NFL executive says there’s a little-known stipulation in roughing-the-passer rule
Following the Chiefs’ 23-14 win Saturday over the Houston Texans, referee Clay Martin spoke with a pool reporter about two roughing penalties on hits to quarterback Patrick Mahomes.
Martin explained why those penalties were correctly called.
On Sunday, NFL senior vice president of officiating Walt Anderson was on the NFL Network and talked about those plays.
Anderson started with the roughing-the-passer call that fans of other teams believed wasn’t a hit to Mahomes’ helmet.
“When the defenders come in, and when they end up coming in face to face, if there’s contact to the head of the quarterback, that’s probably going to be called by the officials, and that’s what you can see here,” Anderson said. “Now, it has to be forcible. And one of the things we added this year is, if there’s no contact at all to the helmet, replay can assist. But on this play, there was contact, and so replay could not help the officials with picking that (flag) up.
“You can end up having to debate about whether you felt it was forcible or not, and that’s going to be one of those conversations for the competition committee to consider next year. But when he comes in right there, face to face, officials are going to call that. That’s the rule for this year.”
Anderson then took note of a special stipulation in the NFL rulebook about roughing the passer. And it’s one that fans may not realize is in the rulebook.
“The other thing that a lot of your audience might not realize is in most of the rulebook, when in question, officials are not supposed to call a foul,” Anderson said. “But there’s one place in the rulebook where it states, by rule, that when in doubt, officials are to call roughing the passer, and it’s in the roughing-the-passer rule.”
I’m guessing that most people didn’t realize NFL officials are instructed to err on the side of calling a penalty only in roughing-the-passer plays.
Second roughing call
Later in the game, Mahomes was scrambling when he went to the ground and a pair of Texans defensive players hit the Chiefs quarterback.
“Whether it seems like it or not, officials have to call based on what they see,” Anderson said. “Now, when a player goes to the ground, he doesn’t even have to be touched, he’s down. And what happens here is, yes, the two (Houston) players end up colliding. But right here, this is the shot when No. 39 comes in and his hairline of his helmet strikes the helmet of the runner who is already on the ground. That’s a foul.
“And even if replay assist could help when there’s contact like that, that’s not going to be changed by replay assist, even if the committee decides to add that for next year.”
You can watch Anderson talk about the penalties on X/Twitter.
This story was originally published January 20, 2025 at 8:54 AM.
