Flag Day

After Sunday night’s epic Giants-Panthers game, I’ve seen a number of columnists and pundits giving a list of “what they learned” from what could be a preview of the NFC championship. I’m not here to pick apart the pundits. Instead, I’m here to tell you what I learned from the game, besides the fact that Derrick Ward is the best player ever to come out of Ottawa University in Kansas. What I learned is this—penalties are pointless.

OK, that might be a bit of an overstatement, but I’m going for shock value here, folks. Let me explain.

Not all penalties are pointless. For example, it’s necessary to call false starts and offsides because if not, a team could get an unfair advantage on any given play. Additionally, I think it’s necessary to call egregious infractions that are dangerous, such as helmet-to-helmet hits, as well as obvious holding and pass interference penalties that directly and severely affect the play. Other than that, let them beat the crap out of each other without official interruption.

There were four penalties in Sunday night’s game. Four! No one complained, and the game was smooth without annoying stoppages that suck the life out of the football-watching experience. Typically, when they show replays of your average holding call, it looks like it could go either way, so why bother calling it? I can’t imagine there was never a case in the Giants-Panthers game when the officials could not have called illegal contact, or illegal motion, or illegal something. But they didn’t, and it made for a far more enjoyable viewing experiencing.

Furthermore, there are also a good chunk of penalties that no fan gives a rat’s ass about anyway. Seriously, who would really care if the NFL stopped calling illegal man downfield, illegal touching (although that one makes me chuckle), or illegal formation? I’ve watched football my entire life, I consider myself a relatively savvy fan, and I am still not entirely sure what makes a formation illegal, and I am not even sure what calling it is supposed to protect. In fact, I’ve asked people in my office who cover the NFL, and they can’t answer the question. When David Letterman make his “Top Ten Signs You Know Your Rule Is Pointless,” I’m pretty sure, “journalists who cover the sport for a living can’t explain it” would be high up there. I guess that’s a long way of saying that particular infraction is a waste of time.

In all seriousness, I think an official’s job in both football and basketball should be to keep both teams honest, without inserting themselves into the game unnecessarily. To me, there is nothing more annoying than officials taking the game into their own hands with a ticky-tack call that has little bearing on the play, such as a holding call away from the play, or an illegal contact, which you could literally call on 90% of pass plays if you wanted to. I remember watching the Giants-Eagles game two weeks ago, and there were fifteen penalties called, about half of which were accompanied by some sort of conference by the officials that made the already boring game drag on even longer. My plea to NFL officials is to get out of your own way, and don't bother calling about half the penalties you usually call. Everyone will be happier. Trust me.

To be fair, I’ll recognize that the Giants (my team) benefited from the two biggest penalties called last night. One was a pass interference in the end zone in the fourth quarter that put the Giants at the Panthers’ one-yard line, and another was a holding call on the Panthers’ Steve Smith that put Carolina back on the outer limits of Jon Kasay’s field goal range just a couple of plays before he missed a field goal that would have won the game. However, those were both pretty severe penalties, with the holding being particularly criminal. That being said, I might not be writing this had those two calls not gone in the Giants’ favor. But if you’ve watched football with me before, you’ve probably heard me rant about how too many stupid penalties are called. Last night was a good example of the type of officiating the NFL should strive for.

During the broadcast, John Madden kept saying that the crew on the field (I think it was Walt Coleman’s crew) had called the fewest penalties in the league. Keep it up guys, you’re doing a heckuva job.

***After writing this post, I looked up Walt Coleman and discovered he was the referee for the legendary “Tuck Rule” game, as well as last week’s controversial Ravens-Steelers tilt that ended on a controversial replay overrule. As it turns out, many people (or at the very least Raiders and Ravens fans) think he is Satan in Zebra stripes, and possibly the worst ref in the league. So maybe he isn’t adept when it comes to interpreting instant replay, but I’m a fan of the way his crew makes, or should I say doesn’t make, calls on the field.