I swear, half of the plays in the games I watch have a penalty. It just kills the flow of the game seeing a flag all the time, it feels like games back in the 00’s were not like this.
I swear, half of the plays in the games I watch have a penalty. It just kills the flow of the game seeing a flag all the time, it feels like games back in the 00’s were not like this.
2009: 3669 penalties
2010: 3713 penalties
2011: 3896 penalties
2012: 3809 penalties
2013: 3635 penalties
2014: 4246 penalties
2015: 4326 penalties
2016: 4164 penalties
2017: 4166 penalties
2018: 4205 penalties
2019: 4278 penalties
2020: 3499 penalties (covid year)
2021: 3909 penalties (added a 17th game)
2022: 3726 penalties
2023: 2229 penalties on pace for 4012 (this on pace will vary a bit due to bye weeks for various teams)
Saw a sizable spike 2014-2019, but actually went down on averages the last few years while adding an extra week.
… Can we get that breakdown by type of penalty, though?
It really paints far more interesting contextual pictures about how referee calls are shaping the league at any given time.
For example, what’s the trend on RTP and DPI and illegal contact and whatnot? These penalty rates impact the feel of the game far more than, e.g., ineligible receivers down the field.
What is rtp
Roughing the passer.
More rarely, roughing the punter or kicker.
Sure, I’ll do that for you in a few hours
You’re a G
bigggest takeaway for me: false start and defensive offside way down, dpi (and arguably defensive holding) up moderately, the rest holding steady at <5% of penalties called
fouls as share of total penalties by season
Sure, I’ll do that for you in a few hours
I will say that the share of first downs achieved by penalty is similarly pretty stable
edit: busy as hell, and hitting the character limit so i’ll split into increases and decreases, but here you go, sorted by highest increase to smallest increase (decreases in child comment)
way to bring logic and statistics into this
this doesn’t mean anything bc the issue is the type of penalty
way more calls that require the refs to stand around and conference, wasting time and slowing the game down
somebody will say ‘well akshually the games are shorter’ no they gave up on some of those between play commercial breaks and started inserting ads into the ‘down time’ of games
really hasn’t been that pronounced even in the usual suspects of “game’s gotten soft”:
We’re talking about an extra defensive holding every five games. an extra roughing the passer every eight.
It’s awesome that you put the effort into this and the other data below. But it’s sad because the people like OP and others in this thread will ignore it entirely