If you are one of the handful of NFL fans that tune in each Sunday to see the yellow flags fly, and to hear arcane interpretations of the rulebook every other play, you are in luck. According to a report from ESPN, the NFL has asked on-field officials to pay particular attention to illegal contact fouls during the upcoming season.
Between 2002 and 2020, officials flagged illegal contact an average of 97 times each season. Last year, however, that number dropped to 36. That drop led the NFL Competition Committee to include the penalty among its “points of clarification” for the upcoming year.
