Good Grief Owners; What are You Thinking??

[NorthCoast]

Their one chance to correct a big mistake....aargh.


NFL's Terrible Taunting Penalties Are Here to Stay
Liam McKeone
By Liam McKeone
Mar 29, 2022

The 2021 NFL season was chock-full of great football, but it wasn't all sunshine and rainbows. There were bad moments, and the worst of those bad moments were centered on the league's focus on taunting penalties. Referees threw flags for post-play antics that wouldn't have even been mentioned on a broadcast in past years, much less drawn penalties. Everybody, and I mean everybody, agreed they were terrible and useless and affected the outcome of important football games for incomprehensible reasons.

Unfortunately, they aren't going away. The NFL's competition committee is meeting this week in Florida and insider reports suggest that the league is sticking to its guns on the matter of "taunting".

It's stupid. Most of the time it seems the only people who care even a little bit about this are the members of the competition committee themselves, like John Mara. Everybody else collectively agrees that these penalties are useless. It's been years since an actual on-field altercation resulted from celebrating after a play, so the only purpose to enforcing these rules is to force the competition committee's arbitrary vision of "sportsmanship" upon fans who never asked for it.

Now teams will know what causes a flag and emotion will be more aggressively stifled on the field. Fantastic. Great work, everybody. Football is more boring because a bunch of old dudes don't like flexing after a sick play. Excellent set-up we've got here.

I think the Steelers ended with a net positive from this penalty last season but it is a terrible terrible rule that is far too subjective.

[Buzz]

I think the league felt it had to do something about taunting, but like too many of their moves, they've overreacted

hope they come to their senses at some point and moderate their stance

[NorthCoast]

I think the league felt it had to do something about taunting, but like too many of their moves, they've overreacted

hope they come to their senses at some point and moderate their stanceI fear the NFL is becoming like our government. Since they have a committee they feel like they have to justify their existence by coming up with new rules. Otherwise people might think they aren't needed or aren't doing their job.

[Buzz]

I fear the NFL is becoming like our government. Since they have a committee they feel like they have to justify their existence by coming up with new rules. Otherwise people might think they aren't needed or aren't doing their job.

I think you nailed it

[feltdizz]

Vegas baby!!!! This rule is for the bookies.

[Northern_Blitz]

This is a terrible rule with the legalization of gambling.

Even if this rule isn't a justification to throw a big flag whenever they want, it will be seen that way by many people.

Taunting was already a penalty. They didn't need to extend it to every tiny thing (like looking at the opposing sideline).

[steeler_fan_in_t.o.]

The league is very patient and the game usually changes to what they want.

Remember the ridiculous enforcement of the head shot rule that began one week many years ago? Flags were thrown every week in every game it seemed. Eventually the players got used to it and now you only see it occasionally. Same with the QB protection rule a few years ago. Players were flagged for landing on top of the QB on a sack. We rarely see that one as well.

The league wants taunting out and the players will get the message and it will become a thing of the past.

[whisper]

I fear the NFL is becoming like our government. Since they have a committee they feel like they have to justify their existence by coming up with new rules. Otherwise people might think they aren't needed or aren't doing their job.

...and bingo was their name-o.

[feltdizz]

The league is very patient and the game usually changes to what they want.

Remember the ridiculous enforcement of the head shot rule that began one week many years ago? Flags were thrown every week in every game it seemed. Eventually the players got used to it and now you only see it occasionally. Same with the QB protection rule a few years ago. Players were flagged for landing on top of the QB on a sack. We rarely see that one as well.

The league wants taunting out and the players will get the message and it will become a thing of the past.

and then they will add another rule.

I think they will always ad rules that give the refs a chance to influence the outcome of games.

I would love to see stats on what down taunting is called the most. Pretty sure most of them occur on failed 3rd downs (on the D) or after a successful first down conversion (on the O).

Not fixing games, just influencing it a bit.

[NorthCoast]

The league is very patient and the game usually changes to what they want.

Remember the ridiculous enforcement of the head shot rule that began one week many years ago? Flags were thrown every week in every game it seemed. Eventually the players got used to it and now you only see it occasionally. Same with the QB protection rule a few years ago. Players were flagged for landing on top of the QB on a sack. We rarely see that one as well.

The league wants taunting out and the players will get the message and it will become a thing of the past.QB protection rule is still very unevenly applied. Roethlisberger was routinely mugged with nary a flag. Wilson was the same. Someone breathes bad breath on Brady and it's flags away.