Ball Don’t Lie: 3 worst calls from Week 1 of the 2022 NFL season

NFL worst calls: Bears wipe down a sloppy field

How dare they?!

The Bears played in a monsoon at Soldier Field on Sunday afternoon, and came away with a surprising win over the San Francisco 49ers. It was a great moment for Justin Fields, whose Bears weren’t expected to be much of an upset threat before the start of the regular season. You best believe Matt Eberflus used that as bulletin board material entering Week 1.

I’ll be the first to admit that, yes, the Bears violated an NFL rule here. Chicago’s holder brought out a towel to wipe down the field with. It’s something we’ve seen before, and something we’ll surely notice again. I repeat — it was a monsoon. This wasn’t some sort of trickery from the Bears point of view. Player safety, if anything, was the reasoning.

The league’s officials wouldn’t have it:

This is the first I’ve heard of a wet towel rule, and it’s literally my job to grade out the officials week-to-week. We can argue whether or not I’m actually good at said job, or qualified to do it, but I’m not alone.

Per Sporting News, “The specific rule violated was Rule 5, Section 4, Article 6, which reads, in part: ‘Towels…must be attached to or tucked into the front waist of the pants… are prohibited from discarding on the playing field any loose towels or other materials used for wiping hands and the football.'”

So, this is not an attack of these specific officials. If anything, they made the right decision. However, when the rules committee meets next year, perhaps they ought to revisit this one.