So I just got done today watching the Steelers versus the Raiders. The Steelers got the raw end of two calls in particular which I want to discuss. One was a hit by James Harrison where he leveled the Raiders’ QB a split second after he released the ball. It wasn’t a late hit but he went through him and to the ground. Out came the most idiotic flag for unnecessary roughness I have seen in a while. The ref called it because he claimed Harrison landed on the quarterback with all his weight. If it wasn’t a late hit what is wrong here?
Harrison’s hit was not only legal due to the timing but honestly, how else is he supposed to tackle a quarterback? Is he supposed to tap him gently and hope and pray that the QB goes down? People say that the league is targeting the Steelers after it got egg on its face over the Big Ben flap where no charges were filed and the league essentially banned a player for not breaking the law. Meanwhile Brett Favre was never suspended for his off the field antics with a female reporter. Instead they have decided to pick on James Harrison it seems? I guess it is just easier than dealing with other issues with other players that the league doesn’t want to deal with.
Earlier in the game however there was another bogus call. Ryan Clark tackled a receiver, landing a helmet square in the opposing player’s back. There was a flag and he was tagged for 15 yard for a “helmet to helmet” hit that never happened. Flash back a few weeks. Hines Ward was reaching for a ball in the end zone and the opposing player’s helmet clearly hit the back of his helmet. No call, and no fine that I am aware of for that one.
It seem to me the league has a big problem with helmet to helmet hits. That big problem is consistency in calling them. And often when they are called it seems that they are being called when a defensive player already in the act of tackling winds up making contact with the helmet of another player who is falling down and whose helmet crosses his helmet’s path.
In the NHL, high sticking is called when a player brings his stick up and clips an opposing player in the face. However, if the player is falling down and contacts a stick there is no penalty. To me it seems like the answer to helmet to helmet hit in the NFL could be well dealt with in the same way.
If you want to clarify the rule for everyone and start making offensive players taking at least some responsibility for their own safety then you can simply define the penalty of helmet to helmet hit as when a player raises his helmet to above the level of another player’s helmet where the player being contacted is upright. In this case you have a penalty. However, if the defensive player is in the process of tackling and the offensive player by his own volition lowers his helmet below what would be normal shoulder level, for any reason, then he takes the risk of getting hit helmet to helmet. In this instance there is no penalty.
“Volition” is to make a conscious choice to do something. We hear complaints about defenseless receivers, for example, and they get hit helmet to helmet often times when falling after attempting to make an acrobatic catch and are unable to fully control themselves. The league wants to protect these players. But they are putting themselves in that helpless position. Instead of telling the defensive players that they must be the one’s responsible for the safety of all players who choose to put themselves into a vulnerable position, perhaps we need to tell all players that they are responsible for their own actions? Hey, you want to stretch out for a grab, you take your chances. That’s football.
Let’s take the skirts off the offensive players and realize that football is a full contact sport. Punish the blatant intents to injure such as where a blitzing backer launches his helmet into the helmet of a standing quarterback. But let’s at least make all players accountable for their own decisions and that means applying equal scrutiny to the actions of offensive players that might result in helmet to helmet hits.
I doubt this will happen though. Seems to me we have a man in charge of the league that doesn’t have two functioning neurons in his brain. And when that is the case, all you can expect is lunacy.
