The whole thing on the NFL and how they look at hits and determine what exactly is illegal hit. Is much of a shame to me, its kind of pathetic i totally agree with that it should be illegal to hit a player in the neck or the head area that is fine, but what they proposed today from espn.com is total outlandish. As proposed a defenseless player would be expanded to these eight categories.
- A quarterback in the act of throwing
- A reciver trying to catch a pass
- A runner already in the grasp of tacklers and having his forward progress stopped
- A player fielding a punt or kickoff
- A kicker or punter during the kick
- A quarterback at any time after change of possession
- A receiver who receives a blind-side block
- A player already on the ground.
Well this is a little bit stupid especially the first one where it states "a quarterback in the act of throwing", so you telling me that defense can blitz the quarterback but once he is throwing the ball i can't touch him he is defenseless. That doesn't make much sense because their job is to prevent the quarterback from throwing and moving the ball and.
Now basically if they do not get him before he starts throwing they just have to let him throw it. It as if the quarterback is being placed on the a pedestal and no one can touch them. They might as well just give him a red jersey because it seems like it would be just be a hyped up practice against another team.Another thing that annoys me is where it says "a quarterback at any time after a change of possession" is defenseless. so, your telling me if someone takes out my quarterback he is defenseless whether or not he saw it coming.
But if my quarterback lays out someone than he is not penalized, it is not fair to the defense its almost saying the offense will always have the advantage.At the end of the day i understand the NFL is looking out for the safety of its players. But, that is the nature of football its a hard hitting sport, there are always going to be these hits and if there done legally. Than the NFL should accept they are part of the game and stop trying to change things.
Today March 22 the owners chose to not accept this new proposal from the competition committee. This issue is still on the table though and could be brought up again at their may meetings.
****photo credit to espn.com Related Posts : Hits, NFL
