Pass Interference Case Study
There is a huge problem in the NFL. Viewership is down. There is no one single reason why viewership is down; there are a variety of reasons as to why: quality of play, off-field issues, declining cable subscriptions, saturation and the wide variety viewing options. These issues are varied and complicated so there is no easy solution that will solve all of these issues. The easiest fix is bringing up the quality of play. Again, there are many reasons as to why quality of play is down and some are complicated, but many are simple and fixing them would significantly improve level of play. A simple change that would significantly improve quality of play is changing the pass-interference rule. Pass interference is a foul that occurs when a player
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If a team needs a large chunk of yards or is in a bad situation, they will chuck a deep ball and specifically play to draw a pass interference call. There are really simple ways to draw a pass interference call. On deep passes a quarterback will underthrow the ball, the receiver will come back to the ball, and even if the defender plays the ball perfectly, contact is bound to happen. This is when the flag is often dropped. These aren’t small plays either these calls can yield forty or more yards, and (without penalty) it is extremely rare for offense to gain that many yards in one play. Mike Wallace, receiver and frequent beneficiary of the rule, explains in an interview with the Baltimore Sun, how the rule is abused and used in the offense's favor: "Any coach will tell you that we sometimes need to come back for the ball because I look at it as I have the defender beat and if I jump back for the ball and the defender's not even looking for the ball, you'll get pass interference easily. So when you throw it up there, you give yourself a big chance of either making the play or getting a P.I. It's like a 50-50 chance, maybe even a 60-40 chance in favor of the offense.” This is troubling: an offensive player directly stating that pass interference is not only an advantage, but offenses will actually practice drawing the flag. Penalties directly impact the outcome of the game and are supposed to be minimized. Teams
If a team needs a large chunk of yards or is in a bad situation, they will chuck a deep ball and specifically play to draw a pass interference call. There are really simple ways to draw a pass interference call. On deep passes a quarterback will underthrow the ball, the receiver will come back to the ball, and even if the defender plays the ball perfectly, contact is bound to happen. This is when the flag is often dropped. These aren’t small plays either these calls can yield forty or more yards, and (without penalty) it is extremely rare for offense to gain that many yards in one play. Mike Wallace, receiver and frequent beneficiary of the rule, explains in an interview with the Baltimore Sun, how the rule is abused and used in the offense's favor: "Any coach will tell you that we sometimes need to come back for the ball because I look at it as I have the defender beat and if I jump back for the ball and the defender's not even looking for the ball, you'll get pass interference easily. So when you throw it up there, you give yourself a big chance of either making the play or getting a P.I. It's like a 50-50 chance, maybe even a 60-40 chance in favor of the offense.” This is troubling: an offensive player directly stating that pass interference is not only an advantage, but offenses will actually practice drawing the flag. Penalties directly impact the outcome of the game and are supposed to be minimized. Teams