Roger Goodell on officiating: “We don’t commit the fouls,” as flags per game reach a five-year high and the officials’ union calls the ground-stop weekend “unprecedented”

Roger Goodell was asked on Sunday whether he has any concerns about NFL officiating. His answer was no. “We don’t commit the fouls,” the commissioner said in Munich, a few hours before the Patriots played the Lions, in an interview with Jim Murray and Chris Gasper on the Patriots’ pregame radio show.

Goodell said the arguments over calls come from how much more people can now see. “You get that type of controversy because there’s close calls,” he said. “We’re seeing more than we’ve ever been able to see on technology. The job is harder. We’re using technology in officiating and I think that’s made it better. Ultimately, I think there’s always a conversation about officiating throughout the season, in any sport. It’s true in ours and it will be, it’ll never be perfect.”

“But I’m really proud of the job these guys do,” he went on, “and we’ll continue to work on AI and other opportunities to give tools to the officials to get it right. And I think that’s been a much-needed improvement across the league, using that technology, and it’s worked well for us.”

Roger Goodell tells @bigjimmurray and @cgasper he has no concerns at all with the state of the officiating system in the NFL, and if anything they’re gonna go further in the directions they’ve already gone with it

— Matt Dolloff (@RealMattDolloff) November 15, 2026

Flags per game are at a five-year high

Gasper’s question was built on penalty numbers the league gave him. Goodell began his answer by telling him his data was “a little bit off.” Alex Barth, who was also on the show, reported that Gasper replied the numbers came from the league, and Goodell then acknowledged that penalties are slightly up.

After the interview, Gasper posted the figures. They count every flag thrown per game through Week 9, including penalties that were declined.

That is 2.76 more flags per game than at the same point in 2022, an increase of about 20% in four years, and the number has gone up every season. This year’s rise over 2025 is the second smallest of the four. Not every flag is called by the officials on their own. The league’s replay staff in New York can now help with some fouls, and several of the season’s arguments have been about calls the league office later agreed with, such as the unflagged hits that drew fines in Week 9.

That NFL-generated penalty data through Week 9 that I cited in a question to NFL commissioner Roger Goodell, who was nice enough to join us on Patriots Preview on @985TheSportsHub before Pats-Lions in Munich. This is total flags per game, I’m told, so it counts penalties that were declined. These are league-provided numbers for where penalties were at through Week 9 each season. 2026 – 16.88 2025 – 16.52 2024 – 15.26 2023 – 14.97 2022 – 14.12

— Chris Gasper (@cgasper) November 15, 2026

Goodell has talked about AI and officiating before. At his news conference before the Super Bowl in February, he said, “I think AI is going to be a real opportunity there,” and that the league was talking with its partners about how to use it to help officials.

Seeding, grass and a developmental league

Goodell answered several other questions in the same interview, according to notes posted by Kevin Stone and Barth.

On the playoff format, he said the league has talked about changing how teams are seeded and about home-field advantage, but “I think (we) feel like we’ve got a really good balance.” Division winners are currently guaranteed one of the top four seeds in each conference, no matter their record.

Asked whether the league could move to grass fields like the ones used in Europe, he said, “You have to consider climate, you have to consider a lot of things. What we want is consistency and obviously, the highest standards on the field.” He mentioned climate as a problem for removable grass in some cities. Sunday’s game was played on grass in Bayern Munich’s stadium, five days after the NFL and the Bundesliga extended their partnership.

Asked whether the NFL is thinking about a developmental league, Goodell said, “No, that’s not really the focus right now.” He called the arrival of flag football at the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles “a big moment for us.”

Officials’ union: a ‘unique and unprecedented situation’

Goodell spoke on the same day the league’s officials were working under the assignments it rewrote after Friday’s FAA ground stop. Three backup referees were given games, the Panthers-Saints game in New Orleans had no replay official in the stadium, with replay handled from New York, and four officials were set to work two games each.

Scott Green, the executive director of the NFL Referees Association, the officials’ union, said in a statement on Sunday: “This is a unique and unprecedented situation that has required all of our officials to make adjustments, and in some cases, travel many miles by car to get to their game sites. However, over the course of their careers, all officials have faced unpublicized travel and other assorted issues, meaning they have experience working in less than ideal situations, in many games across all levels of play. Our members will do what they have always done, which is work the games to the best of their ability regardless of the situation.”

NFLRA executive director Scott Green notes the “unique and unprecedented situation” for officials this weekend but adds they “have experience working in less than ideal situations.” Full statement:

— Kevin Seifert (@SeifertESPN) November 15, 2026

The four officials working twice are referee Don Willard, umpire Terry Killens, field judge Jabir Walker and side judge Justin Larrew. They work Dolphins-Colts in Indianapolis at 1 p.m. ET, then drive about 110 miles to Cincinnati for Steelers-Bengals at 8:20 p.m. ET. Willard is usually a side judge, and Jonathan Jones reported that no official has been the referee for two games on the same day since at least 1970, according to league records.

Not since at least 1970, per NFL records, has an official served as a referee for two games in one day. Don Willard makes history today in Indianapolis and Cincinnati

— Jonathan Jones (@jjones9) November 15, 2026

Steelers-Bengals was originally assigned to Clete Blakeman’s crew in the Week 10 referee assignments. The league reviews every game during the week, and the Week 10 fines will be announced next Saturday.