The refs ought to call holding every time they fucking see it, and after a couple of weeks, it would be virtually eliminated from the game. The game would change overnight. A lot more scoring, a lot more pressure on the QB, more emphasis on hard hitting and running, and on and on.
A defensive back shouldn't be allowed to impede a receiver's momentum any more than he should be allowed to use that player's momentum to his advantage. Leaving these fucking referees to decide on degrees of holding is insane. The NFL has been turned into a bunch of fucking accountants measuring miliseconds.
The same applies when a receiver catches a ball, tucks it and then fumbles it when he's hit... Yesterday, the fucking refs took away a KC TD because the receiver didn't make "a football move," or some such bullshit. Get the refs out of the game (i.e., stop their judgement on degrees of holding, or degrees of catching.) The fucker caught the ball. Then he fumbled it. Football should be hard clean play, and cheaters should be kicked out of the game - at least temporarily. Just stop it. Two holding calls - you're gone for a quarter. Tough shit. Then we'll see the announcers looking at a replay saying, "hey, there's the hold. there's no dispute. End of argument, let's play football.
Instead we have measured movement up and down the field. Every series there's a penalty because someone decided they could get away with cheating and a ref decided to finally call him on it, and far too many good plays are called back for... wait for it... cheating. It's getting so that every goddamned game's outcome is determined by a ref's call (or non-call). (See KC v Cinn). Games without rules, games with constant cheating, aren't nearly as much fun as when players are put on a level playing field and have to use their wits and athleticism to win.
That concludes my rants for the year on how they're turning the game of football into a chess match.