[miami_fan]

Originally Posted by bhlloy

The thing is, not to beat the dead horse conversation that we have been having for 15 years or more, but there is offensive holding on almost every play. There is contact past 5 yards on almost every play. Offensive linemen go further downfield than they are supposed to and receivers interfere on almost every screen pass. We accept that to get an outcome that doesn’t fundamentally break the game, we accept it unless it’s absolutely egregious, has a huge impact on a play or if in the flow of the game the refs feel the need to call it.

IMO we can only accept that if we are also willing to say that refs see the infractions and actively choose that the incident is not worthy of being penalized because it did not fit the criteria that you or the league laid out. That is not what we do for what I think are obvious reasons. Instead, we say that the refs made a mistake or just did not see the infraction. Those two perspectives are not mutually exclusive. Refs do make mistakes and do just not see infractions. They are human and they will not be perfect. But they are not making mistakes on every play. They are not missing the calls on every play. They are also seeing the infractions that could draw a flag and choosing not to throw the flag based on their own judgement, points of emphasis/guidance from the league or because the officials just hate team X.