Something feels very wrong about the NFL.
If you're a longtime fan of professional football, let me tell you right now: It's not your imagination.
Because there are some astounding facts about this season that are making it clear that the National Football League is broken.
I have been watching professional football for decades. My father told me that my first words in life were "football, you bet."
Whether or not those words are apocryphal, or I was just a particularly masochistic toddler strangely anxious to watch another Jets loss, is anybody's guess.
But what I have been witnessing recently in the "No Fun League" is mind-boggling. I drove out to the Middle of Nowhere, Texas this weekend and the only place to catch a Jets game with my oldest, slightly-disillusioned-but-still-enthusiastic sports fanatic son was a Dave & Buster's.
At one point, if you looked up at the myriad of big screen television sets one could see what can only be described as a herd of zebras.
On every set, a referee, calling a holding penalty on this play, but not on the fifty plays before where the exact same thing happened.
Whether or not you subscribe to the theory that sports gambling is "ruining" the sport, it has become undeniable that NFL games are being decided as much by the referees as the players.
If football is a game of inches, then you could say that is now 13.5". That is the length of an official NFL penalty flag.
The impossible has happened: NFL officiating is getting worse. A recent analysis by Warren Sharp drives home that this is not your typical season for bad officiating.
Week 4 of the 2026 NFL season saw 17 penalties per game. That was the most in any NFL week since 2015.
Refs sometimes have rules of emphasis coming out of the offseason, so penalties can be erratic in the first week or two. Seeing this many penalties this far into the season is rare.
The 17 penalties per game were the most we've ever seen in a single week after September since 2005. That's over TWO DECADES AGO!
That would be bad enough. But it's how these penalties are being called, including at what times in the game and in what situations that is becoming ultra-suspicious.
Offenses are getting flagged at the highest per-snap rate of any Week 1 through 4 stretch since 2000: 6.18 per 100 snaps.
We've seen the #1 most penalties called on third or fourth down in the second half of games that I have on record since at least 2000.
And it's the most EPA removed from offenses on these plays that I have on record. It's the most offensive penalties in the red zone that I have on record.
Refs are taking good plays and just removing them. All of the year-over-year increase in penalties is on offense. Defensive flags are actually down slightly, and defensive pass interference is below average.
This is ironic, because as Gen X kid who grew up idolizing the likes of Ronnie Lott and Steve Atwater, you would think I'd like the balance back toward the defense. I have watched in horror as the NFL has grown to privilege the offense, because this has disrupted the balance to the game. So, you would think that a tip back in the scales of the offense would be welcome.
But that's not the case. What is happening is not a balance of offensive penalties and defensive penalties to make it a fairer game. What we are getting is a "ref show."
It's getting particularly painful in the red zone, as the analysis underscores.
These penalties are coming in the highest-leverage situations where they would have the most impact on the outcomes of these games:
#1 most penalties on third and fourth downs in the second half of games since 2000
#1 most red zone penalties per game by offenses since at least 2000
#1 highest rate of third and fourth down penalties per snap against offenses since 2000
"Want to hear one more incredible stat?" Sharp asks rhetorically. "Through four weeks, an incredible 17 touchdowns have been nullified by penalty."
What we are witnessing in some of these "ref show" games is nothing short of spectacular. The Jets game this weekend versus the Bears was a masterclass in baffling officiating, no matter who you were rooting for.
As a disclaimer, I am a huge Jets fan, but the Bears are one of my favorite NFC teams, and were my grandfather's team. You could not draw up what happened in that game.
The Jets finally made an interception after a brain-melting 637 days.
The #Jets finally got an INT via DT T’Vondre Sweat … BUT IT WAS CALLED BACK 😭 https://t.co/6UfWHLcHvK
— uSTADIUM (@uSTADIUM) October 4, 2026
This was their hilariously disproportionate celebration — as if they just won the Super Bowl after 57 years and counting.
The Jets were celebrating their first interception in 2 YEARS… Then the refs overturned it lmaoo 😂 https://t.co/Cv7I3hQ1Cn
— Hater Report (@HaterReport) October 4, 2026
This was the hands to the face "penalty" that was called, but the Fox broadcast never showed.
This is the “illegal hands to the face” penalty that was called on AZ Thomas to overturn the Jets first interception in 637 days https://t.co/mgoNMWaQYV
— JR (@JRNYSports) October 4, 2026
The thing that makes this even more baffling is that these "hands to the face" penalties are rarely called on defensive backs.
And when a player later in the game rips off another player's helmet with no call, well, what are we to make of that?
Let’s play a little game I like to call “Which one of these was called for Illegal Hands to the Face” https://t.co/VI9LpYpBdN
— NYJ MIKE (@NyjMike) October 4, 2026
Look, penalties are about the least of the Jets' problems. Their head coach is more clueless at football schemes than Alicia Silverstone playing 3-D chess.
But when you have three out of four interceptions called back on "penalties," at least one of them rare and seemingly imaginary, the league has got "problems."
This is just one illustration of many such complaints you can get on any given Sunday from virtually any team's fanbase (not counting you, Kansas City or New England fans).
So, what the hell is going on? Is it the sports gambling?
Well, on Thursday, I reported that the NFL is petitioning the Supreme Court so that prediction markets can be regulated at the state level like sports gambling.
Gambling is a major problem that is causing fans to distrust sports game outcomes and the NFL is seemingly working hard to get a hold of the problem.
The NFL's relationship with gambling has undergone a dramatic transformation since the Supreme Court cleared the way for expanded legal sports betting in 2018.
Once an opponent of legalized wagering, the league subsequently partnered with Caesars, DraftKings and FanDuel, permitted sportsbooks at stadiums and embraced betting advertisements during broadcasts.
But that expansion also brought disciplinary problems. As ESPN reported in 2023, several players, including Calvin Ridley, Jameson Williams and Quintez Cephus, were suspended for violating the league's gambling policies. The NFL maintained that its monitoring had uncovered no evidence of games being manipulated.
"We have seen no evidence of game manipulation to date," NFL gambling executive David Highhill told ESPN.
Attorney Jeff Ifrah, who advised NFL players, pointed to the contradiction: "Despite actively encouraging its fan base to bet, the NFL has implemented a zero-tolerance policy for its players."
But the fans are increasingly turning to a zero-tolerance policy for NFL games that are becoming unwatchable. After all of the league's politicization of the sport during the Kaepernick flap, the product on the field is becoming the real turnoff.
And ironically, that is the solution for a lot of fans until the NFL gets its act together: Turn off the television set and find a more enjoyable way to spend a Sunday afternoon.
