Still angling for more. You may have told your story before, but this is the definitive re-issued director’s cut anniversary christmas edition version.

Running the Numbers: How Much Do Penalties Hurt NFL Teams?

Jonathan Bales

http://thedctimes.com/2012/06/running-the-numbers-how-much-do-penalties-hurt-nfl-teams/

I’ve been fascinated by the relationship between penalties and winning for a few years now, even though I haven’t necessarily written extensively on the subject in this forum. When the Cowboys signed offensive tackle Alex Barron a few years ago, I wrote an article on the negative impact of Barron’s false starts. The tackle had committed 43 false starts over the previous five seasons in St. Louis.

From that post:

Barron’s false starts were responsible for the loss of 24.4 expected points over the course of five seasons, or about five points per year. In essence, each false start cost the Rams 1/2 expected point, which is in line with league averages.

Expected points are one thing, but how do the false starts and subsequent loss of expected points affect a team’s win total? Well, five points over the course of a season translates to just about .12 wins. Thus, Barron’s (and those of Adams) false starts were annoying, but not as costly to a team’s success as you might believe.

One of the things I may have overlooked in that article on Barron is what sort of style of play accompanies certain types of penalties. False starts and other mental mistakes, although often not devastating to a team in terms of lost yards, come with no benefits. Players who frequently false start likely don’t have a tremendous mental grasp in other aspects of their game, such as blocking assignments and so on.

On the other hand, penalties such as roughing the passer and defensive pass interference are the result of aggressive play. The mindset that accompanies such penalties can lead to benefits for a team, such as interceptions and sacks. Thus, although more detrimental than mental errors in a limited sense, aggressive penalties might be the inevitable result of an attacking style of play.

That’s exactly what I found in my latest Running the Numbers post at DallasCowboys.com. Check it out:

On paper, everything adds up for defensive pass interference to lead to defeat. The call itself can be incredibly disadvantageous to a defense, providing the offense with the ball at the spot of the foul, plus an automatic first down. On top of that, you’d expect poor defenses to commit more pass interference infractions because they get out of position. Lastly, bad teams tend to have their defense on the field a lot, i.e. more time to accrue penalties.

However, teams that generate a lot of pass interference calls aren’t actually more likely to lose than those that limit the penalty. Since 2006, teams that have finished in the top 10 in defensive pass interference (meaning they were flagged the least often) have won 7.9 games per season. Those in the bottom 10 have won 8.0 games per year.

You can see above that in four of the past six seasons teams that finished with the most pass interference calls won the same amount or more games than the teams with the fewest pass interference penalties.

As I tracked different types of penalties, I noticed the same trend; those that come as a result of aggressive play (such as pass interference, roughing the passer and illegal contact) aren’t correlated to losing football games. This is so astounding because these penalties are often the most harmful to a team.

I realize looking at defensive pass interference alone results in a limited sample size, but the trend extends over most “aggressive” penalties. I find this fascinating.

The results of this study suggest teams shouldn’t really do everything possible to limit penalties. Aggressive play without penalties is of course ideal, but probably not possible. Some penalties are the result of a specific style of play that, as the numbers show, leads to more benefits than disadvantages. It’s a medium risk/high reward style of play that is superior to the low risk/low reward style of play that characterized the pre-Rob Ryan Dallas Cowboys defense.

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Is “Discipline” Overrated In The NFL?

Reuben Fischer-Baum

1/07/14 1:39pm

http://regressing.deadspin.com/is-discipline-overrated-in-the-nfl-1496283805

The 2013-14 Seahawks finished the year with a 13-3 record, a +186 point differential, and +40.1 percent DVOA, making them arguably the best team in the NFL. They also led the league in penalties (128) and penalty yards (1,193). Baltimore led in both categories last year and won the Super Bowl over the 49ers, who were second in penalty yards. We’re told time and again by broadcasters and pundits that good teams have to be “disciplined,” by which they largely mean “not prone to penalties.” Is “discipline” overrated?

To find out, we compared penalty totals by team, from 2009 through 2013, to points scored, points allowed, and total point differential for each season. Data comes from the site NFL Penalty Stats Tracker (thanks to BestTicketsBlog for pointing us toward the site). It’s possible that better teams could accrue more penalties because they play at a faster pace (and get more opportunities to commit penalties); to control for this we looked at the percentage of snaps—offensive, defensive, and total—in which the team got flagged.

If discipline is instrumental to success, we’d expect to see offensive penalty rate linked to points scored, defensive penalty rate linked to points allowed, and total penalty rate linked to point differential.

This data show no statistically significant correlation between penalty rates and offensive, defensive, or team performance. The negative relationship between offensive penalties and points scored is the closest to significant; I suspect that if I bumped up my sample by a couple seasons it would prove to be a statistically valid but extremely small effect (as is, p=0.08). You can perform the same analysis using pace-adjusted penalty yards instead of penalty totals and get similar results (offense r=-0.118, defense r=-0.09, total r=0.115).

So what does this mean? This doesn’t imply that penalties aren’t bad for teams; individual penalties are clearly detrimental on both offense and defense. What it does imply, I think, is that the sort of teams that accumulate more penalties—teams you might call “aggressive” when they’re winning—aren’t necessarily bad teams, and the sort of teams that accumulate fewer penalties aren’t necessarily good teams.

Given the advantages that can come from plays that get you flagged, the best place for a team to be is just barely on the good side of the rulebook. It would make sense that an aggressive team that tried to live in this gray area (resulting in some flags) would be better off than a relatively passive team that never comes close to committing anything resembling a penalty, but gets bulldozed. Something to keep in mind when the penalty-heavy Detroit Lions implode again in 2014 and prompt another 1,000 articles about how they’re “undisciplined.”

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Flags are Seahawks’ best friend

1/29/2015 – NFL Seattle Seahawks

David Fleming, ESPN Senior Writer

http://espn.go.com/nfl/playoffs/2014/story/_/id/12244470/seattle-seahawks-found-way-use-penalties-their-advantage

There’s a team in Super Bowl XLIX that, for years, has created a major competitive advantage by blatantly disregarding NFL rules.

I’m talking about the Seattle Seahawks, of course.

Over the past three years the Seahawks have done something no one in the white-socks-and-black-shoes, stuck-in-the-1950s NFL ever dreamed possible, or legal. Since 2012 Seattle has been at the top of the NFL in wins (tied with 36), Super Bowl appearances and … penalties.

The best team in the league has been penalized so many times (416) in the last three seasons that I’m pretty sure the fluorescent yellow trim on the Seahawks uniforms is actually just residue from all the penalty flags. Still, Seattle’s success isn’t in spite of all the penalties. It’s inspired by it. Without anyone really noticing, Seattle has created a blossoming dynasty in the most competitive league in the world by completely, and brilliantly, turning the stigma of penalty flags upside down; embracing infractions rather than avoiding them at all costs.

Now, of course, you can jimmy the stats a few different ways to move Seattle off the top spot in penalties but it changes almost nothing. Bottom line, the Seahawks are still among the most successful, most penalized teams in the NFL — a combination that a generation of football coaches and experts told us was both totally impossible and highly dishonorable.

Through 18 games, the Seahawks not only have been called for a league-high 144 penalties (according to NFLpenalties.com) their opponents have only been flagged just 80 times. Yes, you read that correctly. The Seahawks have been called for almost twice as many penalties as their opponents.

Inside “Law & Order: NFL,” the Seahawks have found a way to make penalty flags meaningless while rendering the ultimate authority of officials little more than an illusion.

Let that soak in for a minute.

“We’re not going to change the way we’re playing,” head coach Pete Carroll explained earlier this season on ESPN Radio 710 in Seattle. “The style of play that generates this kind of focus from the officials is somewhat emblematic of us. I don’t want our guys to back off.” Later, he added: “We are pretty crazy and wild, the way we play, and we don’t want to change that.”

Why would they?

In a game of violence, aggression, speed and emotion, the Seahawks simply looked at the risk/reward and realized it is far better to play on the razor’s edge (and beyond), to bend the rules, manhandle opponents and incur an extra flag (or 20) and, ya know, WIN THE GAMES, rather than fall in line, play like a Boy Scout and watch the playoffs from home just like the NFL’s least penalized team, the 3-13 Jaguars (73).

Meanwhile, several of the top teams in the league — Seattle, New England, Denver and Baltimore, most notably — have all been at, or near the top of the NFL in penalties the last three seasons. A year ago Seattle became the first team in at least a decade to get flagged 10 times in the Super Bowl and win. In doing so, the Seahawks so manhandled and intimidated the Broncos receivers that, by the end of the game, I swear it looked like Eric Decker didn’t even want to leave the protection of the huddle. Julian Edelman? You’re next, pal.

So, yeah, your high school football coach — the guy who withheld water to build “toughness” during summer two-a-days — he might tell you the sloppy, undisciplined Seahawks were just lucky to overcome their penalty problem and somehow get back to the big game. But the truth of the matter is the Seahawks have expertly exploited a TV-centric business model (flags are boring for viewers and bad for ratings) and ridden a magic yellow nylon carpet stitched from 144 tiny penalty flags back to the Super Bowl and the doorstep of NFL immortality.

This all started last year, of course, when the Seahawks revolutionized pass interference by using the same logic loophole that offensive linemen have been exploiting for years with holding. The idea is: you hold on almost every play, knowing the refs won’t throw 50 flags per game. If everything is holding, the thinking goes, then nothing really is. Brilliant. Seattle just took that approach and applied it to pass coverage and it was so effective and disruptive they forced the NFL to change the rules regarding defensive holding and pass interference.

I thought the Seahawks might be on to something last year when I contacted a long-time NFL official, and even he had to begrudgingly hand it to Seattle for “exploiting a loophole of human nature” in the NFL — that there’s simply a finite number of flags that can be thrown in any game. I thought about it a little more when I kept hearing defensive coaches remind players in camp “they can’t throw flags on every play.” But I knew a revolution was afoot when the normally draconian disciplinarian Bill Belichick imported Seattle corner (and penalty-flag machine) Brandon Browner. The Pats, by the way, were tied for fourth in the NFL in penalties this season. (Ironically, New England may fall victim in this Super Bowl to a penalties-be-damned trend they actually started in Super Bowl XXXVI when they bullied, battered and bruised Marshall Faulk on every possible play.)

After the league-wide crackdown on pass interference, the 2014 Seahawks changed their ways — kind of. This season they were flagged for PI just seven times. (You ask me, they just got better and smarter at hiding it.) However, what the 2014 Seahawks seemed to have done is take the aggressive, push-the-envelope mentality of their defensive backfield and spread it out all over the entire field. Now, they start early on offense, they creep into the neutral zone, they hold, they grab, they interfere and they dare the NFL to properly police them.
Unbeknownst to them, NFL officials have indirectly had a hand in Seattle’s recent rise. AP Photo/Scott Eklund

In a critical Week 13 game in San Francisco, Seattle was flagged 14 times compared to just three on the 49ers. But Seattle won 19-3. On the road again in Week 16 the Seahawks crushed the 11-3 Cardinals 35-6. Seattle piled up 596 yards of offense while holding Arizona to two field goals and 29 yards rushing. Oh, yeah, they were flagged 11 times in that game, or 10 times more than the Cardinals.

“We’re playing really hard and really aggressive, so it’s kind of like last year,” said Carroll. “We were pretty good at leading the NFL last year, too, in penalties. You’ve got to be first in something, I guess, so that’s what it is.”

A lot of the Seahawks’ league-leading 144 penalties are pre-snap infractions. According to NFLPenalties.com, in 18 games they had 33 false starts, 13 defensive offsides and nine neutral zone infractions. But, again, try to clear your puritan, rule-happy mind and think of these like they do in Seattle — where they aren’t embarrassed by yellow penalty flags but emboldened.

The Seahawks have run more than 1,000 plays this season. For argument’s sake, let’s say they’ve started all of those plays on offense a micro-second early or an inch or two closer to their opponent, but only got caught 33 times. That means the Seahawks have had a jump on their opponents on 97 percent of their offensive plays. All it did was cost them 165 yards in penalties, total, or 2 percent of their total production. Of course it’s not that cut-and-dried. After all, the shame and punishment of 33 false starts caused the Seahawks to fall all the way to No. 1 in rushing.

What’s more, you and I see Seattle defensive end Michael Bennett and his numerous offside penalties and we immediately think: that fool got caught 10 times – 10 TIMES!

Whereas the Seahawks look at Bennett and think: that dude got away with a head start 250 TIMES!

Like I said, genius.

And the best part of this ground-breaking strategy is how well it works in the Super Bowl. The bigger the stage, the more important the entertainment value, the less likely refs will be to interrupt the flow of the broadcast with numerous penalties.

You’ll see.

It was Pablo Picasso who said you had to “learn the rules like a pro so you can break them like an artist.”

Some notes

Both Johnson and Joyner got injured, and that elevated Gaines’ snaps.

33-E.Gaines STL DB 1037 0 0.0% 935 89.0% 102 22.5%

22-T.Johnson STL DB 490 0 0.0% 433 41.2% 57 12.6%

20-L.Joyner STL DB 369 0 0.0% 277 26.4% 92 20.3%

Same thing happened to Long.

91-C.Long STL DL 232 0 0.0% 232 22.1% 0 0.0%

95-W.Hayes STL DL 608 0 0.0% 534 50.8% 74 16.3%

Matt Barrows: Can talent offset 49ers’ offseason tumult?

Comparing this season’s roster to the 2014 team

49ers’ offensive line sees more change than any other position

http://www.sacbee.com/sports/nfl/san-francisco-49ers/article24986635.html

Eight-and-eight.

That sounds like a weaselly forecast when it comes to the 49ers’ season, the equivalent of your parents insisting they like you and your siblings “the same” (even Scotty) or every Little League team getting a trophy at season’s end no matter how terrible some were.

Eight-and-eight is safe, it doesn’t ruffle feathers, and it goes unnoticed. It’s the tan slacks and navy blue blazer of predictions. It blends. It’s boring.

But how can you take a fierce stance either way when it comes to the 2015 49ers? On one hand, they’ve had to absorb more change this offseason than any other team and competes in a pressure cooker of a division.

On the other, it remains a talented group despite the offseason tumult.

How talented? Here’s a position-by-position analysis of this year’s squad vs. 2014’s, which a year ago was certain it was worthy of Super Bowl but finished 8-8.

Quarterback – The group promises to be the same as it was a season ago – Colin Kaepernick starts, and Blaine Gabbert backs him up. The difference is that Kaepernick spent the offseason working on his weaknesses instead of his abs. (Or judging from recent footage, maybe in addition to his abs).

That alone must be viewed as a gain over last year. As is the case with every NFL team, the season will pivot on the play of the quarterback more than any other player, and Kaepernick seems to be taking the rights steps. Gained.

Offensive line – It’s possible only one starter – Joe Staley – will start the 2015 season in the same spot he ended the 2014 season. The unit has been shaken up like no other, and the new guys either are less experienced or less talented as the players they are replacing. Lost.

Running back – The hope here is that many talented players – from Carlos Hyde to Reggie Bush to Kendall Hunter – can compensate for the loss of a borderline Hall of Famer in Frank Gore.

Something to consider: Can the group duplicate Gore’s consistency and toughness? In 10 seasons, he missed 11 of 168 games because of injury. Hyde already has missed two, and he dealt with a minor calf injury this spring. Lost.

Wide receiver – The 49ers had talent last year, but Anquan Boldin and Michael Crabtree essentially were clones of each other. With Torrey Smith and Jerome Simpson added and Crabtree subtracted, there’s more diversity, which should make the offense more difficult to defend. Gained.

Tight end – A year ago, Vernon Davis was distracted, injured and underutilized. That Davis is entering his contract year – and thus is motivated – alone puts this position in the “plus” category. The 49ers have seven other players at the position, and the competition ought to forge three good ones, in addition to Davis, for the regular season. Gained.

Defensive line – The situation is similar to the running backs in that the plan is to replace two stalwarts with several, mostly young, players. The difference is that while Gore showed little sign of slowing down last season – his best games came in Weeks 16 and 17 – Justin Smith was starting to break down (although not so much that the 49ers wouldn’t have welcomed him back for another season).

The 49ers will miss his leadership and his and Ray McDonald’s experience, but with Quinton Dial, Tank Carradine and other youngsters finally getting a chance, the loss may not end up being as dramatic as it appears at first blush. Lost.

Inside linebacker – NaVorro Bowman is supremely motivated to return to his pre-injury form, and Michael Wilhoite is more seasoned than he was at this point a year ago. Still, Chris Borland’s sudden retirement means this group is not as deep as it was in 2014. And until Bowman shows he is past his injury, he remains a question mark. Lost.

Outside linebacker – A year ago, Aldon Smith had a nine-game suspension looming while Ahmad Brooks reported to training camp vastly overweight. Brooks appears to be as fit as he’s been in several years, while Smith must become the pass-rushing force he was early in his career to get a new, lucrative contract.

The 49ers used a third-round pick on Eli Harold, while Aaron Lynch is building off a rookie season in which he played 49.1 percent of the team’s defensive snaps. The prospects this year appear far better than they were in 2014. Gained.

Secondary – The 49ers must replace two starting cornerbacks. But one of the presumed starters this year, Tramaine Brock, would have started a year ago had he been healthy.

The unit is buoyed by two smart, sturdy safeties, Eric Reid and Antoine Bethea, who will help the group absorb changes. The secondary is deep with the addition of second-round pick Jaquiski Tartt and with cornerbacks Keith Reaser and Kenneth Acker healthy.

The biggest offseason loss may have been secondary coach Ed Donatell, whose coverages worked brilliantly in San Francisco’s overall scheme and produced 78 interceptions over the past four regular seasons. Still, from a talent standpoint, this is probably a push. Even.

Special teams – The 49ers went with a youth movement last season on their coverage units, which were shaky early and seemed to find their footing only when veteran Bubba Ventrone was re-signed after Week 5.

The team again appears poised to rely on youngsters at key spots. Ventrone retired, Kassim Osgood is unsigned, and Craig Dahl must battle to retain his roster spot. Meanwhile, Bradley Pinion, 21, takes over for Andy Lee, 32, as the team’s punter and holder. Lost.

Mackeyser wrote:

Reggie White was an LDE who shifted to DT on certain plays, but he certainly wasn’t a DT until the final years of his career.

To call Reggie White a DT, especially in the first 5 years of his career just isn’t correct.

Granted.

Sites like that, you always have to weave in your own corrections.

Rams notes: McLeod excited about defense’s potential

By Joe Lyons

http://www.stltoday.com/sports/football/professional/rams-notes-mcleod-excited-about-defense-s-potential/article_f9726967-1d12-55a5-9c60-63ea9f99ff78.html

Signed as an undrafted free agent from the University of Virginia in May 2012, safety Rodney McLeod has made steady progress with the Rams.

As a rookie, he quickly established himself as a playmaker on special teams, leading the team with 16 tackles and catching a 21-yard pass from rookie punter Johnny Hekker in the Rams’ 24-24 tie in San Francisco.

In 2013, McLeod started 16 games at free safety and was third on the squad with 87 tackles. In addition, he picked off two passes, recovered two fumbles and had five pass defenses. On special teams, he made three tackles and forced a fumble that Daren Bates returned for a touchdown.

He made 16 more starts a year ago while recording a career-best 96 tackles to go along with two interceptions, two fumble recoveries, a forced fumble and six pass defenses.

“Every year, he just steps it up a huge notch,” Rams head coach Jeff Fisher said. “He gets the game. Moves very well. I thought he played really well last year. He misjudged a couple deep balls, but everybody does that. But I thought he was really active, knew what do and run-supported very well.”

The Rams tendered McLeod, a restricted free agent, at a second-round level, guaranteeing the 24-year-old $2.365 million this season and assuring the club a second-round draft pick if he had received an outside offer that the team elected not to match.

“It meant a lot, honestly,” McLeod said. “It’s nice to see they appreciate the work I’ve put in the last three seasons. It’s a blessing. But I really don’t think it’ll change me or my approach. I’m still hungry and motivated and working to do whatever I can got get this team back to the Super Bowl.”

McLeod joins 2012 draft choices Janoris Jenkins, Trumaine Johnson and Mark Barron as the veteran players in a young and versatile group of defensive backs with the Rams. And it’s a role he takes seriously.

“Anything I can do to help, I’m more then willing,” the 5-foot-10, 195-pounder said. “As (defensive coordinator Gregg Williams) likes to say, there are no true starters because of all the different packages we use. Guys are out there competing, getting their hands on the ball and making plays. By pushing each other, everybody stays sharp.”

McLeod adapted quickly to Williams’ system and feels even more comfortable now.

“Each year, you just have a better idea what to expect,’’ the fourth-year pro said. “I’d like to make more plays and I’m watching film of the Pro Bowl safeties, seeing if there’s anything I can do to improve my game. As a group, our main goal is starting fast this year. If we can do that, I feel like the sky’s the limit.’’

ALEXANDER WITH THE STARTERS

With veterans T.J. McDonald and Barron slowed by injury, safety Maurice Alexander, the second-year pro from Eureka High, has been working in OTAs with the starters.

“It’s definitely exciting to be out there and getting a chance with the No. 1s,” said Alexander, 24, a fourth-round draft pick from Utah State. “Last year was tough for me, mainly because of injuries, but Coach Williams did a great job of keeping me ready mentally. Then, once I got healthy at midseason, I was able to do some good things and finish the season on a high note.”

After dressing for just one of the team’s first nine games, Alexander was a regular on special teams for the final seven games of the season. He finished sixth on the squad with seven special-teams tackles.

“Obviously, special teams is a big part of my role here,” he said. “Wherever they need me, I’m there. But being out there with the starters, it’s a great learning opportunity for me and I’m trying to take advantage of every rep.”

Williams is excited about the progress Alexander has made.

“If you want to talk about a guy that’s drastically different than last year, it’s Maurice,’’ the coach said. “He could hardly speak what we’re doing last year. He’d only played one season in college as a DB and now he’s in the NFL as a DB. Holy Cow, he was lost, but we knew he was talented. He’s had a great spring because he’s gotten more reps — next man up — because T.J. and Mark haven’t had as many.

“We’ve got a ton of stuff to do with three safeties and Maurice is now vying for get some of those shots, too.’’

For Rams’ Williams, familiarity breeds defensive improvement

Elisabeth Meinecke
FOX Sports Midwest

http://www.foxsports.com/midwest/story/for-st-louis-rams-gregg-williams-familiarity-breeds-defensive-improvement-061815

ST. LOUIS — As the Rams wrap up OTAs this week, defensive coordinator Gregg Williams has already identified several signs that could bode well for his defensive unit heading into 2015 NFL regular season.

First, there was familiarity. This is Williams’ second season with the club, which meant less time spent hashing out basics such as terminology. As a result, he feels the unit is “light years” ahead of where it was at the same time last year.

“It took a little bit of time for all of us to get acclimated last year and now we’re hoping we can start off fast — faster this year because there’s a knowledge, a base of information that we all know is the same,” Williams says.

He also points out that, because of the familiarity, the players are able to take more ownership when they step onto the field.

“Listen to them to do a lot of the checking and (audibles),” he says. “I’ve given them a lot of tools in their toolbox, but now they understand those tools. And they’ll be making calls out on the field that fit their skillset. They’ll stay in the family of the call, but the call has all kinds of adjustments that they can do that fits their skillset. They can do that now because we’ve had all this experience together.”

Overall during OTAs, the defense tried out 18 different packages, although according to Williams, that’s less than half of the playbook he’s culled over his years in the league (though he doesn’t use all of them).

“We play a lot of different people, you know, whoever dresses on Sunday or dresses on game day, there’s going to be a package for those guys. They just don’t all play special teams,” he says. “And you see that we have 42 ways to add up to 11. When I say that, we have 42 words that (say these) 11 guys travel out there.”

Williams also said that, in an effort to help each player improve, the defensive coaching staff went the extra mile this offseason to make individual reports for every player on what they were doing well and what they needed to work on.
James Laurinaitis, Jo-Lonn Dunbar, Erin Shannon, Chris Long, William Hayes

“Each player got a video cut-up of some things that we talked about — strengths, weaknesses, that was on tape, that we can see,” Williams said. “The fact that we have some things on tape now, that we could talk about, and there’s more of an understanding. There’s also more of a buy-in when a coach talks to you individually.”

It’s a buy-in the team will need to compete in the NFC West, which already features a Seattle Seahawks defensive unit that ranked first overall in the NFL last season. The Rams have plenty of talent and, after stuttering last year, rebounded to finish 17th in the league in overall defense. Still, with names such as Chris Long, Aaron Donald, James Laurinaitis and Robert Quinn, the ceiling is likely much higher.

In the end, Williams sees the potential for this defense to become something special.

“When they are on the same page, and you see these guys talking, yeah, there’s a chance for them to be special, but we’ve also got to get the opponent to cooperate, too,” Williams says. “This is a talented group, and in order for us to be that way, there can’t be any miscommunication. One play can beat you.”

What messes up race discussions a lot, it seems to me—and Mack gets at it very well I think—is the false idea of symmetry.

Race things are not symmetrical. Very good example: saying you’re proud of being white does not have the same meaning as saying you’re proud of being black.

Passing is a different experience too, as Mack makes abundantly clear.

It’s the same with gender, though in different ways. There’s no real or valid “men need to stand up and defend their rights” statement that makes the same kind of sense, at all, as a woman saying the same thing about women.