Sunday’s Chicago Bears game served as an unexpected allegory for everything wrong with President Donald Trump’s Republican Party.
Nearing halftime and down 3-6 in a rainy affair in Chicago, the Bears were hoping to secure a score before heading into the locker room. On a second down of a penalty-saturated possession, quarterback Caleb Williams called for the snap out of a shotgun formation and almost instantaneously found himself barreling the wrong way out of the pocket, abandoning his progressions. As Williams fled right, his internal clock telegraphed the two dueling options: throw the ball away or take the sack. Just as he was clipped, Williams threw a dart toward the ground near the chain gang out of bounds, presumably intending to regroup and start fresh with a new play. But a penalty flag came in from the side judge. Intentional grounding was the call. In the NFL, a quarterback is allowed to throw the ball away if he gets out of the pocket, but the thrown ball must pass the line of scrimmage in flight. Williams’s throw landed several feet shy of that mark.
That is defined in Rule 8, Section 2, Article 1, Item 1 of the 2026 NFL Rulebook: “Intentional grounding will not be called when a passer, who is outside, or has been outside, the pocket area, throws a forward pass that lands at or beyond the line of scrimmage extended (including when the ball lands out of bounds over the sideline or endline), even if no offensive player(s) have a realistic chance to catch the ball.”
The reaction(s) to the flag provide a curious assessment of the moment, and of our nation. The reaction of the fans, the defensive players, and the offensive players presents a dichotomy between what we want and what we ought to do.
The defensive players and fans reacted predictably. The defenders proudly welcomed the penalty they had extracted, putting the Bears in an unenviable 3rd and 35. The fans booed, assuming the referees had failed to adjudicate correctly. But the offensive players reacted in a way that is probably the ideal form when the play’s context is taken into consideration. The linemen practiced some light self-flagellation for letting the blitz reach the quarterback, while the QB shook his head in disappointment that his good idea wasn’t executed within the parameters of the rule. He should have thrown it further upfield. There was not a word nor a menacing leer at the referee. Rules are rules.
Play continued with the Bears on 3rd and 35. That moment between the throw and the following down’s snap is something that I appreciate about America — certainly as an immigrant from a place very different from the United States, Russia. Rather, I should say: this is something I appreciated about America. Due process, moving on — the rule of law and the practiced rules of order.
The America of today, vexed, transformed, and situated into that moment between the throw and the following snap would order much differently, I think. The America represented by today’s political majority would likely react in the following manner.
Upon the penalty flag being thrown, the nation would argue that the line of scrimmage had been incorrectly applied even before the snap. When the referees would [correctly] declare that anything happening prior to the snap may no longer be reviewed, the country would challenge them again — demanding that the referee consider the context of the throw and reward the quarterback for the totality of the play: the scamper from invading defenders, the acrobatic step toward the sideline, and the impeccably timed throw preventing the sack or impending fumble. The player-turned-modern-America would argue that he did enough to warrant lifting the flag and registering the throw as simply an incompletion. Fans in this imagined dystopian scenario would demand a replacement umpire sympathetic to their cause simply because they want their imagined outcome. Rule 8 should not apply here. An almost literal moving of the goalposts.
What a disaster for the sport that would be. A sport rooted in law but dug up weekly based on the whims of the louder fanbase. Every week a different adjudication based on who is playing at home. In fact, referees in the U.S. already face scrutiny for the slightest inconsistent evaluation of rules impacted by players’ stardom and the grounds on which the game is played. See: Michigan vs Western Michigan two weeks ago. Or any called strike, ever. Americans loathe bad refereeing. They abhor unfair application of the rule. In every sport, during every season, at every phase of the season, in every living room and stadium. Americans love rules correctly and consistently applied in sports. Americans love football and its voluminous rule book. After all, football is about structure, about playing within and along the confines of rules to draw [legal] advantages. But all within the framework of an agreed-upon, fine-tuned, and studied rulebook. In so many ways, the U.S.’s love affair with the American sport creates a person imbued with the regulatory spirit that tickles the fancy of every utopist. So why not in policy making?
Today’s MAGA conservatives, styled in the post-2024 political arena, have declared their hatred of this aspect of sports. Football instills a deep, cultural respect for neutral rules and due process — and this is something modern Trumpism actively tries to dismantle. They have declared a desire for the rulebook to be overhauled in favor of the offense that is currently on the field. Deep down, this branch of conservatives despises this aspect of football for the rigidity it imposes on the game when their roster could really benefit from a complimentary, to them, set of rules. The roster composition goes unquestioned.
THE NFL’S HELLACIOUS HYPOCRISY
The path toward a reunified America starts with a recommitment to the love of football. And a path toward loving football starts with a recommitment toward the appreciation of the function of law. And the binding characteristic of said appreciation is the willingness to accept law as the ultimate ruler. Otherwise, we allow individuals to define the sport. Individuals who might get hurt, might retire, might lose their gusto, or even their love for the sport.
Football is, like America was, rooted in a rulebook, fallible but unquestioned, defining the rules of engagement.
Filipp Velgach serves as the endowed chairman in the humanities at Lake Forest Academy, where he teaches modern world history and a class on the ethics in sports.
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[ H/T Washington Examiner ]
