Packers-Seahawks could be a whistle-stop opener

Are you ready for some flag football?

The NFL’s Kickoff Opener between the Green Bay Packers and Seattle Seahawks could be a flag-fest Thursday night, if the preseason was any indication.

The league is cracking down on illegal contact, illegal hands to the face, and defensive holding, which have all been identified as “points of emphasis” by the officiating department. In Thursday’s sports page of The Times, we ran the statistics and they’re stunning.

In case you missed them: There were 97 illegal contact calls compared to 10 last year; 165 defensive holding penalties, compared to 39; and 212 illegal use of hands calls, compared to 28.

It gets worse. ESPN’s Sal Paolantonio notes that John Parry is the referee for the Packers-Seahawks game, and that Parry’s crew threw more flags than any other this summer for defensive holding and pass interference. What’s more, Parry’s crew was tied for the lead last season in both of those categories.

With the Seahawks referring to the illegal-contact crackdown as the “Legion of Boom rule” in honor of their hands-on secondary, it could be raining yellow flags in this city.