on a pass interference, the longest penalty in at least 30 years. 66 yards! For one play! And a play the NFL later acknowledged was incorrectly officiated.
The NFL has a pass interference problem.
A few weeks ago, Greg Bedard wrote for Sports Illustrated about the overwhelming pace with which DPI is being called, and as the season has progressed, the data has held true. Entering Sunday’s games, NFL refs had issued 113 DPI calls for 1,810 yards. They’re on pace to issue 318 for 5,091 yards in the regular season alone. Last year, there were only 243 for 4,343, including the postseason.
I can’t think of a good reason why these fouls would suddenly spike. The NFL did not tweak DPI rules this offseason, and so far as I can tell, there has been no memo to referees telling them to focus on this specific play.
Sure, we can offer guesses why DPI is up. Teams are passing more than ever. That means there are more opportunities for DPI, and that teams are more incentivized to complain about DPI. Plus, fans like points, and the NFL likes points, so it makes sense they’d encourage refs to help offenses out. Plus, wide receivers are getting stronger and faster, and harder to legally defend. Plus, wide receivers have learned how important a DPI call can be, and have gotten good at flailing to get calls. Plus, the NFL is turning into a LEAGUE FOR WUSSES. (That last suggestion is supplied by your uncle).
But all these hint at gradual gains. Even if all these things are true, they wouldn’t explain an overnight 30 percent spike in yardage. Even your uncle would not argue that the league is 30 percent WUSSIER than last year.
And if refs are being overtrained to throw flags at every semi-interference, how did Sherman’s foul on Jones go uncalled? Whether referees are calling PI too often or not often enough, there are several big problems with the pass interference.
The pass interference rule leaves room for interpretation.
The official wording of the pass interference rule, as noted, refers to a player “significantly” hindering his opponent. And there’s a caveat: “If there is any question whether player contact is incidental, the ruling should be no interference.”
The nature of football necessitates this. When two extremely fast players vie for the same ball, there will always be some sort of contact. If every contact between two players was a foul, there would be a foul every play.
So the rule calls for officials to make a subjective decision. This is rare! On other fouls, everything is clear cut. If the offense jumps, it’s a false start. If the defense is offside, it’s offsides.
Perhaps an official saw Sherman grab Jones’ arm. But maybe in that half-instant, the contact only appeared to be a trifling tug that only momentarily hindered Jones, rather than the catch-preventing yoink that it was.
The NFL can provide guidelines for what should and shouldn’t be PI. But it will always come down to an official’s personal decision, and when that’s the case, the rule will be tough to consistently officiate.
Pass interference is logistically tough to officiate
College official Cyd Zeigler did a great job breaking down the mechanics of the Sherman-Jones PI yesterday. Look at where the NFL’s referees are supposed to be positioned:
The three closest referees to the play were all in positions behind Sherman, where they couldn’t see the actual foul (without X-ray vision.)
Think about an offside/false start call again. Four referees — the umpire, referee, head linesman, and line judge — can stare at the players on the line of scrimmage before the snap. They position themselves strategically and focus all their attention on a small part of the field. And when it comes down to it, they almost always make the right call, even when an average human needs slow-motion replay to determine who jumped first.
Meanwhile, on pass plays, five receivers run as fast as they can to various parts of the field, on routes designed to be unpredictable and stretch the width and length of the opposing defense. That’s really hard to keep track of!
No matter how they position themselves, officials will always be kinda far away from the action on some key passing plays. And sometimes, like on the Sherman-Jones play, their best positioning won’t allow them to see the actual foul.
Keep that in mind, and remember that a pass interference foul can often take place in a quarter-second with a slight yank, and that even if the official sees that yank, they have to determine whether the yank was significant or incidental. Officials will always get this call wrong sometimes.
That’s not a knock on the officials -- the ones the NFL has are pretty good — it’s just a fact based on the logistics of passing plays and the nature of pass interference.
Pass interference comes with the largest penalty football has to offer
Even the largest acts of misconduct in football come with a 15-yard penalty. Dangerous hit? Fifteen-yard penalty. Late hit? Fifteen-yard penalty. Shove a ref, fight an opponent? Fifteen-yard penalty (and maybe an ejection).
Pass interference is a spot foul. Think about that 66-yard penalty earlier. 66 yards! For one play!
It’s bad enough that football has a rule that’s so difficult to officiate, but it’s a fact of the game. For that rule to also carry the steepest penalty in football is absolutely outrageous.
How can we fix this?
The easiest solution is to allow review on defensive pass interference. The CFL started doing this in 2014, and it’s fine. Have refs throw flags more freely, and have those flags be reviewable. Easy.
But I’m guessing the NFL’s competition committee and referees would not like this. They’d argue that if we start reviewing one subjective penalty, we’d soon be reviewing them all. That doesn’t have to be the case! We can stop at the really problematic one!
So I propose the NFL change the penalty on pass interference. It should not be a spot foul.
A first down and 15 yards is a great reward for any play. Maybe players would sometimes tackle receivers when they’d been beat, but a) this doesn’t happen in college, and b) I think offenses would be just fine with a world where opposing defenders intentionally give up 15-yard gains sometimes.
We’re not going to suddenly get referees to be perfect when officiating one of football’s most difficult plays. But we can lessen the effect those mistakes have on the game.