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The potential of an NFL rule change has taken the football community by storm on December 14, and Kansas City Chiefs fans may not agree with this one.
The “NFL Now” crew of insiders detailed the situation, shared by Tom Pelissero on Twitter. “Could automatic ejections for illegal hits really be part of the NFL’s future?” He questioned in the tweet. “Doubtful.”
Chiefs’ Andy Reid Laughs Off Roughing the Passer Debate
To explain, a December league meeting reportedly discussed changing the rules on the roughing the passer penalty — and not in the way fans might hope.
Judy Battista revealed that NFL Head of Football Operations Troy Vincent told them that the owners opened the floor to altering roughing penalties today. The two potential changes involved making an illegal hit on a quarterback or a defenseless receiver reviewable, and legalizing player ejections for referees after said flags.
Fans can probably picture it already, a key Chris Jones roughing the passer review knocks the game-wrecker out of a crucial playoff game for the Chiefs. Fortunately, Pelissero and company do not seem to think this alteration is likely to happen.
Kansas City head coach Andy Reid was asked to weigh in on the possibility of a roughing the passer adjustment during his Wednesday press conference too, and his response was classic Big Red — reserved but hilarious.
“Uhm, I’m [gonna] hold off on that,” Reid replied after the question came in, “because I’m gonna be in those meetings.”
The room exploded with laughter as Reid chuckled to himself. “I’m gonna just set up a picket fence on that one,” the Chiefs HC concluded, opting not to comment further at this time.
As Big Red noted, he will be involved in these March meetings after the 2022 season is over. It’s unclear which way he leans on the debate, although one might assume that an old-school coach like Reid would scoff at the idea of more stoppages and reviews, let alone ejections.
Either way, it’s something to monitor as we head toward the 2023 offseason.
NFL Community Reacts to Roughing the Passer Debate
As the news came out, Ian Rapoport shared a statement from Vincent. “The officials have been very consistent and accurate, but they are human,” the head of operations noted. Rapoport relayed that “there will be a ‘healthy discussion’ about making the fouls reviewable, whether it can be challenged or simply reviewable.”
Former Seattle Seahawks star linebacker Bobby Wagner was among those leading the charge against this rule change on Twitter.
“NFL does not need to eject players for hits like college,” he voiced. “That’s why I stopped watching college.”
Here is what Pelissero tweeted about the ejection portion of the discussion. He wrote: “I followed up on the ejections piece, which sounds a lot like the college targeting rule, and Troy said his personal opinion is it’d be difficult, and also made clear he’s against a Sky Judge or similar throwing flags. ‘I think chasing perfection is a dangerous place to go…'”
Former NFL offensive tackle Andrew Whitworth chimed in too: “Does anyone else feel triggered by the words ‘the data says’ when we talking about player safety? I immediately shut down! Mainly when ‘the data’ isn’t collected from the people who experience ‘The Data.'”
In case anyone was wondering, “Stone Cold” Jones has not given his two cents on this matter publicly, but you can bet he’ll be asked about it the next time he meets with the media.
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