The NFL world has been going crazy the past few weeks after a few exceptionally soft roughing the passer calls have had massive impacts on multiple NFL games with Tom Brady benefitting from a generous call against the Atlanta Falcons and Derek Carr getting bailed out of a strip sack against the Kansas City Chiefs. But don’t expect the NFL to rush into any changes.
While the fans might not like seeing the many penalty flags, during an appearance on ESPN, NFL executive V.P. of football operations Troy Vincent revealed that the roughing the passer penalties are actually good for business, because they protect the quarterback.
“Ninety-one of the top-100 shows last year on television were NFL games,” Vincent said on ESPN, according to Pro Football Talk. “Why? Because of the quarterback play. They want to see points and scores. I think we all have an appreciation. If you don’t have a quarterback, you don’t have a chance to win. As a defender I knew that, you can’t score points, you can’t win.”
While Vincent and the NFL may not be rushing to fix the rule, that isn’t stopping many influential voices from calling for change with Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes blasting the calls and the Los Angeles Rams are pushing for personal foul penalties to be reviewable.
However, if the NFL has no interest in changing the rules, the NFL referees have made it clear that they intend to keep calling them.
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