The Rams reportedly plan to submit a proposal making all personal foul penalties, including roughing the passer, reviewable.
The reported proposal plan comes from ESPN NFL insider Adam Schefter, who also noted Los Angeles attempted to make roughing passer reviewable last season, but competition committee voted against it, 9-0, and it was never further discussed.
But Week 5 seemed to be a turning point for the league after Atlanta Falcons’ Grady Jarrett and Kansas City Chiefs’ Chris Jones were called for questionable personal foul calls, which for the former, likely caused them to lose the game.
The NFL had a one year experiment when it made pass interference reviewable after a notorious no-call that went against the New Orleans Saints in the NFC Championship game in the 2018-19 season.
The year pass interference became a reviewable call is generally seen as a failure as the majority of penalties stood and rarely were overturned. After all, the play made by then Rams cornerback Nickell Robey-Coleman was a once-in-a-lifetime moment, which went Los Angeles’ way in punching their ticket to Super Bowl LIII.
While it sounds right to have roughing the passer be a reviewable call, the competition committee’s history seems to indicate it is not interested in another experiment any time soon. Now if only teams can start a proposal to get rid of the taunting penalty.
