NFL Roughing Calls Hurting The Game

Washington Post: Red­skins cor­ner­back Josh Norman has joined the grow­ing num­ber of NFL play­ers, in­clud­ing some of his teammates, who have crit­i­cized the league’s em­pha­sis on rough­ing-the-pass­er pen­al­ties this sea­son.

The con­tro­ver­sy came to a head Sun­day af­ter Packers line­back­er Clay Mat­thews was flagged for his third ques­tion­able pen­al­ty of the year on a sack of Alex Smith.

“Look, man, we’re all start­ing to sound like a string or­ches­tra,” Norman said Tues­day on ESPN Radio’s Spain and Fitz show. “They hear it. They hear the noise, and the noise is start­ing to get loud­er and loud­er. Pret­ty soon, there’s going to be a stam­pede, be­cause at the end of the day, it’s hard to watch. It re­al­ly is hard to watch. You see a game, see some plays that are be­ing made, and it’s foot­ball. It’s not pow­der puff football that you used to play back when you was in school. No, it ain’t that. It’s the real thing."

Steel­ers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger not­ed this sea­son’s rash of rough­ing-the-pass­er pen­al­ties af­ter four more were called on “Mon­day Night Football.”

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