As we gear up for the 2025 NFL season, it is important to remember that things will look a little different around the league when games kick off this weekend.
NFL adds new penalties subject to replay review, including unnecessary roughness
A change in the NFL rulebook might lead to more flags this season
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Mark Schofield is a former college quarterback and attorney covering the NFL and F1.
This goes beyond new faces in new places, such as Micah Parsons in Green Bay with the Packers and Aaron Rodgers in Pittsburgh with the Steelers. There are some rule changes to be aware of for the year ahead, and today, we are diving into how and when some penalties will now be subject to replay review.
The league has implemented a change to Rule 15, Section 9 of the NFL Rulebook, which governs the use of Instant Replay and “Game Administration, Consultation, and Assistance.” This section of the rules covers when the league’s in-stadium replay official can “provide information regarding the correct application of the playing rules, advise, consult with, or assist the on-field officials on specific, objective aspects of a play when clear and obvious video evidence is present, and/or address game administration issues.”
In previous seasons, the situations in which the in-stadium replay official could assist the on-field crew included penalty enforcement, down-and-distance matters, completions versus incompletions, and more. However, this year the league has introduced additional situations where the in-stadium replay official can assist the on-field crew with penalty matters.
These include:
- Unnecessary roughness based on hitting a defenseless player’s head or neck area, where “there is clear and obvious video evidence that the defender did not make any contact with the defenseless player’s head or neck area;”
- Facemask penalties, where “there is clear and obvious video evidence that the player did not make any contact with the hand to the opponent’s facemask or helmet opening;”
- Horse-collar tackle penalties, where “there is clear and obvious video evidence that the player did not contact the inside collar of the back or the side of the opponent’s shoulder pads or jersey with the hand, or contact the jersey at the name plate or above with the hand;”
- Tripping penalties, where “there is clear and obvious video evidence that the player’s leg or foot did not contact the opponent;” and,
- Roughing or running into the kicker penalties, where “there is clear and obvious video evidence that the defender who contacted the kicker touched the kick in flight.”
It is worth noting that the in-stadium replay official will assist the on-field crew if a foul is called. This means that if a flag is thrown on the field and a penalty is called for one of the above infractions, the in-stadium review official will intervene to overturn the penalty.
The in-stadium replay official will not intervene to call a penalty on their own.
What might this mean for the flow of a game? As we have seen over the past few seasons, with replay officials being used to determine scoring plays and more, the on-field officials are more likely to rule a play a touchdown, or a pass an interception, knowing that the replay official at the game will then be called upon to confirm the play as called.
Therefore, we might see more of these penalties called, giving replay officials a chance to confirm what they see on the video replay.
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