1. Is there racial bias in NFL roughing the passer calls?
Nilesh Shah, PhD
University of Pittsburgh
School of Dental Medicine

2. Background Approximately 70% of players in the NFL are black.
Approximately 20% of NFL quarterbacks are black.
Black players have historically been excluded and discouraged from playing the quarterback position.
Marlin Briscoe was the first black quarterback to start a professional game in 1968.
Given systemic societal racism, are black quarterbacks treated differently on the field?
Is there implicit bias in how penalties are called?

3. Background
Roughing the passer calls occur when, in the referee’s judgement:
The passer is hit after the ball is thrown, after the defender’s first step.
A passer is unnecessarily driven into the ground.
The defender makes head contact with the passer.
The defender “clubs” the arm of a passer.
The defender forcibly hits the passer in the knee area or below.
Hypothesis: Black quarterbacks receive roughing the passer calls less frequently than white quarterbacks.

4. Methods Used play-by-play data from nflscrapR.
The data covers the seasons from
Examined the rate of roughing the passer calls per quarterback contacts.
Quarterback contacts were defined as any time the passer was hit (sacks, QB hits.)
Quarterback race was determined visually and coded as black or white.
The analysis included all passers—including plays where non-quarterbacks threw passes.
The proportion of roughing the passer calls per quarterback contact was calculated for white and black quarterbacks.
A two sample proportion test was used to test the null hypothesis that roughing calls occurred at similar rates for white and black quarterbacks.

5. Results
There is no statistically significant difference in roughing the passer calls per QB contact (p=0.30) over this time frame.

6. Results

7. Conclusions
No significant difference in roughing the passer calls by race.
Rates for black quarterbacks have more variability, likely due to smaller sample size.