Pittsburgh Steelers president Art Rooney II speaks out over increase in penalties during NFL preseason

Watching an NFL preseason game hasn’t always been the most fun experience. For the casual fan it’s already tough to follow given the seemingly constant substitution of players, but this 2014 preseason has even become difficult to watch for the hardcore fan out there.

More from NFL

• NFL rumors: Dalvin Cook suitor maintaining very ‘real’ interest
• Packers training camp news: Jordan Love struggles, Bakhtiari schedule, position switch
• 3 Cowboys who won’t be on the roster after training camp
• Packers: Aaron Rodgers reached out to Jordan Love this offseason
• Damar Hamlin is a ‘full go’ at Bills training camp

That’s because the NFL has apparently put a premium on the number of penalties called, and thus a three-hour game has turned in to a four to five hour affair.

Apparently the number of flags thrown this preseason has caught the ire of at least one NFL owner. Pittsburgh Steelers president Art Rooney II talked to Scott Brown of ESPN and spoke out about the huge uptick in penalties happening this preseason.

“I think it’s fair to say there’s concern around the league about [the increase in penalties] and I think that the point has been made by the officials,” Steelers president Art Rooney II told ESPN.com. “I hope we’re going to get back to a more normal number of penalties per game.”

Just how bad have things gotten this preseason? According to research by Kevin Seifert of ESPN, this preseason has seen an increase of nearly five times the rate for penalties per pass attempt.

Or to put it another way:

With one week to go in the preseason it isn’t hard to think that the league will have more illegal contact/defensive holding calls in four weeks of play than it did in 17 weeks of the regular season last year.

It’s no secret that calling illegal contact more closely has been a point of emphasis and a mandate from the league office, but has the NFL gone too far?

The league is already slanted heavily in favor of the offensive side of the ball in an effort to increase the scoring and entertain the fans. Yet, initiatives like this one run the risk of backfiring when fans and executives are seeing the blatant disadvantage defensive players are at.

For Rooney’s part, he believes a pattern from previous preseason’s will happen once again—a decrease in the penalties from the points of emphasis in the preseason.

“I think that’s been the history that you’ve seen things called in the preseason more than you’ve sometimes in the regular season when they’ve decided to make a point,” Rooney said. “That’s been the pattern that I’ve noticed in the past so we’ll see if that holds true this year.”