Roughing the Passer Rule Ruining Football Over the years the NFL rules committee has done its best to keep unnecessary risk out of football a lot of that has resulted in making it harder for the defense to make plays. Whether it be the Tuck rule or Targeting rules. Defensive players are being forced to protect the offensive player when they are coming full speed trying to take a grown man to the ground. Asking the players to pay attention to how they are tackling is one thing but making them take care of the player they are tackling while they are falling, that is a little bit too much to ask of anybody.
This rule is getting ridiculous in my opinion the NFL is trying to baby the offensive players and making them almost untouchable. This year the rule has gone to a new level of unreasonable this year defensive players are not allowed under any circumstance to lead into a tackle with their helmet. That’s not just head to head, the wording is as follows according to USA Today sports website, “Contact does not have to be to an opponent’s head or neck area – lowering the head and initiating contact to an opponent’s torso, hips, and lower body, is also a foul. Violations of the rule will be easier to see and officiate when they occur in open space – as opposed to close line play – but this rule applies anywhere on the field at any time.” I can think of many prime examples as to why this rule is unreasonable. Firstly this is how teams are taught to force ball carriers to fumble the ball. In an interview, Pete Carol did back in his Seahawks first Super Bowl appearance where the “Legion of Boom” led the league in forced fumbles he said the key to his defense is coaching that they say to get the crown of the helmet on a ball carriers arm and 9 times out of 10 they will fumble the ball. Teams have adopted this philosophy since then with a majority of tackles being made by getting their head across the ball carrier’s body and aiming the crown of their helmet on the arm. This technique has resulted in many tackles being missed or made but hitting a different part of the player with the crown of the helmet. It just allows defensive players to come through and make a more powerful hit. Players are always wanting to get the hardest hit and put players on their backs without the ability for players to reach forward and get more yardage if you are looking face up you are not able to travel as fast through the air. This rule, in theory, isn’t a bad one it does do a little bit of protecting the defender, however, refs have made calls against players that did not make any contact with their helmet but since the play happens so fast they throw the flag and refs are not going to take the time to go back and look to see if it is a real penalty they are just going to do it and move along.
Another rule change that has made it practically impossible to be a defensive player in the NFL has been made specifically to protect quarterbacks. This time Aaron Rodgers is the poster boy for the rule change. Note: Aaron Rodgers actually has an interesting viewpoint about the protection quarterbacks are getting. Defensive players are no longer allowed to follow through sacking a quarterback to the ground and apply their full body weight on to the quarterback. Let me explain if you are trying to sack the quarterback you are supposed to put the other teams’ quarterback on the ground without landing on top of him. For anyone who has ever played football or seen a sack on the quarterback, or even just knows anything about motion and physics you would know that it is practically impossible. A person moving at full speed cannot just suddenly stop and change direction especially if they are diving at the quarterback. The recommended way to know perform a sack on the quarterback is for a defensive player to get his hands or wrap the QB up and yank him down to the side. This is far more dangerous than being hit. This exact form of tackling is why players like Ben Roethlisberger have had ankle injuries they are being spun down of dragged down sideways and getting their feet caught or tangled up and then still being landed on by either their own players or other defenders that have tripped or something and then still getting hurt.
Look football is football it’s a tough physical game that is going to involve injuries no matter how you play it, I once had a friend break his leg in flag football, the game we love so much is getting harder and harder to play because we are so worried about the well being of the players. Players back one hundred years ago were literally dying on the football field, and people still cheered it on. The point I’m trying to make is these player’s know the risk of what they are doing to their bodies and their lives, injuries are part of the game and if you try to prevent one from happening you are just going to end up making two others more frequent.
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