One of the biggest topics of conversation during the preseason has been the frequent flags thrown for defensive holding and illegal contact following the league’s decision to put a higher emphasis on those calls this season.
Many people have complained about the increase with reasons varying from making it harder to defend the pass to the stultifying pace that games take when flags fly on nearly every play, but at least one player feels that there haven’t been enough flags. Dolphins wide receiver Mike Wallace said that he and his teammates don’t see the same kind of treatment from the officials as the rest of the league.
“Not on our team. We don’t get those calls,” Wallace said, via the Palm Beach Post. “I don’t know why. That’s not our job to play for calls. We play to play football and make plays. The call, that’s extra.”
Wallace was answering a question about flags because he said he felt he was held while trying to catch a deep pass from Ryan Tannehill against the Buccaneers last week. The response about the hold came to the latest question about when Wallace and Tannehill might find the chemistry that’s eluded them since Wallace signed with the team last season.
Officials may have missed a call last week, but there’s not likely to be much sympathy for further comments about a lack of calls if those two don’t find a way to click in their second year together.