I can't say for sure because I'm not tracking the number of penalty opportunities a player has. It's possible that he is just getting more opportunities because of where he's playing. That does sound somewhat far-fetched (unless he's maybe a center), because by design you would expect him to be the least penalized on your team with those attributes.

I'd be curious to see the plays per penalty ratio with him and the other players on your line, and maybe see if it changes if you put him in another spot on the line (although that would change his experience)

I'm not sure there is a quick answer for the penalty issue. I did some research on all the teams I have (15 having more than 1 season) and I'm really struggling with penalties. Many of the ideas JDB came up with, I have used...higher DIS/INT, play familiarity, and it just doesn't seem to work. I have also set fatigue in the mid to upper 40's for many positions.

Of the 15 teams I own, 11 of them rank in the top 7 in penalties. The one that is most glaring is the CUST-62 League. The season before I took the team over, it was the lowest (32) ranked team for penalties. Without much player turnover, my first year, that rank went to 7th.

I'm also noticing many more penalties on big gain plays, in which the hold comes 20 yards behind where the ball is.

With this information, I believe what JDB says about the opportunities that each player has to commit a penalty and the play called has a higher % of a penalty being called than it used to.

If anyone has a solution that has worked, I would love to hear it... 3 out of my 4 teams that weren't in the top 7 for penalties went a long way in the playoffs, (the 4th doesn't have the ball long enough to commit penalties) so I'm really trying to get the penalties down in all leagues.

I don't believe there is a solution.

Just like a RB with 100 avoid fumble who fumbles a lot, or 100 kicker/snapper/holder who misses an XP every other game, etc.

There's a LOT in MFN that is just random and there's nothing you can do about it.

You may be right, WarEagle. I might be looking into something that there is no answer to because it is random.

I do think (when I get some time) that I might look at gamelogs of multiple teams and see if the penalties happen more in certain formations or with certain plays.

Don't get me wrong, I definitely think there should be something you can do about it:
players who shouldn't get penalties / fumble, fatigue settings, etc.

I just don't think there is anything you can do under the current code where a lot of the attributes don't really do much.

I've been thinking about the bolded statement, and I'm thoroughly annoyed by it. What this says to me is that game planners like WarEagle, Ray, Ares, myself, and many others are being penalized by penalties because we all develop game plans that are meant to control the tempo of the game. If Discipline really doesn't control penalties over the course of the game, and what really matters is the number of opportunities for a penalty to occur, why should I create a game plan that is designed to run off 70-80 plays in the course of a game?

This explains why I see so many penalties on games where my offense is cruising too and so many penalties that happen 20, 30, 50 yards behind the play. Why are there so many aspects of this game that are counterintuitive for people that actual game plan?

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Let me explain this now that I have a minute. There is very little correlation between the number of plays that a team runs and the number of penalties that a team commits. This breaks a linear expectation where each play has an equal chance of a penalty being committed.

For instance, here are the top five teams in plays and top five teams in penalties committed in the NFL last season. The number in parentheses for penalties represents how well a team did at not committing penalties and the number in parenthese for plays represents the team's rank in overall plays run.

Top 5 Plays

New Orleans - 1105 plays, 107 penalties (16)

Arizona - 1086 plays, 104 penalties (14)

Philly - 1080 plays, 113 penalties (25)

Baltimore - 1079 plays, 125 penalties (29)

Houston - 1071 plays, 87 penalties (1)

Top 5 Penalties

Oakland - 1048 plays (11), 147 penalties

Jacksonville - 1052 plays (8), 129 penalties

LA Rams - 960 plays (31), 126 penalties

Miami Dolphins - 913 plays (32), 125 penalties

Baltimore Ravens - 1079 plays (5), 125 penalties

It's not surprising at all that Jacksonville and LA are near the top in terms of penalties committed. Both were terrible teams that played desperate for much of the year. Meanwhile, it's also not surprising that teams like New England were in the top 10 for both plays run (7) and fewest penalties (5)

That said, even though penalties seem to scale linearly by play in MFN (in MFN-1 the most penalized teams have a ratio of about 1 penalty per 12 plays), the ratio may be lower than the NFL, which is about 1:10.

In short, still annoyed that MFN seems to take an almost linear approach to penalties and think that things like IN and DI should matter more, but less annoyed that the quasi-linear nature of penalties in MFN seems to produce better ratios than the NFL.

Sometimes players just ****. I've had plenty of paper superstars that just **** and **** bad. Whether it's by design or just a fluke some guys just ****. After trying to put those paper superstars in different positions to help them play to their potential and they continue to ****, you have to ask yourself, is it worth keeping them in there because on paper they are an All Pro, or realize you got a crappy player and move on. It's hard but I've experienced it.

The truth is that those attributes do impact the penalty probability - so having lower discipline players does increase the probability of them committing a penalty. There are some tweaks I do want to make to the penalty system, but there will never be a 0-probability penalty player. It's possible I may change the probability curve, but it will never be 0-probability for any player.

It shouldn't be a zero probability curve, but the curve shouldn't also scale linearly with the number of plays that a team runs since there is no correlation between plays and number penalties.

Fumbling and tackles are the same way. Sometimes guys just don't fumble or break/miss tackles. Here those rare cases are much more rare(than in real life ) in the event that they never actually happen .

It's not that the totals are to high . ...its how aND when they are committed . Also, we will play guys, because of the "effect" of "athletic " rating have on successful game play results. The value there is too high.......making it ok to fumble , miss a tackle, or commit a penalty .

I will continue to say 90 plus speed strength and intelligence decrease the competitive values of tackle/break tackle, protect ball/ strip as well as others . Discipline is not even interwoven with the effect of coaches like other ratings tied into position specifics. Coaches are the ones who developed discipline . It is inherently in certain players like speed/ strength and intelligence , but practice does make perfect . ....with the right direction .