Skip navigation
Favorites
Sign up to follow your favorites on all your devices.
Sign up

NFL won’t instruct officials to throw flags for pulling runners

On Sunday, officials in the Ravens-Bills game didn’t throw a flag on Buffalo guard O’Cyrus Torrence for pulling running back James Cook into the end zone. Next Sunday, they won’t be throwing a flag if/when it happens again.

Per a source with knowledge of the situation, the NFL will not be instructing officials to call it, if/when it happens in either of the two conference championship games.

As the source explained it, instructing them to call it now would represent too much of a change from the enforcement of the rules to date in the 2024 season.

However, the issue will be addressed in the offseason — as it should be. The choices are simple. Enforce the rule against pulling a runner as written, or remove that rule from the rulebook.

The message for now is clear, to the four remaining teams: Pull ‘em if you got ‘em.