Thoughts on wussifying football?

[El Duderino]

I had ESPN on earlier today and Lawrence Taylor was pimping his video game and the subject of todays football came up briefly, which Taylor said was soft because of all the penalties/fines for hard hits or things like horse collar tackles. The guy talking to LT said it's done to lessen injuries to which Taylor said, it's part of the game and if players don't like that, they should take up tennis.

With all the rules now that nearly makes hitting any QB hard a penalty and/or fine or many other hard hits/blocks doing the same, i think it's getting ridiculous. Hines Ward got a couple fines for what i thought were perfectly legal blocks. I thought the hit on Boldin that knocked him out was a totally clean hit, yet the league suspends Smith for a game and fines him 50 grand..

Guys like Smith in the secondary IMO get shafted all the time. You have safeties closing on receivers at a high rate of speed and so often at the last second, the receiver ducks or changes his body angle which leads to head to head collisions. How is a DB that is running fast supposed to know whether a receiver will duck or change their body angle at the last split second? Does the league think these defenders can stop time so that they can see ahead of time what the receiver will do with his body at that last second? When blocking a guy who doesn't see the block coming, are the guys supposed slow up and do it all swell and nice now? Are we far away from quarterbacks having an X sewed on the front/back of their jersey and if they are touched anywhere else, it's roughing the passer and a fine?

I understand that athletes are much bigger and faster than in the past so collisions can cause more harm. That said, it's getting to where nearly any huge hit ends up drawing a fine and every Sunday around the league there are a couple silly roughing the passer calls on plays where little to nothing dangerous happened. I can see why so many defensive players get frustrated because the league clearly benefits from the violent and physical nature of the game,yet if any player stays on the ground after a big hit, it's more likely than not going to draw a hefty fine even though the play wasn't a penalty.

[Kerb Hohl]

1. I hate most roughing the passer calls.

2. I hate most late hit out of bounds calls

3. I hate many pass interference calls

4. I don't like that defensive holding is automatic 1st down on 3rd and 20. Granted, guys might try to get away with it knowing that if they get caught it will only be 3rd and 15.

There are a lot of roughing the passer calls and late hit calls that are plays that even as a guy that only played through high school where the game is obviously much slower I still say "man, how can you stop yourself from making that hit?" I just hate it when the defender contacts a guy on the way out of bounds about a yard in bounds if he doesn't the guy is going to just keep running. Then, the momentum swings the defender around and while he was falling to the ground, the other guy goes with and you are penalized 15 yards for it.

And sometimes when a backer is coming off a blitz at full speed, when he is 2 steps away from the QB and already starting his lunge as the QB is beginning to release the ball, sometimes he can't avoid getting a shoulder in there.

But, I guess it is hard to complain TOO much. You can also argue that if they don't call these borderline ones and by doing so also make a few accidental "wussy" calls, that guys can get away with stuff and push the limits.

I just hate seeing a game decided when a defense makes a great play to stop 3rd down but the DE who was on a full out pass-rush shouldered the QB after his rush when he might have been trying to get out of the way or was basically already diving/lunging. Or a DB makes a great play in pass coverage on 3rd and long but his hand appeared to touch the back of the receiver even though it had no effect on the play so the offense gets a new chance and drives down for the winning FG or something.

[ReasonablySober]

Head shots and late hits are the ones I have a problem with. If you attack a guy's neck and head or if you give a guy a cheap shot when the play is over you deserve a fine and the penalty.

But in nearly every other aspect of the game I think whistles and flags are brought out too quickly. Illegal contact and pass interference has become a joke in recent years. If a DB breathes on a WR it's a penalty.

[aaprigs311]

Goddell and the NFL are a bunch of hypocrites. They rape the hell of their players with fines on illegal hits and then they make dvds of those hits and sell them on their website. Not sure if anyone read the Polamalu interview a few weeks ago, but I agree with everything he said. Find it if you have time, it's a good read.

[Balls2TheWalls]

I think that the protection of the quarterback has reached a laughable level. If you watched a player like Warren Moon, who is considered an all time great, the Pittsburgh Steelers used to send Rod Woodson on corner blitzes every 2 plays to hand him his a** with a helmet to helmet hit. They weren't called, and were frequently late. Now you see quarterbacks falling down "awkwardly" when they are pushed in the chest within .5 seconds of them throwing the ball and baiting a 15 yard penalty out of it. I'm not saying I want players paralyzed or to become Troy Aikman in terms of concussions, but I would like the quarterback position to be playing football along with everyone else on the field.

[trwi7]

Justin Tuck got fined $7,500 for this perfectly legal hit. Goodell is a moron.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0GnOWxHveMw

[bigkurty]

Justin Tuck got fined $7,500 for this perfectly legal hit. Goodell is a moron.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0GnOWxHveMw

Thats unreal. How is that not perfectly legal?

[aaprigs311]

What a joke.

[Siefer]

Listen to the ref explaining the penalty:

"Tackling the quarterback with full body weight."

How else are you supposed to tackle someone? That's absolutely ridiculous. I wonder when they're going to implement the two-hand touch rule for QBs.

[TheGhostDog]

Thankfully the NFL came to their senses in at least one instance and rescinded the fine against Justin Tuck.

http://www.nfl.com/news/story?id=09000d ... nfirm=true