NFL Officiating

I don't complain too much about officiating. I haven't complained about it in basketball or baseball much. I don't complain about it a great deal in college football, especially since their new rules have been implemented to review plays in the booth. I have complained more with NFL officials than any other sport. There were some bad calls in the Super Bowl against the Seattle Seahawks. In the first week of the season, I noticed a few as well, a couple in particular.

First off, when can defensive players lay their hands on a quarterback? Quarterbacks might as well wear flags around their waist, because it seems that whenever a defender hits a quarterback there's a 50/50 chance that the defender will get called for roughing the passer. There are different penalties for roughing the passer. There's the late hit, helmet to helmet, helmet to sternum, hands to the helmet, and pushing the quarterback down. Those are just a few. There may be more. I saw a play on Sunday where Atlanta defensive end John Abraham hit Carolina quarterback Jake Delhomme right as he threw the ball. Because of this, the ball went straight up in the air and Atlanta cornerback DeAngelo Hall came down with the pick. But, there was a flag thrown. Abraham had his hand in between Delhomme's head and shoulder when he hit the quarterback, so he was flagged for roughing the passer. Give me a break.

The worst call I saw all weekend was toward the end of the Colts/Giants game when the Giants were called for offensive pass interference. The receiver never laid a hand on the receiver. He simply came back to the ball and the defender lost his footing some. This backed the Giants up and in attempt to make up the yardage from the call, Eli threw a bad ball deep which was intercepted. That about did it. Refs need not determine the outcome of a ball game. Let the players do it. It's odd, because I rarely see offensive pass interference calls, but perhaps there's a reason for that. It's too bad that the Eli/Peyton battle had to end in such a manner.