Former star defensive end J.J. Watt had strong feelings about the officiating crew during Super Bowl 58, and has one suggestion for a rule change that he believes would make things more fair.
J.J. Watt Suggests NFL Rule Change for Holding Penalty
In his latest appearance on The Pat McAfee Show, Watt, a three-time Defensive Player of the Year, criticized the officiating team of Super Bowl 58 and how the game is officiated in general — particularly, their lack of holding calls.
“With all these slow-motion replays there are a lot of times that fans are complaining about a hold. As an NFL pass rusher, you know that you’re never gonna get that call,” Watt said.
He discussed some personal experiences from when he was in the league and expressed frustration with how and when holding is called.
“As a pass rusher, it is extremely frustrating,” he said. “There is no question that every great pass rusher in the game is having holding calls missed on them multiple times. You definitely do have situations where you know they are holds, but you know that you’re not going to get the call.
“Then, you have situations where they are holds, and you know you got screwed. You should have gotten the call, but you didn’t.”
His solution? Reducing offensive holding from 10 yards to five.
“It has to be outside of the body where the guy is literally pulling you, and it’s like away from your body … I think the refs understand that a 10-yard penalty is a massive penalty in the NFL,” Watt said.
“So I think if you made holding a 5-yard penalty, I think it’s going to be called much more fairly and much more realistically because it’s not as crippling to the offense.”
After Super Bowl 58, audio was released of San Francisco 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan discussing the lack of holding calls that he felt Kansas City Chiefs offensive linemen should have been flagged for.
“Hey, I saw the hold, but that’s what they do every time,” he told an official during the game, per Sports Illustrated’s Kristen Wong. “They hold, they tug our guy ’til Pat [Mahomes] leaves, and then they let go. That’s what our guy did; make sure they call it both ways.”
The official either didn’t listen to Shanahan or didn’t agree with him, since the Chiefs didn’t get called for a single offensive hold during the game.
Watt believes that a reduced punishment would incentivize officials to penalize offensive linemen for holding more often and reduce complaints such as those from Shanahan.
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He makes a valid point, as an offense flagged 10 yards, which could put them from 1st-and-10 to 1st-and-20, is setting them up to stall their drive. In a time when offense is key, and points lead to more excitement and ratings, there may be bias on the referees’ end to not call holding unless it is blatantly obvious.
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