infantrycak
Hall of Fame
Asked what rules changes/emphasises (emphases?) he feels will be impactful in 2009, Pereira's response was immediate.
"Offensive holding."
According to stats compiled by the league, officials made 587 offensive holding calls in 2008. It was the second-most called penalty, behind false starts (653) and ahead of offside (313).
As a whole, total penalties were at their lowest point (3,392) since 1992 (3,344).
And the drop in holding calls was noticeable. In 2005, officials threw flags for holding 880 times, a difference of nearly 300.
Pereira said that, in breaking down video of all games from 2008, officials failed to penalize 177 holding calls. He said there were also "about 50 missed calls, for more than 220 mistakes in total."
From profootballtalk.com
I don't like the game being slowed down by lots of penalties but if the rule is on the book it needs to be enforced. There was a noticeable drop off last year with blatant holding not being called many times. I recall one play last year where Mario's arm was fully extended behind him held by the OT - no flag. Hopefully they find a good balance.