The NFL’s explanation for what constitutes roughing the passer just makes it more confusing
No major American sports league seems to understand its rulebook less than the NFL. What’s a catch? No one knows! Can the ground cause a fumble? Sure, why not? Whatever floats your boat!
These days, the most egregiously inconsistent application of NFL rules might be roughing the passer. Every single week, it feels like we have multiple instances of highly questionable roughing calls based on nothing but fostering safety “vibes,” not creating actual safety. The NFL has now, more or less, confirmed it essentially goes with the flow with a rule that is flat-out impossible to legislate with good precedent while giving defenders zero breathing room.
On Thursday, the league’s football operations department released a video that was supposed to clarify what actually constitutes roughing the passer. The obvious intent was to keep loyal fans informed. The clip achieves none of its goals.
From noting that roughing the passer is based entirely on a ref’s split-second opinion to saying “defenders may initiate contact no more than one step after the throw in certain situations” — like, what on earth? — it’s all complete malarkey. Worse yet, this ambiguity about what defenders can and can’t do from impossible momentum-filled positions only diminishes textbook defensive play.
The NFL’s bizarre interpretation of roughing the passer doesn’t actually take quarterbacks out of harm’s way. It just confuses everyone and lowers the quality of play. All this reeks of a league trying to make the game “safer” on a surface level that serves no one, especially when the goal should be to provide clear and concrete ways to improve players’ safety.
From the @NFL Video Rulebook
ROUGHING THE PASSER
Because the act of passing often puts the quarterback (or any other player attempting a pass) in a position where he is particularly vulnerable to injury, special rules against roughing the passer apply. The Referee has… pic.twitter.com/OtAL4WpfTU
— NFL Football Operations (@NFLFootballOps) November 9, 2023
I don’t want to sound too much like an Old Man Yelling at a Cloud, but this is opaque garbage. It explains nothing. Provides clarity on nothing.
Some of the plays the league uses as examples feature picture-perfect form tackles taught at the youth level to play football responsibly — if that’s even possible. And somehow, large grown men are supposed to defy the laws of physics and stop at a “red light” one millisecond after driving 100 miles per hour. Oh. Try to picture how that would work out in real life while on the road. Hint: not great!
I hate to say it, and I know it’s conflicting, but at a certain point, you’re accepting a Faustian bargain by watching any level of football. It is an inherently dangerous game, making what the league is asking with roughing the passer even more silly.
I appreciate any initiative that ostensibly negates some of the danger of football while maintaining the game’s sanctity. If earnest, it should be applauded. The NFL’s roughing-the-passer standard does not do that. Not even close.
The league’s precedent seems more about letting quarterbacks do whatever they want and, somehow, potentially rewarding them with the ability to lose but re-gain special protections in the face of tough defense. Either the quarterback is a runner outside the pocket or he’s a protected player the whole time. Pick a lane. But the league is a football conglomerate trying to save face (and money) by eliminating all risk of injury to quarterbacks, seemingly the only position that matters to the powers that be.
Congratulations, NFL. You have somehow diminished your product while simultaneously making another rule seem even more Byzantine.
(Slow clapping) Bravo.