Penalty Flag or Good Sportsmanship?

The outrage about penalties needs to be put to rest. It has not been addressed by McCarthy during his tenure, and he evades questions with, “We’ll look into it.” He’s not fooling anyone into thinking he cares. There is simple explanation for the rash of yellow hankies tossed every which way at the Packers. The explanation can be found in any bowling alley or on any golf course. It’s called handicapping, and McCarthy is a huge fan. Handicapping is all about giving your opponents an even playing field and allowing for competition between two teams or individuals with differing skill sets. It’s quite honorable, actually.

In my opinion, it should be taken as a point of pride that the Packers can dominate a team while being flagged 13 times for 130 yards. This is an impressive feat, even more so because of the fact the Lions were shut out. Seriously, they couldn’t score a point, and they were spotted 1.3 football fields. NIIIIICE.

One Packer who has taken this fair-play idea to heart: Chad Clifton. He ensured that the Lions were given an equal playing field as long as he was on the field, and I’m willing to bet he pointed out to the men in stripes that he was going to line up off the line a few times. “Just watch for it fellas, it’s in the interest of fairness.” Otherwise, how can you explain being flagged twice for it when ALL tackles do it?

Going into Sunday’s game against Cleveland, I’m assuming that the penalty handicap McCarthy is discussing with his personnel is sitting right at 15 penalties or 145 yards. Either is an acceptable number and will set forth a legitimate challenge for the Packers to overcome, as well as provide the swine-flu, riddled Browns with decent chance to play a meaningful football game, otherwise, what do they really have to look forward to?

My recommendation to the fans? See the penalties for what they are, an equalizer. You will be much happier on gameday, and victories will be that much sweeter when you realize all that the Packers had to overcome.