Roger Goodell, the NFL Commissioner, is hated nationally and has created a lot of anger amongst football fans/players. T-shirts and posters are mocking him all over the country, but not for no reason. The 2019 Super Bowl LIII was between two teams, The New England Patriots and The Los Angeles Rams. Even though these two teams are strong, explosive, and great at working as a team, there is a lot of controversy between NFL fans, making us wonder if these teams actually deserved to play in the Superbowl. A lot of fans are boycotting the Super Bowl due to what happened in the NFC Championship between the LA Rams and New Orleans Saints and the AFC Championship between the New England Patriots and the Kansas City Chiefs.

The winner of the NFC Championship and AFC Championship both go to the Super Bowl to battle it out in front of the whole nation to see who the NFL champion is. The NFC Championship rose a lot of questioning though when the Rams beat the Saints 26-23. In the 4th quarter, Drew Brees, Saints quarterback, threw a pass up to receiver Tommylee Lewis which probably would’ve been a touchdown pass to end the game up. Tommylee Lewis went up to catch the ball when cornerback Nickell Robey-Coleman of the LA Rams got in between the ball and Lewis, shoving Lewis to the ground completely preventing Lewis from catching the ball. This created huge controversy, infuriating many Saints fans. This is one of the many calls that have been messed up by the refs.

Roger Goodell is getting blamed for all of these terrible calls. Everyone is saying it his fault and how each rule he makes is so unnecessary and this infuriates thousands of people. The NFL also is starting to enforce a rule called “Roughing the Passer”. This is when you hit the quarterback really hard after they throw the ball. The refs, of course, took this rule too far this season as well. In the AFC championship this year between the Chiefs and Patriots, a flag was thrown when a Chiefs Defensive Lineman “Roughed the Passer”, Tom Brady. Chris Jones, the Chiefs d-lineman, merely put his hand on Tom Brady’s shoulder as Tom Brady was throwing the ball, which caused flags thrown. This was very angering for Chiefs fans and Defensive Lineman around the country that knew how unnecessary this call was.

Even though people are hating these new rules, they might actually be necessary. A lot of people are saying the sport of football is getting “softer”, even though the whole purpose of all these rules is to make it safer. Some of the rules are better in place because it could keep players out of harm's way, but in my opinion, some of them like the “Roughing the Passer” call can do without.

Many people are saying that it would be more helpful if the games had an extra referee, but Roger Goodell stated that this would just be another person making another mistake. Other people agree that getting technology to officiate is an option, but Goodell denied it. “The game is not officiated by robots. It’s not going to be”(Goodell, Washington Post). I think that the best solution to these terrible calls and rules are rule changes. One rule change that can help is giving coaches the choice to challenge a pass interference call if the ref makes a terrible call. This could have helped in the Saints game when there was an obvious pass interference which was not called. Sean Peyton could have challenged the call when this terrible play occured, giving himself another chance to win the game. I also think that the Roughing the Passer call shouldn’t be a rule. If the defense clearly tackled the quarterback after the ball is thrown, then the refs should know to throw a flag for unnecessary roughness, but otherwise the sport is rough and big hits should be allowed, even if it is on the quarterback. *After this essay was written, the rule was added that you can challenge pass interference.