Helmet to Helmet, Fines and Whinging

fisgon

Interested to hear what everyone else thinks about the latest spate of fines for helmet to helmet hits. There's been a lot of talk about this, John Gruden on MNF was complaining about it, James Harrison has famously given out about it, the latest has been Ryan Clark, of the Steelers, who was fined 40 grand for a hit on the Ravens tight end.

My take is, that I've never heard so much whinging in my life, and I'm tired of it. Whinging from Mike Golich, from Mark Schlereth, from Harrison and Clark, from John Gruden. For supposed tough guys, who pride themselves on their ability to put up with things, to deal with adverse circumstances, they indulge in so much whinging it makes them sound like my three year old niece on a bad day. Whinge, whinge, whinge.

The fact is that the hits that they are complaining about are incredibly dangerous. We are talking about potential life-long damage to people's ability to live normal lives after football, as has happened to many NFL players in the past. What Clark said after his latest fine to me is disgraceful, disgusting, irresponsible, indicative of a neanderthal mindset that is incapable of dealing with change.

"So it's going to turn into if you're going to fine me $40,000, I might as well put him to sleep for real or I might as well blow his knee out," Clark said.

This is the kind of moronic nonsense that some NFL players actually believe. Gruden commented that "it's not football anymore", in a recent MNF transmission. This is total nonsense too, there are still big hits, legal, powerful, violent impacts that serve to maintain the violence and physicality of the sport, and yet which avoid making helmet to helmet contact with a defenceless player. The basic problem is that every sport changes and evolves, it's happened in rugby and soccer, to make the sports safer for the players, and some players and commentators simply cannot deal with change, cannot deal with adaptation to new circumstances. Hence all the irresponsible, juvenile, short-sighted, tiresome whinging. There are a lot of people in the NFL need to grow the fukc up.


http://espn.go.com/nfl/story/_/id/7212307/ryan-clark-pittsburgh-steelers-fined-40k-takes-jab-roger-goodell

tallaghtoutlaws

Two words that abolish these muppets and their moaning:

Ray Lewis.

He is the perfect example of a guy who can hit hard and fast without the use of his helmet. And any of the times his helmet hit another helmet it was because the two players went to ground and the helmets clashed.

The problem with the moaners is that many of them go in leading with their heads up high. As for Gruden he is an arsehole anyways he would say anything if it kept players on his side hence why he cant say anything bad about any of them.

Now having said that there has been some questionable hits that got players fined as in they weren't guys leading with their helmets but contact after the fact but for the most part the majority of them are guys leaging with their heads and they deserved to be fined.

If Ray Lewis can still play hard fast and 100% and still make the game hard hitting why can't the others?

And the Steelers need to cop the fook on, it seems to be that retarded attitude among most of their defensive players that they are doing nothing wrong. Look its simple adjust your ways or be fined, rules are rules and they are their to protect your dumb head also. James Harrison is an amazing player and shouldn't need to use his head.

But what it boils down to is guys going for these mad huge up high hits that put others in danger because they themselves are all about the show.

me-skywalker

Gracious and intelligent response from Clay Mathews regarding this kind of thing.

Packers linebacker Clay Matthews was flagged for a bogus roughing the passer penalty against the Vikings, but he’s not angry about it.

Asked on the Scott Van Pelt Show whether he’s upset with the referee who threw the flag on that, Matthews said it was just an honest mistake.

“I asked the ref what he called me on,” Matthews said. “He said I used the top of my helmet to launch into him. And I can see where he wouldn’t be able to see it from the correct angle, so it’s understandable. . . . It comes down to a split-second decision and you can’t fault the referee for that.”

That’s a gracious response from Matthews, but I don’t agree with it: It’s not understandable for a referee to throw a flag if he didn’t see a hit from the correct angle. If the ref didn’t see a penalty, he shouldn’t have called a penalty. And on the play in question (pictured here), Matthews made a textbook example of a legal hit and got flagged for it anyway. You can fault the referee for that.

It was fortunate for Matthews that the NFL reviewed the tape of the penalty, realized that it never should have been called, and decided not to fine him. But Matthews says he doesn’t want roughing the passer to become a reviewable penalty during games, because he doesn’t want the game to be slowed down by referees reviewing those replays.

“I don’t see it moving forward to review penalties with regard to late hits or illegal hits simply because it takes a little away from the game,” Matthews said. “Referees are supposed to make judgment calls.”

And even when the referee’s judgment is wrong, Matthews isn’t going to make a big deal out of it.

I agree with rescinding the fine after the game at the end of the day its a fast paced contact sport these things are going to happen, but takign it out of the game completely is going to kill pass rushers and QB's will be getting more and more time to pick their passes each time, nightmare scenario for defensive coaches.

tallaghtoutlaws

me-skywalker wrote: »

but takign it out of the game completely is

May I ask what you mean "Taking it out of the game". Do you mean Pass rushing or helmet to helmet contact?

going to kill pass rushers and QB's will be getting more and more time to pick their passes each time, nightmare scenario for defensive coaches.

How will it though? Matthews was found innocent afterwards and ok the ref got it wrong but Matthews made a clean hit in hindsight without his helmet hitting the QBs. Plenty of ways to hit the QB without your head smacking into his.

A QB is defenseless back there in the pocket as much as people dont agree with it. Giving them some protection is definitely needed to make sure they are not hurt. Now I am not saying wrap them up in cotton wool as lets face it they decided to play the game but I mean cheap hits to their knees or hitting them head top. What a lot of people don't realise most of the QBs concentration is down field and only a small amount of the guy rushing him. Because of this its not always easy for them to prepare themselves for the hit.

Dodge

Can't find it now but I'm also certain I read that sacks were up this year. So its not like they're trying to ban the pass rush. can't see how anyone could have a problem with banning helmet to helmet clashes, or hitting defenceless players. Seems like a no-brainer.

Don't have to lose any intensity, just lose some of the nonsense that leaves players brain damaged.

bruschi

tallaghtoutlaws wrote: »

Two words that abolish these muppets and their moaning:

Ray Lewis.

He is the perfect example of a guy who can hit hard and fast without the use of his helmet.

Hines Ward disagrees :pac:

tallaghtoutlaws

bruschi wrote: »

Hines Ward disagrees :pac:

Ah balls had to google that typical I didn't watch that game and he goes and ruins it for me. Ok before that game

me-skywalker

Well my point is it must be in the mindset of the referee's if they are getting tetchy about it and giving them initially in the first place.

I don't want to see players loosing their intensity, if week after week getting fines, gettin penalised; that's exactly what's going to happen

Dodge

me-skywalker wrote: »

Well my point is it must be in the mindset of the referee's if they are getting tetchy about it and giving them initially in the first place.

I don't want to see players loosing their intensity, if week after week getting fines, gettin penalised; that's exactly what's going to happen

But as the Matthews thing showed, they won't get fined if they didn't commit the foul

And the Lewis/Ward hit shows that "borderline" decision still go both ways. Just like pass intererence etc