NFL Rules

The NFL has now decided that pass interference calls will be reviewable, as will the non-call of pass interference, in the upcoming season.

Terrific. NFL football games will now take an average of 4 hours and 34 minutes to complete, unless there is overtime. A game starting at 5:00pm will not end until the following day.

I would propose that every play be reviewed by officials, using all available camera angles, to assure that no infraction of any rule goes undetected and unpunished. This will result in at least one penalty on every play, rendering player skill irrelevant and making the most frequent scoring play the 2-point safety. Negative bonus points would be applied to the team which commits the most penalties on a single play. Las Vegas could take bets on which team would earn those negative bonus points.

Football games would enter the realm of cricket games, which frequently take two or three days to play.

On a (slightly) more serious note, pass defense used to be defined as attempting to prevent a pass receiver from catching a pass. That's now called "pass interference." Pass defense now consists of letting the receiver catch the pass and hoping you can put him on his ass, gently, before he scores.

Putting the pass receiver on his ass in a less than gentle manner, such as hitting him, is known as "unnecessary roughness" and invokes a 15-yard penalty.