[Travis Hoffman]

There is always the yearly question of "how much defense will the referee crews let the teams play?".

In 2005, the answer to that was "not very much".
In 2006, the answer was "quite a bit".

In 2007, the answer will be "???????". We won't know until we get out on the field and let the games commence.

A lot of the rules involving penalties are not absolute. In each situation where a penalty may be required, the refs will have to make a snap judgement call to interpret and apply the rules as they perceive them to be. When asked in the Q&A to clarify possible penalty-inducing situations, how many times have you seen the GDC post that "hypothetical game situations are highly context-dependent. It is not practical for us to provide definitive answers for all indivual situations that may be presented"?

It all boils down to how individual refs interpret and apply the rules at each event - the collective decisions these volunteers make will dictate whether the game is skewed toward offense, defense, or a balance of both. I always hope for the balanced game, where both defensive and offensive robots are allowed to shine, and neither style is "artificially f(l)avored" over the other.