The NFL saw two competing examples of the flag in Week 5, one of which got called and one of which didn’t.

The one that was called came in the late moments of Buccaneers vs. Falcons. With the Falcons looking to get the ball back to put together one more drive, Grady Jarrett spun Tom Brady to the ground for what looked like a routine sack. Instead, the flag was thrown, and the Buccaneers bled the clock to zero.

“Monday Night Football” saw two such controversial calls. First, it was a roughing the passer call on Chris Jones for falling on top of Derek Carr, then it was a no-call when Patrick Mahomes was spun to the ground in a manner eerily similar to Brady’s hit.

Both players bemoaned the calls against them, Jarrett on his radio show and Jones at his locker. Jarrett called for the calls to be reviewable, while Jones simply asked “what you want me to do?”

The NFL is no stranger to controversial roughing calls, and the numbers are actually down through Week 6 this year. Officials have thrown the flag for roughing 38 times in 2022, down from 52 through Week 6 in 2021. So why is it so controversial again, and what’s the history of this confusing rule?

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NFL roughing the passer rule

The NFL’s reasoning on the roughing the passer penalty starts with why it’s necessary to protect the QB in the first place. From Article 11 of the NFL rulebook:

There are a lot of actions that can constitute roughing; four subsections’ worth, in fact.

There’s the late hit example (subsection a):

 The body weight on the way down example (this is arguably the most controversial):

Note the language of “strive to fall to the side of the quarterback’s body,” which is of course very difficult to do in game action.

Then there’s the obvious launching of the helmet, which now applies to all players:

 And of course hitting the quarterback low:

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The NFL rulebook gives officiating a lot of power with the language it uses, but it basically breaks down to:

Don’t hit the quarterback late. Don’t bring your full body weight onto the quarterback after he’s hit. Don’t lead with the helmet or touch the QB in the head or neck area. Don’t hit the QB around the knee area.  

These are all pretty straightforward rules in their own right, but the way they’re applied has caused some confusion among NFL players and fans alike. Adding to this, after the quarterback throws the ball, if he stands pat or falls backwards he’s considered out of the play, and if he scrambles, his level of protection changes to any position player’s.

How many yards is roughing the passer penalty?

Roughing the passer, like any other unnecessary roughness penalty, is 15 yards from the previous spot.

It also has an automatic first down attached.

In extreme circumstances, it can lead to ejections if the contact is considered flagrant.

When did roughing the passer become a rule?

The roughing the passer penalty dates back to 1940. This was around the renaissance of passing in the NFL, when the league was becoming more pass-friendly.

It was part of a variety of other rules intended to help promote the passing game.

Roughing the passer then and now

When roughing was implemented in 1940, it looked largely the same as it does now.

The biggest difference over the years is the addition of the language preventing players from putting their body weight on a QB during a sack (which, incidentally, has become some of the most controversial language).

Otherwise, the flags for late hits were still in place.

The other change came in 2009 with the so-called “Brady Rule.” After Tom Brady was sidelined in 2008 after suffering a torn ACL in the Patriots’ season opener, the NFL added language preventing defenders from lunging at quarterbacks’ knees to prevent those kinds of injuries from occurring again.

Controversy around this rule will continue to persist, as it has for years, but the NFL is calling games this way to protect its product. Along those lines, the league’s executive vice president, Troy Vincent, said at the Oct. 18 owners’ meetings that there was “healthy conversation” about the rule but insisted no changes are imminent. 

“We are not changing the philosophy around that call," Vincent told reporters, via Jonathan Jones of CBS. “… We are not going to back off protecting the quarterback.”