According to Jonathan Jones of CBS Sportsthe NFL is “open to discussing” the idea of throwing penalty flags after reviewing replays for specific types of penalties. This rule change could be decided this spring for the 2026 regular season.
According to Jones, a post-play penalty flag should be “related to the health and safety of the players,” a more limited set of penalties than the full menu of options. This seems to me to be a clear answer to the NFL’s terrible record on hip tackles.
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Over the past two regular seasons, more than 60 fines have been issued for hip tackles, but only three penalty flags have been thrown. For some reason, the league thought it was a good idea to legislate this play the following Saturday, when the NFL announces its fines, rather than during the game. They learned a hard lesson: Fines don’t deter players as much as penalties, and fans don’t care if the opposing team gets fined when their team loses. This is simply too small a price to pay for victory.
“The league has heard from teams who want tackling, which can end a player’s season with a lower extremity injury, to be punished in real time rather than with a fine a week later.”
No shit. I could have told you this two years ago.
Jones listed the following plays as examples of penalties related to player health and safety: face mask, unnecessary roughness, roughness to the passer, use of a helmet and hip tackles.
The NFL has an officiating problem. This has been the case for years and years. Jones admitted that if you could review any penalty, there would probably be a flag thrown on every play of an NFL game. What is and is not considered flag-worthy is not consistently enforced, even within a single game, much less from crew to crew and week to week. And in those post-match reports, I don’t think I’ve ever seen a referee admit that his team had a bad call. They will always go down with the ship if given the chance.
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It’s good for teams to have in-game control against the officials. They certainly deserve to be overthrown. I would support this rule change. This does not, however, solve the underlying problem with officiating in this league.
