The NFL is supporting two controversial roughing the passer penalties from Week 5, league executive vice president of football operations Troy Vincent said Sunday during an appearance on ESPN's Sunday NFL Countdown.
The calls generated discussion all week about the erratic nature of the roughing the passer penalty and judgment calls made in these instances by referees Jerome Boger and Carl Cheffers.
NFL executives often use the word «support» when asked about subjective calls. But given the opportunity to acknowledge that either call was wrong, or a case of poor judgment, Vincent demurred. «We support those calls,» he said. «Why?
Because in Article 11 [of the rulebook], this is the one rule — and we have a ton of rules — where the judgment you give the referee, that white hat, is the latitude to call that play in real time.