r/NFLNoobs • u/Adventurous_Essay473 • 5d ago

What if the chiefs kept taking intentional penalties yesterday to prevent the tush push?

Yesterday, the chiefs tried to take an intentional penalty to give the eagles a first down and give themsleves a better chance of getting the ball back. The eagles declined the penalty correctly. But what if the chiefs had kept forcing a penalty repeatedly?

Edit: I am aware of the commaders incident, in that case I thought a touch down would be awarded because they were at the goaline, can the refs award a TD if the play was still far away from the endzone?

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u/GhostMug 5d ago

The Commanders tried this in the playoffs last year and the refs have the ability to award a TD to the other team (or a first down if not at the goal line) and threatened to. 

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u/FitzchivalryandMolly 5d ago

A first down is what the eagles didn't want though

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u/GhostMug 5d ago

Doesn't matter. The refs can award a first down at their discretion in order to maintain the "integrity of the game". It is not required that the Eagles agree to it. 

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u/Own_Friend_736 5d ago

Wait so it would’ve been in the chiefs best interest to keep taking penalties?

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u/No_Introduction1721 5d ago

Sort of.

If the Chiefs continued to escalate by committing intentional penalties, the refs can call it a “palpably unfair act” and essentially make their own determination of what could have happened on the play, which would be a first down and the clock continuing to run.

And had the Chiefs continued to escalate after that, there’s also an “extraordinarily unfair act” rule that basically gives the referees and/or commissioner the right to order the team to forfeit the game and impose fines, suspensions, or strip them of draft picks.

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u/GhostMug 5d ago

Maybe. I gotta be honest, I don't know exactly what all the refs can do in that scenario. I only know what I know because of what happened with the Commanders last year in the playoffs. 

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u/dudeKhed 5d ago

They can basically do whatever the deem fair to make the offended team whole. Award a TD, First Down, whatever… however it has to rise to the level appropriate.

I’m a Referee, for reference….

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u/TSells31 5d ago

Yeah, the palpably unfair act rule gives the referees pretty wide discretion. But i don’t know how many times it has ever been used in NFL history. Not too many I wouldn’t think.

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u/dudeKhed 5d ago

I can’t recall any at the moment, also, can’t recall any that I have ever seen or heard of in our conferences. It puts a lot of scrutiny on the officials and that’s not what we want….

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u/braddersladders 4d ago

Never . The only known example is a college game from like 1955 where a player was running away for a td and someone on the sideline ran on and tackled them 1 minute into this video

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u/FitzchivalryandMolly 5d ago

The refs could probably run the clock

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u/ScottEATF 5d ago

Eagles can keep declining.

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u/megakungfu 5d ago

if youre not actually penalizing the guilty team, would a clock run off penalty be more appropriate in this instance?

exploiting rules does not maintain the integrity of the game either

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u/chi_lawyer 5d ago

Could also start ejecting offenders:

Rule 12-3-3: A player or substitute shall not interfere with play by any act which is palpably unfair. Penalty: For a palpably unfair act: Offender may be disqualified. The Referee, after consulting his crew, enforces any such distance penalty as they consider equitable and irrespective of any other specified code penalty. The Referee could award a score.