NFL’s taunting penalties won’t go away in 2022

The 2022 NFL season had its ups and downs, but as usual, fans left entertained, especially in a great run of playoff games. But, there was one thing the majority of fans didn’t like, excessive taunting penalties. Unfortunately for those fans, the emphasis on the rule isn’t going away in the 2022 season.

There was an all-time high of 61 taunting penalties in the 2021 season and after review, the NFL believes only five of those flags shouldn’t have been thrown, per ESPN’s Kevin Seifert.

There is wide agreement among NFL decision-makers that their 2021 standard for taunting penalties should largely remain in place moving forward, NFL executive vice president of football operations Troy Vincent said Tuesday.

On the flip side of this doubling down on a universally disliked rule, the competition committee heard from head coaches Andy Reid and John Harbaugh about expanding the universally applauded rules that allow “in-stadium replay officials to advise referees on a limited menu of objective calls.” The rule helped move games along and appeared to be a common sense addition to the replay rules.