3-times DPOY JJ Watt wants the penalty for offensive holding to be reduced from 10 to 5 yards
The JJ Watt proposal is heavily influenced by the Super Bowl LVIII game.
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JJ Watt (Via Imago)
When it comes to holding penalties, the NFL officials often seem to hold back from calling. But it tends to get a bit hefty for the teams, especially when there’s a lot at stake.
That’s why the former NFL defensive lineman made quite an appealing suggestion to the NFL to make the game more fair as well as exciting for the defensive players.
In his recent appearance on Pat McAfee Show, JJ Watt proposed reducing the penalty for offensive holding from 10 yards to 5.
He argued that the ten-yard penalty is massive and often unfair to the teams; even the referees realize this. Therefore, if it’s reduced to a certain mark, it wouldn’t hurt the offensive that much.
I think the refs understand that a 10-yard penalty is a massive penalty in the NFL. So I think if you made [it] a 5-yard penalty, I think it’s going to be called much more fairly and much more realistically. Because it’s not as crippling to the offense.He said via Pro Football Talk.
Although the three-time Defensive Player of the Year’s proposal is intriguing, it may not address the reason why the officials appear reluctant while holding. It usually happens because the official prefers giving the offensive lineman some advantage over the defensive lineman, who may harm the quarterback largely.
How Super Bowl LVIII sparked J.J. Watt’s call for holding rule change
The biggest reason why Watt proposed this idea at this moment is heavily influenced by the Super Bowl LVIII game that resulted in the Kansas City Chiefs becoming the second consecutive champion over the San Francisco 49ers by 25-22.
There have been a lot of controversies surrounding the game, but the failure to call offensive penalties appeared too apparent. The 49ers’ head coach, Kyle Shanahan, told Sports Illustrated’s Kristen Wong that the NFL official held back from calling on the Chiefs’ offensive lineman, who should be flagged more.
He attributed this failure on the part of officials to the tragic loss of the Niners, while the Chiefs shone bright with zero holding penalties in three straight Super Bowl games.
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Pratyusha Srivastava
(2113 Articles Published)