00:00And I thought this was a great post from our friend Warren Sharp, who was also looking at the first
00:07four weeks of the season and going, if you think something is weird, it is weird because we have seen
00:15more penalties and more flags thrown through four weeks of the season than we have ever seen before.
00:23Craig, and here's the interesting thing. 17 touchdowns have been nullified by flags. In contrast, through the first four weeks
00:34of last year, we had five. The year prior, four. 17 touchdowns have been pulled off because of flags.
00:44We have now called and accepted more penalties than we ever have in well over a decade here. Call me
00:53crazy. That is not sustainable here, Craig, unless, of course, you want to keep taking points off the board, that
01:00is.
01:01Right. You know, so there's a few things are in play. That's not surprising because it does feel like that,
01:06as we talked about yesterday, that there's been more penalties than ever.
01:09And also two things I would say about Warren, who I came to know working here with him for a
01:15long time, is number one, he does an immaculate amount of research and he's excellent at doing that.
01:20But number two, he hates referees more than anybody that I've ever seen on social media. He doesn't stop with
01:25the referee.
01:25So, again, you got to take it and give it with Warren Sharp a little bit. And the other thing,
01:32he's not wrong, but I'm just saying, like, there's nobody that hates refs more than him and always looks for
01:36that.
01:37What I would say is the NFL probably very well aware of this. And so I'll go to my other
01:43two things that are going to happen.
01:44Number one, there's going to be less penalties the rest of the season because the NFL recognizes that and they're
01:49going to change it.
01:49But here's what I would say. In the end, Joe, I missed one full week of football. I've watched all
01:55the others.
01:57Do you think that the penalties have ruined play this season? There's been a lot of points. The games have
02:02been exciting. Am I wrong?
02:04I mean, do you think that has it been over? Maybe I am not viewing it in the same lens.
02:10I have enjoyed the NFL season.
02:11I don't think it's stunk. I think a few games have stunk.
02:14But I think we've gotten a lot more exciting games this year than last year.
02:18If I'm not mistaken, the books got annihilated last year. I'm sorry.
02:25Yes, the books got annihilated last year. I root for that, but I don't root for favorites.
02:30I root for chaos in sports. I think that that's a lot more fun.
02:33Last week, we got chaos. We got a lot of underdogs winning.
02:37Maybe I'm the crazy one here, but I think thus far, I would give the NFL, in terms of the
02:44entertainment value, higher grades than I did a year ago.
02:46I just remember a lot of blowouts last year. Am I wrong? Maybe I'm wrong.
02:50I agree, but the one thing that has certainly been noticeable is when the penalties are happening.
02:59For instance, I'm watching the Jets get blown out by Chicago.
03:02This is a Jets team that did not have an interception all year last year, right?
03:09They had four in the game against the Bears, and three of them were taken back because of so-called
03:17penalties.
03:18The penalties seem to be coming at the biggest moments in these games here.
03:24For instance, we've already seen the most penalty flags thrown in the red zone.
03:30Inside the 20-yard lines, everything is being thrown.
03:33So for some reason, we're getting these flags in the parts of the field, Greg, that feel like, wait a
03:40minute, what are we doing?
03:41Now it's a holding.
03:42So there is a lot of other things going on at the biggest moment parts of the game, I think,
03:49which is head-scratching.
03:51Coaches have said it.
03:52But when you pick somebody off four times and three of those get overturned by miraculous penalties, it tends to
04:01make you, and this is part of the problem in the NFL, no play ever stands.
04:05No big play ever stands.
04:06It's always nullified by a penalty.
04:09And that, I think, is the problem.
04:12It's not that you're throwing the flags.
04:14It's when you're throwing the flags, which is head-scratching to a lot of people.
04:19Yeah, I understand.
04:20I just, I think in the end, all the data is valid.
04:24Again, it's great research, and it's all true, and maybe it is affecting the games in a negative way.
04:29What I also know is Roger Goodell has paid more money than any commissioner in the history of sports, probably
04:34by five over anybody else even currently that's going right now as commissioners.
04:38And what he's going to do is sit back, and they're going to have a refs meeting and say, hey,
04:41guys, keep them in your pockets more, and you're going to see the end of this.
04:45It's going to change.
04:46There's no way that this is going to continue like this.
04:48None.
04:48Because it's unspoken.
04:51It's something that we never hear about.
04:52There's no letter that goes out.
04:54It's a private phone call.
04:55It goes to the head of the refs.
04:57Hey, sit down with your guys.
04:58Have a conversation.
04:59We want you guys to still call it.
05:02Just be a little more mindful that we all, and it gets fixed.
05:06And I suspect, can't guarantee, but I suspect that this gets fixed.
05:11And all of a sudden, soon, you'll see a lot less flags.
05:16But, yeah, for me, I've noticed it.
05:20It has not changed my level of entertainment value this season.
05:25What changed my entertainment value was last season, teams favored by 10 winning by 30 for the entire year, the
05:33whole year, and not fun.
05:35This year, we've seen a lot of double-digit dogs cover.
05:39I like that.
05:39I like to see that.
05:40I don't like blowouts.
