CFL penalty rise is primarily on players, not officials, and not the new rules

There's been a lot of griping from fans and media about the numbers of flags so far this CFL season, and that's fair on some levels. Penalties certainly slow down the game and disrupt the "flow" the league wants to achieve, and fewer penalties would likely produce a more enjoyable product. There also have been more penalties than normal, with 28.5 per game compared to 21.6 last season. However, many of the accusatory fingers on those penalties seem to be pointed at the officials and at the new rules, and that's not entirely accurate. Lance Keiser made a strong qualitative case this week that many of these penalties are about players not following the rules, and the five fines handed out for serious infractions in Week Three alone buttress that. Even beyond that, though, data from the league's "This Week In The CFL" e-mail suggests that penalties so far have little to do with the new rules. 

Check out the CFL's graphic breakdown of the penalties called through three weeks of play at right.The biggest culprit so far? Offsides (defence) and procedure (offence) penalties, making up 96 of the 342 total called penalties (28.1 per cent). Those have nothing at all to do with the new rules, and they're about players poorly timing their jumps (on the line) or their runs towards the line. It could be blamed on the officials if things were being called that shouldn't be, but by and large, these calls have largely seemed correct so far, making them just thanks to poor communication and/or execution by the players. Now, this may well get better as the season goes along; the offseason saw plenty of players and coordinators move from team to team, meaning that there are substantial numbers of players having to adjust to new teammates, new schemes or both. As the year progresses, players should get better at this sort of timing; experience helps significantly. Still, this isn't an area to blame the officials or the new rules.

Beyond that, there have been 52 holding penalties and 27 illegal block penalties. Neither of those is about the new rules, and while you could argue that they might be about whistle-happy officials, the calls so far have seemed largely fair, perhaps not even rising to the level of strictly upholding the rulebook. These penalties are about offensive linemen and other blockers (both on offence and on return teams) not playing within the rules of the game, and again, it's something that should get better with time; as long as the officials remain consistent with their calls, players should know what isn't acceptable and avoid it. Over the course of the year, it would be expected to see these numbers decline. Consider that last season saw 24.9 penalties per game through the first three weeks, well above the numbers it finished with. There's always inexperience and new situations to deal with at the start of the year, and those often lead to a blizzard of flags.

The change that is clearly about the new rules is illegal contact on a receiver, and while it's up, there have still only been 30 calls for that. Again, those would be expected to decline over the course of the year as DBs familiarize themselves with the rule and how it's being called. There's an argument to be made that they should already have done so, given that this change has been known for months and that officials attended every training camp to go through the rule changes, but sometimes you actually have to see it in live play. This is one area where those complaining about flags can point to the new rules, but it's worth pointing out that this is a tiny percentage (8.7 per cent) of the overall calls, and that it should also go down over time.

The overall numbers of penalties so far certainly aren't great for the CFL, but blaming officials and new rules is counterintuitive and misguided when you consider the breakdown of penalties. These are largely about preventable mistakes from players, and it's on them and their coaches to follow the rules. These also largely aren't about the new rules, so that's not an excuse. Things should get better as the year goes on, as players get more used to their teammates and schemes and to how the game's being called, but even if the flurry of flags continues, it won't necessarily be the officials to blame. The rules are set, and they're being enforced; it's not the league's fault that many of its players don't seem to be following them.