As I vowed on YouTube last night, I have taken a deep look into the officiating of the Chargers vs Seahawks game. I rewatched every one of the 32 called penalties (30 accepted). I then looked into Referee Scott Novak’s history in the NFL and compared it to other crews. I also took another look at the new NFL Referee Association Collective Bargaining Agreement to see what options the league has available to them. Here’s what I found.
Chargers vs Seahawks - Week 4 (Most penalties in a game in 2026)
If you watched this game, you know how excruciating it was. Even if you were a neutral fan (I admittedly am not - Go Hawks), 32 flags got in the way of what turned out to be a highly competitive matchup between Mike Macdonald and his former boss, Jim Harbaugh.
30 Accepted Penalties for 280 Yards.
Chargers: 16 for 130.
Seahawks: 14 for 150.
I didn’t observe any clear favoritism. The calls went both ways and were very ticky tacky, to the point where even from the CBS broadcast booth, Logan Ryan couldn’t help but say so on multiple occasions throughout the game.
Speaking of the CBS booth, while the actual call of the game was fine, the crew did an awful job of showing replays on penalties. 15 of the penalties called, didn’t include a replay from CBS during the broadcast. That left the viewer to put their trust in the officials that they got the call right, or accept explanations from the broadcast without any accompanying video evidence.
While I don’t consider myself a conspiracy theorist, there’s a voice in my head that knows what I’d say if I were one. What is the NFL hiding? Is this about the sportsbooks? Is CBS protecting the NFL?
Upon my own review, I counted nine of the 30 penalties as good calls with the caveat that on at least four of the calls, I couldn’t find the penalty, or supposed penalty, due to CBS not providing a replay or a clear angle I could rewind to. Additionally, I counted 10 of the calls as either bad or ticky tacky (With the assistance of Logan Ryan’s commentary on many of them), with the same caveat - all of the penalties weren’t easy to find on the CBS broadcast.
Breakdown:
Good Calls: 9 of 30 (4<unconfirmed)
Bad/Ticky Tacky: 10 of 30 (4<unconfirmed)
Fair: ~6
Margin of error: 1.5
The Chargers vs Seahawks game ended as the most penalized game of 2026 so far (More on that in the next section).
Ultimately, both the Seahawks and the Chargers played a sloppy game, and penalties would have been a part of the story for both teams regardless of who the crew was. Having said that, even if you only agree with half of my “Bad/Ticky Tacky” calls, that still leaves you with upwards of five unwarranted penalties. Five penalties have a huge impact on a game.
The referees were going to be characters in this drama no matter what, but they shouldn’t have been so high on the call sheet.
Packers vs Jets - Week 2 (2nd most penalties in a game in 2026)
Somebody on one of my social media posts, I don’t remember which one, pointed out that Scott Novak’s crew also officiated the Packers vs Jets game in Week 2. Upon further review, they’re correct!
27 Accepted Penalties for 289 Yards
Packers: 14 for 133.
Jets: 13 for 156.
That means that Scott Novak and his crew are responsible for the most and 2nd most penalized games in 2026.
In the world of prediction markets and sports betting, there’s always going to be questions of integrity in curiously penalized games. I personally didn’t see evidence of that.
Novig had the Seahawks as 7.5 point favorites before kickoff against the Chargers. The Seahawks won by 7, meaning the underdog Chargers covered.
Novig had the Packers as 2.5 point favorites before kickoff against the Jets. The Packers won by 3, covering the spread.
If the refs were in the pockets of the sportsbooks and/or prediction markets, they’d have wanted the favorite to cover both times. Of course, there’s the mafia-style possibility. Could Scott Novak’s crew be in the pocket of somebody else who has them fix games in favor of their bets, regardless of what the sportsbook has? It’s possible (And could make for one hell of a TV drama). I haven’t seen any evidence of that, though.
I think the more likely issue is that this crew is full of trigger happy refs that enforce the rules in a robotic fashion that doesn’t allow the players to compete on a human level.
If these refs were cops, we’d all get shot.
Not Novak’s First Rodeo…
With the help of ChatGPT and NFLPenalties.com, I looked into whether Scott Novak has a history of calling the most penalties.
The answer is - sometimes.
In 2019-2020, and 2022-2025 he was at or below the average calls per game. In 2021 his crew called an average of 13.31 penalties per game, while the league averaged 11.74. And so far in 2026, a year where penalties are averaging 15.03 per game (Prior to Monday Night Football of Week 4), Novak’s crew is exceptionally above average at 22 penalties per game.
What can the NFL do?
It feels like forever ago, but remember when the NFL referees held out this offseason and the league began preparing replacement referees for 2026?
The reason we wound up with the regular refs is because the NFL and the NFL Referee Association came to terms on a brand new Collective Bargaining Agreement. The new deal gives the refs more money, but the league more power (That’s how it always goes).
NFL officials are graded on every single play of every single game (They technically were under the previous CBA as well). Under the new CBA, officials are subject to:
Additional training and development during the season
Replacement from a member of “Practice Squad” refs (That’s a thing now)
Remedial game reps in other leagues (Like the UFL).
As far as that last point is concerned, one of Scott Novak’s referees (Brian Sakowski) was one of four officials the NFL previously sent to the UFL for additional development in 2025.
I’ll continue to monitor this situation and report my findings on YouTube and here.
-Written by Seattle Mike