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In every football game, the penalties for each team are tracked and counted. If a team has committed an unusually high amount of fouls, a bug will appear on the TV screen that looks something like this:

SSK Penalties: 17 for 127 yards

What that graphic doesn't say, though, is the amount of yards that were lost on a particular play where a foul occurred. It also doesn't show how much momentum was lost or confidence lost when a big play is taken off the board.

For instance, late in the first quarter of the Saskatchewan Roughriders' 30-5 loss to the Edmonton Eskimos on Friday night, 'Riders rookie quarterback Brett Smith, who was desperately trying to find a rhythm, hit Weston Dressler for what would have been a long completion putting the ball deep in Edmonton territory.

The score at the time was 10 - 0 in favour of the home team and the completion would have meant that the Roughriders had a high probability to do three things: One, at the very least, make it a one-possession game with a chip-shot field goal or make it a three-point game with a major. Two, it would have given a young Smith confidence in what was only the second drive of his first start in the Canadian Football League. Three, it might have put a little pressure on the Eskimos, as they were playing an 0-5 team at home and that had just made the score uncomfortably close.

Instead, Saskatchewan took a 10-yard holding penalty. A 10-yard penalty that, in reality, cost the Riders 38 yards and had to have shattered their confidence.

One week earlier, Saskatchewan was facing the Hamilton Tiger-Cats at home. In the last play of third quarter with a four-point lead, they were looking at a second-and-one in their own end. All they had to do was bring in the short yardage team and dive forward for a new set of downs. Instead, they committed another foul - procedure, this time - that put them in a second-and-long. Then, Kevin Glenn dropped back to pass and was intercepted by Rico Murray. To compound the issue, as Glenn was making the tackle on the Hamilton defensive back, he tore his pectoral muscle and finds himself on the six-game injured list.

A five-yard procedure penalty is, at times, much more costly than a simple five yards.

It has become commonplace to blame the officials when a penalty occurs, but it is incumbent upon a team's head coach, and eventually the GM, to hammer home to his players that it is not the referees that are the problem. Great players don't commit penalties over and over again.

So the question becomes how? How do you stop a player from taking too many penalties?

Rest assured, Corey Chamblin has talked to his team about penalties. Without being in team meetings or at practice, it is impossible to guess at how he is handling the problem. Generally speaking, though, simply talking about it is not enough. And, if the punishment is a fine, that is also not the answer.

It has been said many times that football is the ultimate team game. A common trait on great team is that all the players and coaches have a team-first approach. The philosophy is simple, but hard to achieve. The guy beside you in the locker room has to be more important to you than you are to yourself. Sometimes, you might not even like some of your teammates, but if you don't respect them and the commitment they have made, then all is lost. In the ultimate team game, taking a dumb penalty is just plain selfish.

If a team is built with a man's character and integrity being the first prerequisites, then the process should be relatively straightforward. The players who do put the man beside them in the locker room first don't commit the bad penalty over and over again. Everybody is capable of a mistake here and there, but the character players do not want to let their teammates down by consistently taking penalties and they just don't do it.

So how does a coach curb the penalty problem? By appealing to the player's loyalty to his teammates. It doesn't matter what level of team sports you're in, if a coach stands in the middle of the room and says to his team,"If you are consistently taking penalties, you are telling your teammates that your agenda is more important than our team goals," people take heed. This can happen behind closed doors and need not be in the public domain. But the coach that demands that of his team -  that each player understand the sacrifices necessary - is the coach that finds himself leading a great team.

You are who you are by your actions, so again, simply talking about the issue isn't enough. A coach who is constantly screaming at the refs in the game is, by his actions, giving his players an out. The message is, it's the refs' fault and they made the mistake.

And if the behaviour continues with a player or two, that is when the leadership from the GM becomes important. If after two or three games, a player continues to selfishly go offside or take holding calls or unnecessary roughness penalties after the whistle, then it is time to find a new guy. Small rosters and Canadian ratios are not an excuse when it comes to a selfish player. In fact, it is not that much of a stretch to sa  that it would be better to play with 11 men on the field than to have a man out there who is selfish.

Words like "sacrifice," "loyalty" and "respect" get thrown around a lot these days, but in a football locker room they mean something, or at least they should.

A player who takes penalties every game is selfish, lazy or both. But the coach and the team's GM is ultimately responsible. They decide who makes the team and who is on the game-day roster. If that roster is made up of selfish players, you will not win, period!

When the TV graphic says "SASK 17 penalties for 127 yards," there is no need to look at the standings.

The win column will stay the same because a five-yard procedure penalty can cost a team much more than just five yards.