NFL coaches raising red flag on increase in penalties

KIRKLAND — Add Mike Holmgren to the long list of coaches who are wondering why in the name of Red Cashion the NFL has suddenly turned into flag football.

The league is averaging 15.5 assessed penalties per game, up from 14 at the end of last season and on pace to be the most ever.

Four teams are playing hanky-panky with the league record for most penalties by a team in a season. The Kansas City Chiefs had 158 in 1998, and the Oakland Raiders, Miami Dolphins, Baltimore Ravens and Tampa Bay Buccaneers are on pace for 165 or more. With 540 penalty yards already, the Raiders also could surpass the Chiefs' record 1,304 in 1998.

The Seahawks, usually one of the league's least-penalized teams, have not been immune to the yellow fever. They have 48 fouls and are on schedule for 110, which would be more than any Seattle team Holmgren has coached. Last season, the Seahawks had 79 penalties, the fewest in the league.

"We have never been a hugely penalized team," said Holmgren, whose 2001 Seahawks set a team record for fewest penalties in a full season (66). "This year we have more, particularly in the holding area."

Center Robbie Tobeck, who had one penalty in 2004, has been called for seven holds this season. Six have been assessed, and he also has a false-start penalty, making him the most-penalized Seahawk.

Holmgren said four of the seven holds were definite penalties, "and the other three are debatable, in my opinion. It is something we are going to try and work out and talk about it."

Holmgren is on the league's competition committee, which decides which rules the officials will emphasize each season. Last year, the league focused on illegal contact and defensive holding, and those penalties shot way up. This year, referees are once again emphasizing illegal contact and defensive holding, along with unnecessary roughness, unsportsmanlike conduct, illegal blocks in the back and formation penalties.

Holmgren said his coaches prepare the players for the points of emphasis, but he said some of the penalties being called, such as holding on kick returns, were not on the list of fouls that were supposed to be emphasized.

And like other NFL coaches, Holmgren thinks officials are calling games tighter this season.

Browns coach Romeo Crennel is giving the officials the benefit of the doubt.

"I don't know if they are deliberately calling more penalties," he told Cleveland reporters last week. "I think they are calling what they see. If they don't see it, they don't call it."

Other coaches are calling what they see horrible, a mystery, or, in the case of Jim Haslett, chicken excrement.

Denver's Mike Shanahan was fined $20,000 after complaining about a "horrible" call of too many men on the field as the Broncos celebrated a punt return for a touchdown against San Diego in Week 2. The call negated the return.

Washington's Joe Gibbs received a $10,000 bill for his comments about "mystery calls" after a loss to the Broncos in Week 5.

Haslett was zapped $20,000 after crying foul about a flag against his New Orleans Saints in Week 6 that allowed the Atlanta Falcons to retry a winning field goal on the final play after they initially had missed.

The league says the frustrations will ease and the penalties will even out over the course of the season as teams get used to how games are being called. Holmgren also said his team will end up with its usual number of penalties.

In the meantime, Holmgren and his fellow NFL coaches are still trying to figure out how to end the game of flag football.

"There is nothing worse than watching a game and having every other play a penalty," Holmgren said. "Nobody wants that."

Chris Cluff: 206-464-8787 or ccluff@seattletimes.com