Sacking the NFL's Roughing Rules
And I have to wholeheartedly agree. The roughing calls are wrong on a regular basis, and they are causing defenders to become tentative in their pursuit of opposing quarterbacks.
Two games last weekend may have been decided, or at least turned, as a direct result of this effort to build a fortress around the signal callers. The Giants' Mathias Kiwanuka let the Titans' Vince Young out of his grasp so as not to draw a foul, and Young promptly scrambled for a key first down. The Packers' Cullen Jenkins was flagged in the fourth quarter versus Seattle after grazing (which might be too strong of a word) Matt Hasselbeck's helmet, shifting momentum to the Seahawks' side of the field.
Perloff addressed the problem by saying:
"Questionable roughing the passer calls have become a regular part of ESPN highlights and those aforementioned plays have been the focus of talk radio all week. And they often happen on key third-and-long plays, because those are the situations a defense is most likely to reach the quarterback.In an effort to protect its marquee players, the NFL is putting defenders at a disadvantage (imagine that) and it's taking away from the product on the field, in my opinion. Jenkins' case is just an example of the officials getting flag-happy anytime a defender gets anywhere near the quarterback's head. But the play involving Kiwanuka is the perfect example of how hesitant some players have become. He had Young wrapped up. If he took him to the ground, there would have been a legitimate chance of drawing a flag. In this particular case, he should have just kept Young in a bear hug, but that's not the point. All these flags are making players second guess themselves. And they are changing the outcome of games in some cases.Another factor that makes this a real problem for the NFL is how big the quarterbacks are getting. The newest crop of quarterbacks, like Vince Young, Jason Campbell and Ben Roethlisberger, are as big as defensive ends and are hard to tackle. Even a non-mobile quarterback like Tom Brady is difficult to drag to the ground. Brady will fight any defensive linemen who gets through. So what's a guy like Kiwanuka to do? "
So how does the NFL rectify this situation while still maintaining a reasonable amount of protection for the QB?
Well, it may not be a perfect solution, but a step in the right direction would be to make any roughing-the-passer call reviewable by instant replay. In fact, any play that results in an automatic first down, pass interference especially, should be reviewable.
Why not?
Feel free to offer your comments below.
Comments
i agree that of late there have been many questionable roughing the passer calls as well as several incidents of a quarterback scrambling or creating a big play as a result of the defensive player loosening or limiting his hit or grasp, and a valid point has been brought up, but so what? The point still remains that defences today are getting better and better and quarterbacks are becoming more and more susceptible to injury, just look at the past few seasons) and history as well. It used to be perfectly legal for defensive players to hammer quarterbacks any way they so pleased and it took several serious injuries for rules to be adopted to prevent this. Now one may say that this is just part of the game, but the truth remains that there would be no game without a quarterback. When a team loses such an individual it can be devastating for their season. Quarterbacks are without a doubt the most important players on the field and losing many of these stars could, in the end, spell disaster for the league. So what does the NFL have to do? They have to protect the quarterbacks, period. This is not a bargaining type of issue in my oppinion, because players are destructive believe it or not and they will injure quarterbacks. The NFL is therefore required to somehow try to create a fair way to prevent them from getting injured.
Recently there has been much discussion of the issue and it seems many are avoding the obvious truth, that quarterbacks are vulnerable, just look at the way they still get hit everyday; many hits are brutal, just look at Trent Green’s injury from Cincinnati’s Geathers.
The NFL simply needs to figure out a better way to enforece this rule. If it has to go to a replay every time then so be it, but i do not believe referees should be less stringent. If a team feels an unnecessary roughing call has been assesed then maybe the league needs to develop a way for them to challenge the call. They could make roughing the only penalty in which this could be done. Whatever, it doesn’t matter.
Also there may be some questionable calls of late, but the league is trying to make it known to the players that it won’t be tolerated, and if they didn’t do this it may have meant a serious injury for some quarterback.
I don’t feel that NFL players are being put at a disadvantage either. They have to work with the system and occasionally this may have to mean dealing with a questionable call, but what is the alternative,? no roughing calls.
i’m in favor of a disadvantage for the defense if it means a quarterback will play the next game!