Ryan Clark takes NFL to task over taunting rules

One thing that has drawn much controversy over the 2021 NFL season is the officials’ strict enforcing of taunting. ESPN’s Ryan Clark is not happy with the taunting rules in the National Football League and he let that be known on NFL Live on Tuesday.

.@Realrclark25 went OFF on the NFL's taunting rule 😳

"You mean to tell me on that one play I gotta calm all that down that went into this because somebody who can't do what I do, who ain't never done what I've done … gets offended by it? Man I wish I frickin' would." pic.twitter.com/p0I5TlSK6W

— NFL on ESPN (@ESPNNFL) November 9, 2021

The play that brought taunting back in the national discussion was when Chicago Bears linebacker Cassius Marsh made a sack against the Pittsburgh Steelers, he got up, then walked towards the Steelers sideline and looked at them. Marsh noted after the game that he didn’t say anything to the Steelers’ sideline.

The taunting penalty was quite costly, because the Bears had the Steelers stopped and ready to punt late in the fourth quarter down by three points. After the penalty was issued, the Steelers drove down a kicked a field goal to go up by a six. Although the Bears drove down and scored a touchdown to take a one-point lead; they left enough time for Pittsburgh to retake the lead with a field goal, which they did.

The Bears were left with :26 seconds left to try to get a field goal themselves but ultimately didn’t get close enough as kicker Cairo Santos missed a 65-yard attempt very short to end the game.

Obviously, the call loomed large and was the difference between the Steelers being down one and down four points if the Bears still score on the following drive.

Either way, Pittsburgh won the game 29-27, so the penalty essentially cost the Bears’ the game.

In case you haven’t seen the play here’s footage of it below.

This was called taunting against the Chicago #Bears. The officiating in the #NFL is so bad this season pic.twitter.com/oKyImQJHg8

— Midwest Sports Network (@MWSNsports) November 9, 2021

Clark makes some excellent points in his video segment above as does his colleague, Marcus Spears. The taunting rule in Article 1 says: “Prohibited Acts: c) Using baiting or taunting acts or words that may engender ill will towards teams.” Like Spears said, there’s ill will before the teams line up. This is football. It’s a violent sport played by violent people.

Ryan Clark lit into the NFL’s officiating.

“You mean to tell me on that one play I gotta calm all that down that went into this because somebody who can’t do what I can do, who ain’t never done what I’ve done…gets offended by it?” Clark said.

Clark’s biggest take on the officiating of the taunting rules is that there needs to be more clarity.

“I think you can’t make this call subjective,” he continued. “I think if there’s going to be certain rules or certain things that are officiated in this–they need to be definitive. I need to know that I can’t flex my muscles.”

In the NFL’s defense, it’s hard to draw up a rule book though, for every single taunting scenario in the world. When you’ve got 22 grown men on a football field, full of energy and emotion, the possibilities are endless.

Pittsburgh Steelers’ head coach Mike Tomlin is a member of the NFL’s competition committee. He explained the biggest reason the NFL has been focusing on taunting penalties this season, when he spoke with NFL Network’s Aditi Kinkhabwala:

“We understand that people playing it at a lower level watch us and often mimic us and how we conduct ourselves.”

The NFL SVP of officiating, Perry Fewell, has noted that they will not back off their emphasis on taunting in a video on Twitter on Wednesday.

On3’s Jonathan Wagner also contributed to the report.