NFL Officiating

[Buffalo Bob]

The officiating is no worse, it is evolving rules and all the subjective calls that make the officiating what it is. The new personal foul rules are very difficult to get right when you have to decide flag or no flag once at full speed. To me personal foul calls should be reviewed along with any pass interference of 15 yards or more.

To me the best example of how much harder to officiate the game is what offensive lineman are allowed to do. All of us 50+ crowd remember when a blocker could not grab or extend his hands away from his body holding and illegal use of hands were black and white. Now you can grab, yank, tug and push a guy while blocking him as long as you don't over do it. There is the 1980 version of holding on every play. 35 years ago you didn't have a lot of these gray areas now there are hoards of them.

[NoCalHail]

Also, has there been some kind of rule change about what a WR can/can't do when he is jammed at the line on say a screen pass and is trying to block for it? I have seen more Offensive PI calls on WRs who seem like they are merely engaged with a defender and trying to block.

It's as if the NFL is only going to allow the Tom Brady and Peyton Manning utilize the pick plays and anyone else who does it will get flagged. My eyes may be playing tricks on me but it seems like every time the Pats run that kind of play they have guys blocking downfield before the ball is caught and it is perfectly ok.