re: Automatic 1st down penalties are giving refs too much power over the game

That's stupid. No one is saying holding shouldn't be a penalty. It just shouldn't be 10 yard penalty.

For offensive holding, I kind of like spot of foul and loss of down. If the holding is past the line of scrimmage it is just loss of down.

For defensive holding, 5 yards, replay the down. If it is in the endzone, 10 yards and automatic first down.