The NFL needs to STOP emphasizing different penalties!

[ivotuk]

IMHO, this can contribute to player injuries because in the space of a couple of days, they are demanding, not asking, players to completely change how they play the game, and change the technique that they've been using all of their lives!

Add to that, the Referees are all of a sudden making judgement calls on what is basically a NEW rule! Bullshit! Utter bullshit!

Emphasis is how a Referee can get around how the rules are written. If they're in a bad mood, and they attribute it to a local team, they can make unbalanced rule violation calls based on their judgement because 1 week is not enough time to REDEFINE a rule.

Rules are there to prevent one team of having an unfair advantage over another.

Emphasis on a rule is there for Referees to demonstrate how much power they have over the game.

There is absolutely NO legitimate reason for emphasis on a rule midseason. They'll try to say it's for safety reason, which is BS. How do the calls on Riq against the Browns make a game safer? They don't. Instead, they can get a player injured by forcing them to change their technique, and tell their body to do something different at full speed!

 

[kidhawk]

If they were able to do a good job calling the game overall then I’d be fine with emphasizing, but when you can’t call simple infractions like lining up in the neutral zone then they need to put more emphasis on calling the game correctly.

 

[Mick063]

I imagine the oil-fired boiler room of a steam turbine ship. Multiple gauges that require periodic surveillance. When a given gauge reaches a certain threshold then an associated valve is manipulated to bring the gauge back within optimum operating parameters.

The weekly review and self-assessments by league officials are the routine gauge surveillance. The "point of emphasis" is the valve manipulation to bring the associated gauge back into parameter.

The system may be broken, but not in the way suggested.

My hierarchy of needed changes

1) Game deciding calls must be subject to review. This includes all turnovers at any time. Further, it should include all penalties that grant more than 15 yards of field position.
2) Technology must be incorporated into all aspects that determine ball placement. Crossing the plane of the endzone or sideline should include an electronically triggered captured image, from at least two angles at the precise time of the associated event. Ideally, measuring chains should be a thing of the past.
3) Remove judgment calls like taunting from the game. Address this issue with large, painful monetary fines and/or suspensions instead. Don't subject referees to more temptation from the gambling industry by giving them unchallengeable, subjective, game changing calls. Taunting deterrence is an issue for the league office, not the referees that are calling the game. All the officials should be needed for is to communicate the taunting incident to necessary parties (including the violator) for later league enforcement reference.
4) More incidental contact by defensive backs should be tolerated, but ONLY if their nose is pointed toward the football at the time of contact. The steadily increasing diet of "rub routes" is making a mockery of "illegal contact". Teams are designing plays to draw the foul.