Spot-of-the-foul Stinks

If I ever stop watching major team sports completely, or nearly completely, it will be because of the lack of integrity in the results of each game.  I think I've covered this point more than once.

My comment today is not in the integrity of the specific result of the game that inspired this post (Vikings vs. Bears today).  The Bears were the better team, to be sure.

But there was one play that, if the Vikings were to have had a chance, and I do mean if, the officials needed to get correct.  They blew it, but still, that's not the point...really.

What upsets me is that this type of play could, and probably has on many occasions, been the decider in a game.  OK, I'll quit beating around the bush.  It's defensive pass interference, and the ridiculous spot-of-the-foul punishment it leads to.

There are so many things wrong with that type of penalty, but what irks me most is that the interference so often doesn't even occur. So where is the logic in rewarding a team first-and-goal at the one after a 50-yard pass where both defender and receiver are mixing it up, and the officials decide to call a penalty on the defender? Today, it was only 25 yards, but the receiver appeared to be just as guilty, if not moreso, of the illegal contact. 

So what's my suggestion? Well, I'm not particularly fond of the college rule of 15 yards "no matter what." But I think it's a false dichotomy to suggest that one has to pick one or the other.  

How about both? Perhaps, like an NBA "flagrant foul," the NFL could make a rule where if it was blatant, then fine, spot-of-the-foul to the offense, but no less than 15 yards, or the one yard-line if the line of scrimmage was the 16 or closer. But where they are jostling together for the ball, and the defender is perhaps too aggressive? Then no more than 15 yards, and spot at the one if and only if the line of scrimmage was at the 16 or closer. Automatic first down in either case.

The spot-of-the foul reward assumes that without the foul, the receiver would almost certainly have made the play, and thus gets rewarded the yardage, and that's just ludicrous. They stop just short of giving them the TD if it occurs in the end zone, thankfully, but that's not enough.

I get that a lot of penalties perhaps over-reward the victimized team, and to some degree, as a deterrent, they should. But in plays like this in the Vikings/Bears game, when it was still a game, giving the Bears the ball on the one yard line ranks with shootouts deciding World Cup soccer championships in stupidity.

And the more major team sports leagues allow the integrity of their games suffer like this, the less I really care about the results, and thus, the less I'll be spending on their product.