NFL Penalties Explained #2: Gameplay Penalties

[@Whitsoxrule1]

Would love to see a similar video series about fouls in the NBA. I'm a casual fan but recently I've started watching more games, and I can never understand what makes one play a foul but not another. For example the difference between a blocking foul and a charging foul.

[@Beranin]

+1 for NHL also

[@psymar]

Basically the difference is that if the defender is moving their feet, it's blocking. If the defender has their feet set, it's charging. At least that's the rule. As for what the ref calls, ymmv.

[@Ballin4Vengeance]

How much the fouled player flops

[@rfischerification]

OMG YAAS PLEASE

[@Flyingtwiglet]

Im a new NFL fan from the UK. This really helped explain some of the rules, although as you say, pass interference seems to be interpreted differently at every game.

[@FatherOfWood]

This is a fantastic video. As a casual football fan, you've made penalties so much clearer. Thanks!

[@SportsExplained]

Thanks!

[@laiika511]

If you want an efficient, transparent and consistent penalty system, look to the XFL. The pacing is night and day, and the fans get a look inside the review booth for an understanding on why a call was made. But the bigger issue is the NFL likes it this way. More time to review is more time to shove in TV commercials.

[@rubencamposlopez]

I'm not a NFL fan, that because i've never seen it because of my country (Spain). But this time, specially thanks to Amazon Prime, i will be able to watch it. So I was starting seing the rules, and one think that caught my eye is the controversy of flag penalties. Honestly, Its hard to assimilate, but seing the examples of this video helps a lot. Thanks. PD: That pass interference not flagged for the Saints match is an armed robbery

[@joeshmoe7789]

Growing up with football is what makes it so enjoyable for Americans. But the pace of the game due to commercial breaks, referees discussing every call and the replay rule delays of the game today, it is much too boring to compete with the soccer the rest of the world grew up with.

[@benmoskowitz4264]

opi is not a loss of down. also wut happened to too many men, uneccessry roughness and intentional grounding?

[@oneundercover]

These videos are so helpful for someone who didn’t grow up watching or playing a sport but would like to know more! I’d love to see one on basketball fouls or on most common football plays?

[@SportsExplained]

Noted!

[@FrostyFrostySnow]

This series is so good! Would love a video that gets into more detail about the different types of personal fouls and unsportsmanlike conduct

[@al3x3lm3jor]

WOW... one of the best edited and more interesting sports videos on the plataform, i guarantee that if there are more videos like this or the one with the pitches explained, the channel is going to blow up

[@SportsExplained]

Wow, thanks! They're all going to be like this, hopefully. Glad you like them. Check out the others!

[@froggore52]

This is a vastly underappreciated video.

[@SportsExplained]

Thanks! More on the way.

[@miguelgarismendiv7014]

You should make a video about how kicks works in the NFL. That's one of the most difficult things to understand about this game. I am not from the US, so I had to learn the game while watching and the kicks (punts, FG rules, kick-off) flags or fumbles still 5 years later confuses me.

[@Kylora2112]

Basics: Punt: the offense can punt the ball away at any time as long as you are behind the line of scrimmage (you may see a "pooch punt" on a 3rd and long and it will be disguised as a deep passing route so the receivers can be in good position to down the ball deeper in the opponent's territory). It is *not* a live ball until the defense/receiving team touches the ball. Free kicks following a safety are treated the same as punts. Field goal: the offense can kick a field goal at any time, but it must be made as a place kick (a holder sets the ball on the field) or as a "drop kick" (the kicker drops the ball onto the field and kicks it...this has only ever happened once in an official game since the 1940s, and it was a joke play by the Patriots as Doug Flutie's final play of his career). It's a live ball if the kick does not cross the line of scrimmage (shanked or blocked), but it's *not* a live ball if the ball does cross the line of scrimmage (see the Leon Lett play against Miami where he cost the Cowboys the game by trying to recover what should have been a dead ball). Kickoff: the ball is live once it goes 10 yards beyond the kickoff line (you can see what happens when the receiving team has a brain fart by the Jets' infamous "kick recovery touchdown" against the Bills). This is how onside kicks work. Fumble: Pretty simple...the ball is always live unless it's a punt and either team can advance the ball if they recover it. The exception is the "Holy Roller" rule where on 4th down or with less than 2 minutes remaining on the game clock, the only *offensive* player who can advance a fumble is the player who fumbled it (any offensive player can *recover* the ball, but it's returned to the spot of the fumble). Aaron Rodgers fumbled the ball in his endzone and, while his teammate recovered it at like the 5 yard line, it was ruled a safety because Rodgers himself didn't recover the ball, so it was treated as the offense being down in their own endzone. You won't see too many nuances like this actually play out very often, but knowing when the ball is live or not definitely affects how you can perceive certain plays, and whether you should scream obscenities at your TV or not :)

[@psymar]

@@Kylora2112 there's also the fair catch kick rule, but it is so rarely used that the announcers will explain it if it happens.

[@Vinterfader]

​@@psymarI see somebody signalling for a fair catch at almost every game? Or are talking about something different than the "hand in air"-thingy?

[@boredwibilly]

Might help to explain, in a follow-up, "points of emphasis" the NFL makes for officiating, such as taunting last season.

[@tomzd99]

I had to watch this after I watched the pre-snap penalties. I love this too. Thanks.

[@annurbane]

Love the type overtop real plays which is extremely helpful. Love the summaries at the end and the "quiz" section. These make it the best explanatory videos I have seen online.

[@avoiredranger110]

I love how you put real plays and general trivia, other than the explanation itself.

[@richardjanowski]

5:11 OPI isn't a loss of down.

[@ziIla]

Very, very well said. It’s very nice listening to your voice and the words you say. It’s all incredibly clear and concise. Thanks man

[@Kylora2112]

For pass interference, you probably should have added that accidental contact while making an attempt to catch or deflect the ball is legal, since all defenders and eligible receivers have equal right to the ball, and something like "feet entanglement" might get a flag on the field (because "receiver/defender fall down go boom" can easily draw a flag), but will get picked up on review. You can't run a dude over to make a play on the ball, but if your hands and the receiver's hands cross each other up on a jump ball, it more probably than not won't be a penalty.

[@Dalton1294]

I hate the current roughing the passer rule because it can wipe away a sack, I'm not kidding this has happened. Oh, I can't forget about the the "roughing" the passer call against the Chiefs in the 2019 AFC championship

[@nenelan]

Between this and that news article, that helps a TON. Love your videos! Great work on editing and getting it very clear, illustrating the differences.

[@SportsExplained]

Awesome, thank you!

[@ilcabri.]

This is awesome! Love to see the explanations with real game footage. Thanks!

[@SportsExplained]

More to come! Thanks for subscribing.

[@KTC88]

Thank you for making this. Great explanations!

[@SportsExplained]

🥳🥳

[@calebayton9073]

Could you do a football explainer video for the difference between college and the NFL? For a lot of new foreign fans who need these explainers, they are exposed to the NFL but there is not nearly as much of an audience for college football and the differences are hard to notice and often not mentioned on TV. Also an explainer for common football terms and parlance would be cool

[@glennmglazer]

Many thanks for the link to the rule book. I had no idea it was online!

[@norayrazaryan8092]

Please make a post-play fouls video!

[@epsilon9669]

I'm surprised you didn't mention targeting, since that's one of the few (only? idk) fouls that can get a player ejected.

[@insertcolorherehawk3761]

There’s a very easy reason for that There isn’t a Targeting penalty in the NFL rule book, that’s an NCAA/IFAF rule

[@epsilon9669]

@@insertcolorherehawk3761 huh. never realized that. the more you know

[@jaredemccabe1]

Great video man. Quick question. If the defensive pass interference occurs in the end zone, where is the ball placed? Is it an automatic touchdown?

[@SportsExplained]

One yard line!

[@robthompson8285]

Love the channel. Please make more videos. Thoroughly enjoyable

[@SportsExplained]

Thank you! Will do!

[@johnrogers8763]

Could you do one on odd, unusual, and rare penalties?

[@leomvj]

Excellent video. More videos highly apreciated

[@jeremymurphy7320]

Why is it inconsistent? Young and incredibly fast players in a game being officiated by officlad that are mostly old, slow and out of position.

[@paul_romero_]

Fantastic video! 💪🏽💪🏽 🏈

[@wintersummers3085]

its officiated inconstantly because that is one of the ways they influence the outcome of games

[@rfischerification]

Can you do a video like this for holding?

[@SportsExplained]

An interesting video idea! Holding happens on pretty much every play, so it would be more a video about whether or not a specific instance of holding crosses the loose threshold between where they'll throw a flag and where they'll let it slide. Certainly seems like a coin flip on some types of plays. Might be hard to find clips but would certainly be edifying for me. I'll put it on the ideas list!

[@rfischerification]

@SportsExplained Thank you! This format is very helpful.

[@Undercoversteve96]

Trust me, we’re still salty about that PI vs the Rams -a New Orleans fan

[@williamwilting]

Can an offensive passing player be penalized for a fake dive/fall as an attempt to make the referee call a 'roughing the passer'? In soccer a player in ball possession might be penalized for a fake dive/fall, in particular if they're in a promising position to score. So, I'm asking because I imagine an offensive player wanting to do that in order to make the defense lose terrain. One other question. I'm aware of a violation called 'intentional grounding', which, if I explain it correctly, is called when a player in possession of the ball intentionally throws the ball away, without a receiver going to catch it, in order to cause an incomplete pass, because this wouldn't cause the team to lose terrain in the next down. Well, I've seen some situations in which an offensive player was about to be sacked in his own endzone, which would score a safety for the defense, and threw away the ball (out of bounds) while there was no receiver close to the spot that he threw the ball to. However, in a few of these situations no penalty was given, which I thought was weird because the player didn't seem to throw the ball in a direction towards a receiver. So, my question is: what are the exact criteria for 'intentional grounding' to be penalized and what penalties are the consequences (I know it can vary depending on the spot of the violation; sometimes it's a yards loss and sometimes it's an (automatic) safety (if that's on the line). Intentional grounding seems to be in a gray area sometimes. I just don't understand.

[@SportsExplained]

(1) Flopping or “embellishing” does happen! As far as I know there is no unsportsmanlike conduct penalty for embellishment. (2) intentional grounding is only a penalty in “the pocket,” which is the area defined by the offensive line. Once a passer is outside the pocket, they can throw the ball away

[@Zathien]

6:22 That fully extended arm on his back preventing him from making a play on the ball is what drew the PI call

[@SportsExplained]

That is a very generous interpretation of the play but yeah that’s the only thing it could have been. Hard for me to see this play and think that that hand prevented the receiver from making the play. The ball was high and it wasn’t really a push.

[@SportsExplained]

On the defense it generally needs to look like holding on a receiver on a catchable ball in order for it to be pass interference. I don’t see it here. Offensive pass interference is the one that is often called when the player uses an extended arm to create separation. Different set of rules for offense & defense

[@Zathien]

@@SportsExplained The ball was so high that the db behind him was able to make a play on it. It was definitely close enough and without the extended arm in the back preventing him from moving towards it he may have been able to catch it. The rule says it's a penalty when the "defender interferes or hinders a receiver's fair attempt at catching a football."

[@TheUnaturalSelection]

Ref ball has been making football a worse product for a while now. I always hope it gets better, but it feels like it has gotten significantly worse this year. Their "focus" on taunting this year has been laughably poor.

[@SportsExplained]

This is my first time hearing the term "Refball" and it is absolutely the way to describe NFL officiating. The inconsistent focus on taunting this year is a good example, and it's just one example. Every sports league has bad officiating from time to time, but the NFL is the only major professional sports league I know of where inconsistent and unreviewable officiating is a guaranteed feature of every game you watch. This is unacceptable for a league that positions itself as the top professional sports league in the world.

[@Kylora2112]

@@SportsExplained Totally. MLB has some similar cases (Angél Hernandez being the worst ump in history and having HUGE and highly visible bad calls in big games, and they don't fire him even though he's just not good enough to actually be an MLB umpire). The NFL doesn't have any necessarily *bad* refs, but because there's so much to watch for on the field, they should have a couple of centralized rules officials in HQ that can overturn/make calls for field officials on extraordinarily bad [non-]calls, like the no-call on Nickell Robey-Coleman). You can't try to be one of the most important sports leagues on the planet and just double down on your officials constantly fucking up.

[@alexinness]

I once read a list of what each player's position was worth to the team in dollars. Not the player himself, but a value on the position played. I wonder if you ever heard of such.

[@QemeH]

The problem with NFL officiating is that the NFL isn’t the top of a league tree with movements up and down, but rather a stand-alone franchise with no connection to minor leagues. This means that officials are literally employees of the league and are rostered as such. Just because Beccy might be a little slower on cleanup in aisle 4, you don’t fire her. And the NFL has a similar approach: Refs are usually reprimanded and sent to re-training rather than exchanged for new refs, because getting new refs is a long and difficult process as there is no „almost like the NFL“ league as a second tier for officials below. This was plain to see when they called college and minor league football refs „up“ to the big show when the big strike happened. The quality PLUMMETED. This deficit has to be overcome every single time the NFL fires a ref, so they rather try to keep a stable cast and make them at least kinda good.

[@insertcolorherehawk3761]

I’m surprised that Intentional Grounding didn’t come up at all

[@Aikisbest]

Why isnt pass interference reviewable anymore if the calls are so damn inconsistant? Is this like in (association) football where referees can make blunders of a magnitude youd never get away with in any other line of work but the administrative bodies that govern the leagues are hell bent on covering the refs asses for some reason? Happens in Sweden too often for comfort and we dont even have VAR at all, so it is a crapshow at times.

[@robertlunderwood]

There is no loss of down on OPI. The down is replayed.

[@SportsExplained]

Yes, you are correct

[@nenelan]

They pride themselves on their parity, but they're known as a parody. 🤣

[@wenisinvietnam]

Wait is this SunlessKhan?

[@charliecushman9193]

No it’s the safety of it quarter back 90% of those calls in the nfl in college are not called

[@thehockeyfinn]

THANK YOU!

[@MilkDrinker2001]

Great video, but you can't include that last roughing the passer call in there, there isn't a human on the planet who thinks that that is roughing the passer except the single ref calling it. This kind of video can heavily influence what new viewers believe about the sport

[@caseymclane1972]

Came here after the latest Super Bowl to find out what the hell happened at the end, only to be told the refs just dropped a massive lemon haha

[@SportsExplained]

An interesting and deflating ending. By the letter of the law that was a hold. But it was a tiny hold.

[@kahnala9949]

the new roughing the passer rule is bogus there is only so much that you can do to stop your momentum and usually that isnt much

[@brianpepin6763]

There's always three teams in the NFL

[@BK-qp4uq]

Its a shame, that the Refs from the NewOrleansRobbery arent benched forever.

[@JohnSmith-zw8vp]

So as Harrison Ford said to his daughter in Air Force One, pass interference and holding are only cheating if you get caught! :D

[@johnslyfield5096]

Facemask!

[@nickpineau4139]

I believe that refs should get fined for blown calls. Why should they get away with doing their job poorly when a player might end up getting cut for making a similarly huge mistake during a game.

[@roberkraft1982]

They can If I’m not mistaken, just the NFL doesn’t give two fucks and doesn’t want to look wrong ever

[@SportsExplained]

I'm not sure what the remedy is, but things need to be better and there definitely needs to be more accountability on the part of the league and the referees. My guess is some sort of automatic review system on specific types of big penalties (pass interference, the 15-yarders, etc.) would be the most universally accepted solution. But, at the same time, referees are not accountable if they call games inconsistently, and I would like to see this change. Every week we see a game where a bad call or a non-call may have been the deciding factor in games.

[@SportsExplained]

Consistent officiating is important in any league, but this topic is especially important in NFL football because there's only, on average, 11 minutes of actual game played during a "60-minute" football game that goes on for three hours. So, every big play matters, and every bad call or bad no-call matters. The team that was the victim of the bad call might not get an additional chance to make up for whatever they lost on the bad call. medium.com/knowledge-stew/how-much-playing-really-goes-on-in-an-nfl-game-4d1db2731538

[@theonewiththemilk]

Facemask is very important i think

[@hunt8609]

MORE

[@ddviddestroyer9685]

I’m sorry but there is no need to attack officials for making a video about the rules, you went through how the rules work very well but there’s no need to shit of refs

[@looking8030]

💯👌🏽

[@DBR00]

The background music was beyond annoying for an otherwise really good video.

[@hunt8609]

you can hardly hear it lmao

[@njm1259]

Surely nfl referees aren’t worse then premier league referees 😂

[@SaltyPirate71]

Let's get real about officiating: the calls will not improve as long as the NFL is allowed to make $2B per year off sports betting. Anyone who thinks that $2B doesn't influence games, needs a friend to help pull their head out of their ass! This is no different than MLB or NASCAR. They're all manipulating outcomes for the betting money.

[@you-nh8xo]

Pass interference? Umm, yeah that's their job