In wake of the controversy following the NFC championship game two months ago, the NFL made a major change to pass interference penalties. Owners voted on Tuesday to make both offensive and defensive pass interference fouls reviewable and challengeable in an attempt to correct missed calls like the one against Nickell Robey-Coleman.
The same rules apply to pass interference as ordinary plays that can be challenged, meaning coaches can throw the red flag outside the two-minute warning and they still have two per game. Inside two minutes, it goes to a booth review.
Players, fans and media members all shared their thoughts on the rule change after it was announced and Rams safety Eric Weddle doesn’t like it. He took to Twitter to make that abundantly clear.
Playing defense is difficult enough in today’s NFL, particularly when it comes to coverage. The majority of rules are there to benefit offensive players, from defensive holding to illegal contact and many others in-between.
Richard Sherman also doesn’t like the change as it’ll almost certainly make his job more difficult when it comes to defending receivers downfield.
With coaches still only having two challenges and booth reviews coming strictly inside the two-minute warning, the change shouldn’t slow down the game too much, if at all. That’s good news for viewers, but it won’t make some defensive players feel any better about it.
