It was obvious and NFL administration feels the same way. Put your Patriots homerism to the side. It was clearly either Talib's fault or nobody's fault. He jumped to try to avoid Mangold and got hit low as a result. It wasn't even close to intentional. Shame on the refs for even calling that against him. I guess Mangold should have used his air brakes. Put away those red white & blue tinted glasses.
A little too homer here. Late hits don't automatically get fines but they can start scuffles. Mangold not getting fined I can see, I didn't pay attention to any Pats in the fight so I don't know if those players deserved it. It wasn't clean in the sense that it was a late hit, it wasn't dirty in the sense Talib and Mangold don't think they were trying to injure.
For every action there is a reaction. Mangold's unavoidable hit pissed off the Patriots and they reacted thinking it was dirty when it wasn't. They over reacted, the brawl was on them. The hit was perfectly legit and nothing could have prevented it except Talib simply stepping out instead of jumping and twirling right into a falling Mangold. That's not homerism, that's just the reality of the play. Mangold lunged at him while he was in bounds and the video clearly shows this. He tried to jump out of the way but landed on him as he went to the ground. He didn't grab his legs, he tried to roll away from him to avoid getting tangled. Incidental contact. Mangold is classy.
It wasn't perfectly legit, it was still a late hit. Just like David's hit the week before on Geno was a late hit. They start their lunge in bounds, but it's still a late hit. I agree it wasn't dirty, but it looked dirty and the Pats bench reacted accordingly to it. After everything was sorted out the NFL, Talib, and Mangold all said it wasn't dirty, but it was still a late hit.
It wasn't a late hit. It was incidental contact out of bounds. It shouldn't have been flagged. There's a difference. With Geno's in week one it was blatant and the defender actually pushed him with his hand while he was already out. It was a mistake on the defender's part. Mangold tried to push him while in and his momentum carried him forward and Talib couldn't avoid him as he fell out of bounds. It wasn't Mangold's mistake, it was Talib's. Completely different situations.
The actual rule states that "contacting a runner when he is out of bounds" is unnecessary roughness. End of discussion. Obviously they don't flag it every single time but there is absolutely no doubt that by rule Mangold "did something wrong". The rules also state that plays should be flagged if it looks to be in question. So in real time that play definitely appeared to be dirty so the officials were correct to flag it. Anything else is your own interpretation of what the rule should be and is a different discussion.
Agreed. The flag was warranted, no fine was levied because it wasn't a dirty play after breaking it down with tape and understanding the situation better.
You are the king of homerism. I didn't say Mangold should be fined. But the idea that it was all the Pats fault is a fucking joke. I guarantee that if it had been Mankins diving low near the sidelines and hitting a Jet out of bounds, Rex would have been bullshit... As far as comparing this to the Geno hit... If Mangold doesn't get fined, which I have no problem with, the TB guys should not have been fined either for light push right on the out of bounds line.
