Throwing the challenge flag on P.I.

Editor's note: The author originally wrote this during a passionate 2013 season. The words written last year with emotion have been fact-checked with transparency in 2014 in the hopes of inspiring an ongoing debate.

NFL fans older than 29 are quickly approaching a demographic the NFL cares very little about. The NFL was fun for a beer-drinking, twenty-something Ben. Now in my thirties, my Madden awareness rating has gone up and I'm throwing the challenge flag on the NFL competition committee regarding pass interference (PI). Here's the tl;dr version:

1. The name of the rule is inherently ironic
2. Defensive PI accounts for too many offensive advantages AND an unbalanced ratio to offensive PI
3. Declined defensive PI calls are nearly as frequent as offensive PI calls
4. PI hinders defenses on a league-wide scoring scale
5. Offenses have perverted the spirit of the rule even in the record books
6. Offenses are so addicted to the penalty, they greedily beg, flop or whine to the officials for more
7. Referees have tough judgments but are handcuffed by bad legislation by the NFL rules committee
8. Refs don't always call PI the same depending on the situation

You're penalizing a player for doing exactly what he's supposed to do - interfere with the pass. There's no penalty for run interference, is there?

After 12 weeks in the 2013 NFL season, defensive pass interference accounted for 2,918 yards or 15% of the accepted penalty yardage according to nflpenalties.com. That's not counting illegal contact or defensive holding. This is massive amounts of yardage and first downs awarded to offenses. For every one yard an offense is penalized for PI, it gets seven yards when a defense is penalized for doing the same thing. For comparison, the worst offense in the league at that point had 11 weeks to tally 3,194 yards. With defensive PI, the referees have damn near added PI as a 33rd team to the standings...at least in yardage totals.

That's not counting the 17 declined defensive PI calls, 14 of which I found in the game logs (see below). I'm guessing if you declined the penalty, it's because the offensive receiver caught the ball anyways. If so...was there really interference?

We call it football in America. But of the two people on a 53-man roster that still touch their foot to the ball, punters are used less because PI keeps offensive drives alive. That, combined with increased field-goal percentage from the other player that still touches a foot to the ball, has led to increased scoring for the fourth year in a row according to pro-football-reference.com. Punters used to be known for "flipping the field" with a 40-plus-yard punt. Now a simple tug on a receiver's jersey can be 50, 60, or maybe even a 70-yard penalty. A player could kick an opponent in the teeth and only get penalized 15 yards (and a possible ejection).

The increase in scoring makes it feel like I'm watching the NBA. Trading scores on every possession. Pass pass pass. Score score score. The "rub routes" are a pick-and-roll without dribbling. Receivers that catch the ball and still draw the contact for defensive PI are getting to the free-throw line. The NFL has taken the excitement of a two-minute drill and spread it out over the entire game. But it's so manufactured. The NFL has taken a good idea and passed it into the ground.

Click here to zoom image. 

Quarterbacks are breaking single-season and career passing marks. Are they better than quarterbacks before 1999? A debate for another time. Maybe I'm cherry picking stats and arbitrary years. But once Kurt Warner and the Rams won a Super Bowl without playing a playoff game outside, it's been a steady trend toward overprotecting quarterbacks and rules that favor offenses. Every passing record after 1998 should include an asterisk that explains that defensive backs in this century were forced to play with both hands tied behind their backs.

Receivers are initiating contact. Or flopping. Or whining. Or getting up after an incomplete pass to beg for a yellow card like it's the other type of football recognized by the rest of the world. It's that kind of stuff that should be penalized.

I don't blame the referees. Pass interference is a judgement call, but I'd argue that they're calling it according to the rulebook. Which I'm fairly certain only exists to spark debate. ESPN and it's daytime-talkshow, drama-loving talking suits get their jollies on that. More debate means more breaks in the action. More breaks in the action means more fracking commercials. If anything, the refs are just having trouble "adapting to the NFL 2.0."

That said, even the replacement referees in 2012 didn't call PI the same throughout the game or throughout the season. The Ravens won the Super Bowl as the regular refs "let them play" on San Fran's final drive. Never mind the last play of the game. What about the play before it with the helmet-to-helmet hit on Anquan? For the first 50 minutes of game play it was the nonsense I've documented and then suddenly at key moments in a big game, they let 'em play with sandlot rules. Maybe that's fair to say about other penalties and not just PI. But still...how very NBA.

There are stats kept for points off turnovers. What I'd like to see in 2014 is a points off pass interference. How many drives were kept alive by PI that resulted in an offense scoring?

Had Dick Vermeil won a Super Bowl in Kansas City I'd be singing a different tune. And I totally get that I sound like an old man yelling about how chocolate used to cost a nickel and how music was better in the 1940s. I figured I better say what I have to say now while the NFL still listens to my demographic. If I'm lucky, I will come across sounding like a righteous Will McAvoy explaining why the NFL is not the greatest sport in the world any more...but it can be. And to those who might suggest I offer a solution instead of just pointing out problems, I will defer to Mike Nolan's 2007 proposal.

Other sources (please forgive the use of a Brad Evans quote).
http://www.patriotsplanet.com/BB/showthread.php?t=13275
http://www.sportinglife360.com/index.php/who-gets-the-best-pass-interference-calls-defense-or-offense-offense-53887/
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20071130113955AAidJZ4
http://www.dawgsbynature.com/2010/8/29/1657049/pass-interference-and-roughing-the
http://www.cbssports.com/nfl/story/12647887/fixing-pass-interference-calls-15-yards-at-a-time
http://www.kansascity.com/2013/11/16/4626608/as-nfl-tries-to-mimic-peyton-manning.html
http://www.sbnation.com/nfl/2013/11/19/5120876/bill-belichick-video-press-conferece-panthers-vs-patriots
http://panicbutton.sportsblog.com/post/171183/does_the_nfl_need_to.html
http://www.csnne.com/new-england-patriots/picks-pass-plays-could-mean-more-flopping
http://espn.go.com/nfl/story/_/id/10030207/nfl-competition-committee-consider-changing-rule-challenging-penalties

From Mike Pereira: "A player could kick someone in the teeth and draw a 15-yard penalty. Another player could tug a receiver’s jersey, and the chains could move 50 yards. That's too egregious."

From Mark Stopa: "Today's NFL has such strict rules on illegal contact, defenseless receivers, and hits on quarterbacks, rushing is nearly irrelevant. (Give it 10 years and most studio guys will catch on.)"

From Brad Evans: "The over-wussification of the NFL has guys like Dick Butkus snarling in disgust, deservedly so. I realize the league is trying to protect its backside but the absurd number of illegal hits flagged and subsequent fines doled out has become epidemic. Shoulder-to-shoulder hits are often misjudged, defined as intentional ‘head shots.’ At this rate, flag football will be the new American pastime 20 years for now."

From Troy Aikman: "The league would be better served, and maybe the officials would be, if they were to go through the rule book and start over, and have some continuity as to how some things are officiated, whether it's in the end zone, or whether it's in the middle of the field, or if it's on the sideline," Aikman told host Rayven Tirado. "There's a lot of variations within each of these rules."

List of 2013 declined defensive PI calls (not in chronological order)...
Matt Ryan pass complete deep right to Harry Douglas for 54 yards (tackle by Leonard Johnson). Penalty on Leonard Johnson: Defensive Pass Interference (Declined)

Tony Romo pass complete deep right to Dez Bryant for 53 yards (tackle by Quintin Demps). Penalty on Brandon Flowers: Defensive Pass Interference (Declined)

Sam Bradford pass complete deep left to Austin Pettis for 27 yards (tackle by Tarell Brown). Penalty on Tarell Brown: Defensive Pass Interference (Declined)

Terrelle Pryor pass complete deep right to Denarius Moore for 35 yards (tackle by Richard Marshall). Penalty on Richard Marshall: Defensive Pass Interference (Declined)

Matt Ryan pass complete deep left to Julio Jones for 46 yards (tackle by Antonio Cromartie). Penalty on Antonio Cromartie: Defensive Pass Interference (Declined)

Philip Rivers pass complete deep left to Keenan Allen for 18 yards (tackle by Cary Williams). Penalty on Cary Williams: Defensive Pass Interference (Declined)

Aaron Rodgers pass complete deep left to Jordy Nelson for 37 yards (tackle by David Amerson). Penalty on David Amerson: Defensive Pass Interference (Declined)

Aaron Rodgers pass complete deep right to James Jones for 39 yards (tackle by Chris Houston). Penalty on Chris Houston: Defensive Pass Interference (Declined)

Robert Griffin III pass complete deep left to Pierre Garcon for 38 yards (tackle by Derek Cox). Penalty on Derek Cox: Defensive Pass Interference (Declined)

Christian Ponder pass complete deep right to Jerome Simpson for 44 yards (tackle by Chris Houston). Penalty on Chris Houston: Defensive Pass Interference (Declined)

Josh McCown pass complete deep right to Brandon Marshall for 23 yards, touchdown. Penalty on Tramon Williams: Defensive Pass Interference (Declined)

Matthew Stafford pass complete short left to Calvin Johnson for 12 yards (tackle by Johnthan Banks). Penalty on Johnthan Banks: Defensive Pass Interference (Declined)

Ryan Fitzpatrick pass complete deep left to Justin Hunter for 40 yards (tackle by Alan Ball). Penalty on Alan Ball: Defensive Pass Interference (Declined)

Carson Palmer pass complete deep right to Michael Floyd for 37 yards. Penalty on Dwayne Gratz: Defensive Pass Interference (Declined)