SI

Please Keep Calling All the Penalties Even If It's Horrible Television

Too many flags are a problem. So is unfair advantage.

Kyle Koster

Thursday night's Cowboys-Giants game had a penalty problem.
Thursday night's Cowboys-Giants game had a penalty problem. / Julian Leshay Guadalupe/NorthJersey.com / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images
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Al Michaels spoke for America during a Thursday Night Football abomination between the Dallas Cowboys and New York Giants that featured far more penalty flags than exciting plays. He and the general public are not wrong to want cleaner games that have more of a rhythm without the constant stopping-and-starting that flags necessitate. The dirty little secret about the NFL is that a lot of the games are not particularly entertaining or good—something we're reminded of whenever a standalone window becomes effectively sponsored by the color yellow and Big Whistle.

Whenever this happens, the group that takes the most heat is the one wearing stripes. The players, who are far more responsible for the infractions because they are committing them, get a relative free pass. It's never this unprepared team is ruining my fun; it's the refs are ruining the game.

Bad stuff rolls downhill and only true sickos are brave enough to stand up for assigned hall monitors. So that's fine. The consensus viewpoint will not change no matter how passionate the plea. But the state of play raises a few interesting questions.

First and foremost: what is the recourse here? Obviously calling penalties that aren't penalties is bad. Yet when a clear infraction happens, what is the officiating crew actually supposed to do? What is the complainant's desired course of action? Would anyone actually go on record saying that crews should just look the other way on stuff because it kills the general vibe?

That seems silly.

Relatedly, and mileage may vary: this thought experiment. Would fans rather have a game adjudicated properly at the expense of aesthetic enjoyment or would they rather do away with the perception of fairness for fewer penalties? With all of the money and passion for gambling and fantasy football right now, isn't ensuring no one feels cheated financially of greater importance?

Policing the rules without taking away from the entertainment value has been a balance all sports leagues have had to grapple with. It feels like fans should figure out where, exactly, they stand on the issue before lodging any more complaints. Because while it would be nice to execute both projects flawlessly, it's also unrealistic.

Or, you know, keep grumbling about awful games. It's a free country.

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Kyle Koster
KYLE KOSTER

Kyle Koster is an assistant managing editor at Sports Illustrated covering the intersection of sports and media. He was formerly the editor in chief of The Big Lead, where he worked from 2011 to '24. Koster also did turns at the Chicago Sun-Times, where he created the Sports Pros(e) blog, and at Woven Digital.

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