mostly the WRs but others as well.

I read that Bruce was a pretty crappy blocker and I’m wondering if that’s true

I’m a hs football official and officials could probably find legit penalties on every play, whether it be at the hs level or pro level. We are taught to call the penalties at the point of attack (unless it is blatantly obvious). For example, if there is a run to the right side, we probably will not call holding on the left tackle unless it affected the play. Therefore, it would rarely be advantageous to hold when it matters most.

I’ve been playing football in Germany since 1992, OL (all five positions) since 2001 (been on the defensive side before that). Currently I’m on a botttom feeder team in the second division, but I have playing experience on all levels of competition in Germany; from the lowest divisions, where teams wouldn’t be able to hold their own against a decent JV squad, to the first division, the so-called GFL, were there are some teams that feature former NFL Europe players or (in rare cases) NFL third-stringers.

One thing I can tell from all these years is that with higher level of play, the number of holding calls goes down. That might be due to the fact that better-coached players don’t commit stupid or blatant penalties, but I would assume it has more to do with the better quality of officiating.

As ninersnerd wrote above, officials are taught not to call penalties that have nothing to do with the play. Another aspect is that not every grabbing of cloth is an illegal hold, and inexperienced officials might have trouble differentiating between legal and illegal.

If I’m an OT, and my team is running to the inside, I will push the DE’s inside shoulder back while grabbing his jersey underneath the outside shoulder and pulling that shoulder towards me, so I can get him turned and position myself inside of him – between him and the play. In my understanding of the rule, that is not holding – I would compare it to a DL grabbing an OL’s jersey by the shoulder and yanking it down while performing a swim move with the other arm. But an inexperienced official who just sees me grab cloth might decide to call it a holding.

In the pass-happy NFL, with all their special regulations to encourage passing (and offense in general), I would assume that officials are taught to take a very generous stance towards holding and only call really blatant penalties.

Furthermore, I can imagine NFL coaches telling their offensive linemen to take the penalty on pass plays rather than let themselves get beaten, to avoid hits on the QB and protect the huge investment that is usually made in that position. If that is the case, I would expect to see more holding penalties on pass plays than on run plays – does anybody have statistical data to back that assumption up or dismiss it?

Then again, you would have to take into account that, while on run plays nearly every offensive player is (or should be) trying to block a defender, on pass plays half of the offense is trying to separate from defenders. So if stats show that the percentage of holding calls on pass and run is about equal, that would already support my assumption, given that there are more players on run plays that could possibly commit a holding (or you would have to look at holding penalties that are called on offensive linemen only in order to make a real comparison).

The OL is probably more likely to commit a holding penalty on a passing play because it is normally a tougher blocking assignment. They generally have to hold their blocks longer and it is easier to block while attacking or forcing yourself forward than it is to defend by moving backwards.

musketeer54- your example is exactly what I meant when I said you can find a penalty on every play…technically it can be called holding because you are grabbing the opponents jersey to gain an advantage, but that doesn’t mean that it should be called! In your example, as an official, I am taught only to make that call if the defender gets away from you, you continue to grab his jersey, and by doing so your arm is extended. So it is the extension of the arm while grabbing that will get you in trouble. As long as you are grabbing a jersey, within the shoulder pads, without extending your arms, it should not be flagged.