The Rise of Strategic Flopping in the NFL

It’s a pivotal moment in a playoff game, in a situation where the offense needs a first down. As Patrick Mahomes takes the snap, he scans the field and sees that none of his receivers are open. Calmly, he steps up in the pocket and starts to run. As the first down marker draws closer, the defender is closing in and he knows he can’t get to the marker in time. He slows down as he heads out of bounds and is hit. A sea of yellow and piercing whistles fills the stadium. The defender is called for unnecessary roughness and Mahomes has gotten yet another first down for his team.

This scenario played out in the Kansas City Chiefs Divisional Playoff game against the Houston Texans and has continued to happen in Chiefs games, much to the dismay of fans of opposing teams. In most circles this has been portrayed as a league that is too protective of its quarterbacks.

But that is not giving enough credit to Patrick Mahomes, who has identified a wrinkle in the rules and is exploiting it. It is the football version of how NBA stars like James Harden and Trae Young have drawn foul calls by jumping into defenders or hooking their arms to get to the free throw line. The trend in both sports make you wonder if this should be celebrated or legislated out of the game.

Leagues Love Offense

In the NFL they say that it is now a passing league. They call the NBA a shooter’s league. What both football and basketball have been experiencing in the last decade or so is a prioritization of offense. It’s easy to understand why. Sports leagues, as much as we may choose to ignore it, are businesses. And businesses need to find ways to diversify their audience.

While basketball fans may enjoy seeing defenders deny offensive players airspace with hand checking and physicality, most casual fans would prefer to see points scored. The same goes for football, where seeing a pass breakup or batted ball at the line is great but most people are there to see touchdowns. Armed with this data, leagues have adjusted to make offense a priority and scoring points a requirement for success.

This sentiment is shared across both sports, as is evidenced whenever players from former generations speak about the modern version of the game. Consider that in the first half of the 2000s there were two teams that won titles that were built primarily around defense and embodied toughness: the 2000 Baltimore Ravens and the 2004 Detroit Pistons. Much of what those teams accomplished is not allowed anymore in the NFL and NBA.

The 2004 Pistons employed hand-checking on the perimeter to slow down Kobe Bryant, a tactic that eventually led to the league banning the practice. This has led to more freedom of movement by players and subsequently has created a generation of scoring guards like we have never seen before. The 2000 Ravens played defense in a way that would be flagged on every single play in today’s game. They often initiated contact in the head and neck area, performed hip drop tackles, and went low on quarterbacks.

All the things that made those defenses great have been removed from the game. Most of the rationale has been in the interest in player safety. And while that is somewhat true it is also true that the changes were made with the intention of promoting more points being scored in games to draw in more casual fans. In the process of making the game more accessible to non-diehards, the leagues have also opened the avenue for a different kind of exploitation.

Players on offense have continuously been given advantages while those benefits have been taken away from defenders. This means that defenders must play a certain style to be considered effective. In the NBA, this has led to a push for players with length that can challenge shots without initiating physical contact. In the NFL, it has meant that the emphasis has shifted from defenders that play in the middle of the field (such as a defensive tackle or middle linebacker) to causing disruption at the edges (think edge rushers and cornerbacks). This had led the smart offensive players to put both defenders and referees in compromising positions to have to make calls that benefit the offense exponentially.

Manipulating the System

Former Detroit Piston forward Rick Mahorn, when asked about his physical play, likened it to speeding. Mahorn would say that if you speed then you are bound to get caught a couple of times. But that doesn’t mean that you stop speeding. The point is a valid one. In every aspect of life, there are rules in place. And where there are rules, there are loopholes and ways to manipulate those rules for your benefit.

In both football and basketball, the quarterback and the ball handler are protected from excessive contact in the context of their sports. Armed with this knowledge, players have started to attempt to manipulate the rules to their benefit. One of the best examples of this happened in the college game a few years ago. Pittsburgh quarterback Kenny Pickett was flushed out of the pocket and was running upfield. As a defender closed in on him, he pretended that he was sliding to stop the pursuit and then proceeded to score a touchdown. The clip went viral and was promptly outlawed from the college game.

For many this was a blatant manipulation of protective rules, albeit an innovative one. But what we have seen from Patrick Mahomes, James Harden, Trae Young, and others is slightly more discreet. They operate in the gray areas of legality of the rulebook, putting referees in a compromising position. In basketball, any contact with a shooter is typically deemed a foul.

So, when a player like Harden or Young would get past a defender they could stop instantly, cause a collision, and throw up a shot to get to the free throw line. During Harden’s prime years in Houston, this led to him attempting nearly 12 free throws per game en route to leading the league in scoring and winning an MVP award. Throughout his career, Harden has often manipulated what the true definition of a foul or travel is to gain an advantage over opponents. And it has worked, as he has compiled accolades and stats for a Hall of Fame resume.

In the case of Mahomes and some other quarterbacks in the NFL, a fifteen-yard penalty is an incredibly valuable reward for putting defenders and referees in impossible positions. One penalty could easily resuscitate a stalling drive or put your team in position to score points. This is a great incentive to draw a penalty, especially considering how protected quarterbacks are in today’s game versus in the past.

We see this manipulation of the rules while quarterbacks linger too long on the sideline to force a hit before stepping out of bounds. We see it when they slide after a defender has already initiated a tackling motion. And in the most extreme version that we saw Mahomes do in the playoffs this season, we also are seeing them flopping to make hits appear more severe than they are. And because the NFL has placed such a premium on the quarterback position, defenders are placed in the impossible predicament of trying to avoid defending at top speed while avoiding being penalized.

The actions of Mahomes in this regard have been so blatant, that even Troy Aikman (a former quarterback himself and current broadcaster for ESPN) expressed his disbelief on a broadcast. When Mahomes slowed down before going out of bounds, Aikman said the following:

Plays like these have many fans that live outside of Kansas City feeling a sentiment of annoyance with the Chiefs, and on a larger scale the perceived overprotection of quarterbacks. Much how Harden was manipulating the rules of the NBA, it appears that Patrick Mahomes has brought a similar tactic to the NFL. The question then becomes whether there should be something done about it.

Legislating and Tweaking

James Harden used his style of walking the fine line of the NBA rulebook to dominate the league, win an MVP, and become one of the best scoring guards we have ever seen. But he is much maligned by basketball fans, because to some it felt that he was cheating his way to points. Despite being within the legal framework of the rules of basketball, many described watching him as annoying and unenjoyable.

The way people talked about Harden is not too dissimilar from the irritation that comes with the critiques of Patrick Mahomes. In Harden’s case, the NBA outlawed some of the moves that he championed. Jumping backwards into a defender is not called as frequently as it was, and the league has allowed for slightly more aggressive play on the perimeter with more teams now employing aggressive traps to befuddle elite perimeter scorers.

The NFL is quickly approaching its Harden moment. Like the NBA, they are reckoning with a balance that must be made between maintaining the spirit of the sport while also providing an engaging product that continues to drive interest for new fans. The NFL has prioritized protecting its quarterbacks because they are the stars of the show, and ratings often dip when average quarterbacks are playing. So how can they fix it?

There are two avenues that the league could take here. If it is deemed that a quarterback is performing a late slide or slows down intentionally on the sideline, that could be considered a penalty on the offense. Where instead of getting fifteen yards, they are getting those yards taken away. That sort of penalty will prompt coaches across the league to start instructing their quarterbacks to slide sooner or go out of bounds quickly to avoid a hit and a penalty.

The second option is the popular one among former players and is a simple premise: once the quarterback leaves the pocket, he should be treated the same way a running back or receiver is in the open field. This would allow defenders to avoid second guessing their pursuit and clear up confusion about what an excessive hit is. The NFL has been quick to enact new rules and legislation in the past, so making one of these changes would not be too much of a stretch.

While an understanding of what they can get away with is admirable and deserves to be celebrated in a vacuum, these sorts of antics lend credence to the existence of flopping in football. The acting required when doing so has made soccer and basketball heavily maligned, and it would be even worse in football. More than any other sport in the United States, football is one that is defined by toughness and overcoming adversity. If flopping and hunting for flags became the norm, then in a way the sport loses much of its identity.

Rushing attempts for quarterbacks have skyrocketed in recent years. This season, 18 different quarterbacks logged over 50 rushing attempts. In 2014, only 9 quarterbacks rushed the ball 50 or more times. Elements of the read option and power zone running scheme have entered the pros, which means that quarterbacks on these plays should be treated more like running backs when they rush with the ball.

The quarterback is often the player that looks differently than others on the team. It is a challenge for many to become “one of the guys”. If they are continuously officiated with this growing disparity then there could be resentment, which could in the heat of the moment lead to cheap shots. The NFL has a good product, it shouldn’t allow flopping to become the norm and cheapen it for its fans.

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