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The NFL has been taking a lot of heat for the many soft roughing the passing calls that have been called this year by the league’s officials.
It’s gotten so bad that Troy Aikman went so far as to say after particular roughing call that the NFL needs “to take the dresses off.”
The call Aikman was referring to was a roughing the passer penalty during Monday night’s Chiefs-Raiders game against Kansas City’s Chris Jones that saved the Raiders from turning the ball over.
That call came a day after the Falcons-Buccaneers game was also affected by a bad roughing the passer call in the fourth quarter.
refs called this roughing the passer on 3rd down and i genuinely do not know what Grady Jarrett could have done differently pic.twitter.com/VX6i0UpJiL
— Christian D'Andrea (@TrainIsland) October 9, 2022
After the penalty against Chris Jones, former NFL VP of Officiating Mike Pereira admitted on Twitter that the call was awful.
Even Derek Carr thought that roughing the passer call against the Chiefs was bad.
Referee Carl Cheffers tried to defend the call after Monday’s game.
“The quarterback is in the pocket and he’s in a passing posture,” said Cheffers. “He gets full protection of all the aspects of what we give the quarterback in a passing posture. So, when he was tackled, my ruling was the defender landed on him with full body weight. The quarterback is protected from being tackled with full body weight. My ruling was roughing the passer for that reason.”
— NFL Officiating (@NFLOfficiating) October 11, 2022
Those two calls and others that have occurred this season has fans, and a whole slew of Washington Commanders players, very upset.
The NFL sent out a video to all 32 teams defending the Chris Jones roughing the passer call
On Wednesday, the NFL’s officiating office sent a video to all 32 teams defending the roughing the passer call on Chiefs defensive tackle Chris Jones.
“The Kansas City defender executes his rush plan in his effort to sack the quarterback,” Perry Fewell, the NFL’s senior vice president of officiating administration, says in the video. “He lands with his full body weight on the drive to the ground. A quarterback in the pocket, in a passing posture, gets full protection until he can defend himself. This was a properly called foul for roughing the passer.”
NFL fans don’t buy it.
— alexquigley (@alexquigley) October 13, 2022
“No one buys this s–t,” one fan succinctly put it on Twitter.
— Chicago Sports (@ChiTownSportsss) October 13, 2022
In their video, the NFL also cited three sacks by other players as the “correct” way to tackle a quarterback.
Maxx Crosby against the Chiefs…
.@CrosbyMaxx is a menace 💥#LVvsKC | ESPN pic.twitter.com/5cj8B0nJZ0
— Las Vegas Raiders (@Raiders) October 11, 2022
Aaron Donald against the Cowboys…
.@AaronDonald97 is not from this planet. pic.twitter.com/iYXRVgokcY
— Los Angeles Rams (@RamsNFL) October 11, 2022
Micah Parsons against the Rams…
.@MicahhParsons11 gets home to help the defense get off the field! 💪
📺: @NFLonFOX | #DALvsLAR pic.twitter.com/JQL8N84gKx
— Dallas Cowboys (@dallascowboys) October 9, 2022
Some notable quarterbacks, however, are all about these roughing calls being made.
Lamar Jackson joked that he’s going to start gesturing toward the refs after he’s hit, looking for a roughing-the-passer call.
“We need some penalties, too. … No hard feelings toward the ref, but we need some calls.” pic.twitter.com/hLsMKiSiLW
— Jonas Shaffer (@jonas_shaffer) October 12, 2022
Nebraska QB Casey Thompson:
"I wish that I had the Tom Brady rule when we played against Rutgers on Friday…" 🤣🤣#Huskers @1011_News pic.twitter.com/LtqobgLFa2
— Kevin Sjuts (@kevinsjuts) October 11, 2022