The Weird, Wacky and Awesome World of the NFL - General Banter thread

Firstly Eagle Harrisons and Merriweathers hits the WR already had possesion of the football and they came in from distance to make the hit and PI would never been an issue with either of them.

eagle eye wrote: »

The way to solve this is to sort out the PI calls. The way things are now you can't touch a receiver before he catches. Like what is a defender supposed to do?

But Wrap him fooking up for a start instead of flying in like a lunatic. Many ways to hit that WR without hitting him with your head.

Its not a case where they are purposely going in with head shots. In most cases its just mistimed. Apart from one of Meriweathers tackles last weekend none of them were meant to happen the way they did imo.

Whether you mean to hurt someone or not leading with your head is on purpose or bad mechanics. You can't tell me Harrison and Merriweather didn't know what they were doing. And the bit in bold is bullsh1t. Harrisons winge proves that.

But even at that, relax the PI rules and I can assure you there will be a lot less of this stuff.

They are called skilled positions for a reason and I agree some PI calls are fooking ridiculous but these guys are the best of the best and shouldnt be looking to make super incrdible plays on the WR but going back to basics and using their strengths and not get beat, or use their speed, wrap up or even at least make a play on the ball. I could go on.

The images dont lie as to how Harrison hit just as an example even after the hit simple physics show how he lead with his head.





23 seconds in shows he clearly lead with his head.

feelingstressed wrote: »

It'll be looked at.
A 50,000 dollar fine means nothing to a multi millionaire. And a player can mistime a tackle badly.
But realy for a repeat offender it'll have to be suspensions to get anyone's attention

Totally agree with you but the bit in bold there is a lot of players hiding behind what clearly is them leading with their heads and they use the excuse mistimed. When your head is out in front of your body making initial contact 99% of the time there is nothing mistimed about it. But there has been many very bad mistimed tackles that could be seen as nothing more than an accident but in the cases above i.e Merriweather and Harrison and other hits in recent weeks these are blatant leading with the head.

In closing though, unfortunately there will be perfectly good hits caught in the crossfire and players fined because they looked worse than they were and thread a line where there was head contact but no where the head was led. Hopefully the NFL review these situations and make sure players are told what is right and wrong.

feelingstressed wrote: »

Well you are a coach so more knowledge then me

All I can say is mistakes happen, if you say 99% of the time it's a excuse, sure I'll accept that

Ah no I could be wrong to be honest more my opinion on it from what I see. Its funny watching all the coverage recently there are even more qualified guys than me that would agree 100% to what you said. Every one has a different opinion on tackles, hits and blocks ye know. For me I simply practice what I preach I am 100% safety first when coaching so I am totally bias to the safety side of the argument

Dohnny Jepp wrote: »

Ray lewis such a hard hitter yet you never see him lead with the helmet and try to actually injure the person ( except outside parties with knives but lets not get into that:P)

Ouch!!!

Let's never go there again!
It went to court and is now dead and buried in the past

And a Titans fan can't realy comment in fairness, plenty of issues on your own team my friend

eagle eye wrote: »

I played Rugby in my day Tallaght. I know all about hits from that sport. I've personally clashed heads on a couple of occasions and there were no helmets. And launching as they call it is necessary at times, you do it when you feel that you won't get there if you don't. I can understand how these hits occur. I'm not saying that no hit ever was not meant but I am certain that most of them are not meant.
You talk about hurting people, you can hurt people without head shots. And tbh I don't think players want to use their head but you are always going to be leading with your head.
I've looked back at the hits from last weekend. Meriweather's hit on Heap was reckless but I still don't think he went out to paralyse the guy. It all happens in the blink of an eye and Heap moved when he hit so its very likely his intention was to grab him but his head got there first unfortunately but it was still reckless.
I've already stated that I believe the best way to get rid of these hits is to relax the rules on PI calls a bit. I blame Polian for the change of emphasis on PI calls but he has nothing to do with this.

Like ffs the game has gone pass mad the last couple of years. There have been numerous QBs going over 4,000 yards and thats all because of the PI thing.

And if you read a couple of articles, the majority of people are saying that they don't think there is a malicious intent on most of these hits. I'm talking about head coaches, wide receivers and QBs all saying this. And a lot of them are saying they don't think there should be fines either.

And another thing. The NFL should not be fining players for hits. If there are going to be fines then it should be up to the NFLPA to decide if and when there are fines. After all they represent all the players in the NFL and any ruling made by them on fines would have to be fair.

I have a feeling no matter how I put it to you, your opinion wont even slightly change.

I would invite you down to try American Football with the Helmet and pads though because trust me it is nothing like rugby. Players become braver with regards to hits as they are allowed to hit high.

Last point and Im done to briefly sum up. No one is saying these guys are going in with the intention to hurt anyone. Well accept Harrison he said it he is. But when you disregard safety aspects you are putting your own life at risk as well as somebody elses. The NFL like the NCAA have to draw a line somewhere.

You talk about hurting people, you can hurt people without head shots. And tbh

Of course you can like all contact sports but if you tackle someone correctly and with proper mechanics and an accident happens that you couldn't have done anything about there is no blame or fault but an accident. Leading into a tackle with your head is no accident. Whether malicious or not the player knows what he is doing.

I don't think players want to use their head but you are always going to be leading with your head.

Boll0cks. Again I emphasise that ALL players whether pee wee, high school, college or pro are told never to lead with your head using your helmet as a weapon. Both Harrison and Merriweather could have avoided the head contact by tackling with more conventional safe methods. To say you always go head first is BS and you are beginning to sound like those players and coaches using bad techniques trying to justify their actions.

If you are diving at someone and your head hits first, up high of all places then you should have taken the player with correct form as its not like he is a million miles away and you are diving to make a last ditch tackle.

To sum up because im not wasting anymore time on this:

- No one is saying malicious intent, Merely bad mechanics and bad form. And bad tackling techniques

- You dont need to ever lead with your head especially crown into face or head if you are tackling correctly

- Big hits can still be made with out the use of the head.

- And again I fail to see where the Pass Interference rubbish comes into this debate when neither Harrison or Merriweather where in a situation to even factor in the PI. They both hit guys who already made catches.

eagle eye wrote: »

You seem to be picking me up wrong about leading with your head. When you go off your feet to tackle you are going with your head first, the intention is to use your arms but you are always leading with your head until your get close to the player, when you are about to connect then you bring out your arms. If something changes while you are in flight then the head can get there first.

I mean if you lead with your arms in front of you then its hard to change the direction of your aim, thats why you leave your arms down as long as possible.

What I am saying to you if you are that close to make head to head contact in the beginning up high you should not leaving the ground to dive at someone. You should be wrapping them up. Diving at a player head first is called spearing and also is a big no no in football and has been for a very long time. You look at any player diving at another player in the NFL they are diving to grab low or on a pile but they never aim to hit high while launching themselves as that is bordering on spearing. Any player that does should have better cop on and should go learn how to tackle properly.

eagle eye wrote: »

But there is a fine line between a great tackle and hitting with the head first. You hardly expect a player to have his arms out in front of him from the beginning. That is giving the defender a chance to get away with a slight move. If you hold your hands down until its time to connect then the player doesn't know which exact way your are going to grab him and you have an advantage there.
I know what spearing is, thats going full on with your head down and no arms. I don't think its the intention of 99% of players to get their with their head first and I do think they intend to use their arms but sometimes its gonna happen. All it takes is another player to make contact first or the target to see something and move a bit and then things go wrong.

I've already said that Meriweather's hit on Heap was reckless but Heap is a good friend of his so I doubt he went in to that tackle with the intent of injuring the guy.

Look I already told you I was done with this. For me to continue this I would have to go down the road it seems of explaining the basics of tackling to you and the forms of tackling in football. Because it seems you are not grasping what I am saying to you because over and over you are debating the same points back to me. I never even once said grabbing just with arms.

Once again eagle eye we get into the a discussion about the mechanics of the game and you are ignoring everything I have written and start saying things I never wrote or implied. So if you want a discussion on the mechanics of the game we can but only if you are open to the idea you arent always right.

And once again in large letters and bold to spell it out to finish off:

THE ISSUE HERE ISN'T THE INTENT THE PLAYERS HAD TO HURT THE BALL CARRIER, MORE SO THE FACT THE LEAD WITH THEIR HEADS RECKLESSLY EVEN AS YOU ADMITTED YOURSELF, BAD TACKLING IS BAD TACKLING ESPECIALLY WHEN IT IS DANGEROUS. SIMPLE AS. SO DROP THE INTENT TO INJURE LINE. THIS DISCUSSION SHOULD HAVE BEEN ABOUT MECHANICS OF TACKLING AND NOTHING MORE

Hey, let's start an argument over it, Blue Lagoon will forced to post more pics

So, dirtiest team in the NFL?

Blue_Lagoon wrote: »

OK, the coaches on the sidelines have made their points. They should agree to disagree. Let's tackle this discussion before someone fumbles and it gets too personal!

I don't agree with your mod powers rabble rabble rabble........








Disclaimer: I want MOAR pics