NFL Sets Record For Most Penalties In A Season With 3,544 In 2015

[BillsImpossible]

NFL 2015 - Total penalties for all teams per week

Week 1 206
Week 2 298
Week 3 229
Week 4 229
Week 5 202

Week 6 193
Week 7 192
Week 8 195
Week 9 173
Week 10 186
Week 11 187

Week 12 216
Week 13 218
Week 14 208
Week 15 211
Week 16 210

Week 17 191

Up, down, up, down. There's no consistency with those numbers. Every NFL team is very close in terms of talent. Very little separates each team from the other. I would expect the numbers above to be more like a slightly curved line on a graph instead of seeing peaks and valleys.

What concerns me the most is how the amount of penalties per season has increased dramatically since 2009.

http://www.nflpenalties.com/

Year Total Penalties

2009 3,167
2010 3,217
2011 3,374
2012 3,319
2013 3,245
2014 3,526
2015 3,544

The NFL is getting more contentious with time.

Since 2009, the amount of total penalties has increased by 12%

Might have to put a muzzle on Rex next year.

http://www.cbssports.com/nfl/eye-on-football/25321546/nfl-sets-record-for-most-penalties-in-league-history-through-week-3

http://sports.cbsimg.net/images/blogs/USATSI_flag.jpg

[YardRat]

The bye weeks are most likely the biggest factor with the belly in the middle...and (just based on a couple of games, certainly not the entire schedule) I got the impression the refs were more likely to let the players play in week 17, especially in meaningless games.

Still, the league needs to do something to make the refs less of a factor in the outcome of games, regardless of the circumstances.

[BillsImpossible]

I noticed the same thing in Week 17. Refs let the players play.

That's the way it should have been all season long.

3,544 penalties is ridiculous.

"Over officious jerk!"

[Night Train]

I never saw more phantom penalties. Robey in the Jacksonville game jumps out for us but I viewed many in other games. It got out of hand in 2015.

The officials as a whole are too old and slow (and blind). Get younger athletes in there and make them full time

[BillsImpossible]

Something needs to change. The state of affairs with NFL officiating must change, or fans will tune out.

If NFL referees continue to throw their flags without hesitation, people that like to watch football (like all of us) will watch less.

I've watched less football this season than ever before. Instead of watching the game, I flip the channel now more than ever before.

Casual fans that watch games here and there will be less likely to tune in if the shower of flags continue to flow like a yellow river.

[Mace]

The league needs to simplify their rulebook back to basics and common sense. More often than not, the officials seem confused and indecisive about whether to go all in on a call and look stupid, or skip a call and look stupid, figuring they'll end up looking stupid anyway where they're sort of wishing they knew how not to look stupid.

I mean you'd always have bad calls from time to time but at least they didn't look so confused about them.

[Mace]

As good a time as any for my favorite call ever, and you'll see more than a little confident swagger in the official :


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eslz06J9hFw

[OpIv37]

Here's the thing: fans want to watch a game with the confidence that the team that plays better during that game will emerge as the winner. But fans are losing that confidence because the officiating is so poor.

Football is a sport that relies on momentum and a bad penalty or a missed penalty can kill a drive and completely change the flow of the game. When there are multiple bad calls a game, it's hard to believe that officiating doesn't factor into the outcome. It no longer feels like a clean contest in which the better performing team wins.

[BillsImpossible]

This game is so boring.

Yawn.

Musical interlude....time to take a Whiz.

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[YardRat]

The league needs to simplify their rulebook back to basics and common sense. More often than not, the officials seem confused and indecisive about whether to go all in on a call and look stupid, or skip a call and look stupid, figuring they'll end up looking stupid anyway where they're sort of wishing they knew how not to look stupid.

I mean you'd always have bad calls from time to time but at least they didn't look so confused about them.

That would make a great commercial, especially if the head umpire left his mic on.

[YardRat]

Here's the thing: fans want to watch a game with the confidence that the team that plays better during that game will emerge as the winner.

Not true...I root for the Bills to win every week.

[Mace]

Not true...I root for the Bills to win every week.

Real good one, wish I'd have said it.

[BillsImpossible]

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[BillsImpossible]

If it weren't for a single blown call in London, the Bills might still be alive in the playoffs today.

Can you believe it's 2016?

Say hello to the future

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