This sport could not be any tougher for a defender. Do your best to go out and make sure they drop the ball, fumble or don't get past you at all costs, but you can't hit them here, here, here or there, you can't hit the quarterback too hard especially the one's that don't run well, you can't hit a receiver harder than you'd hug your grandma over the middle or it's a penalty, and if they lower their head and contact your helmet because of it they should also get fined! The problem I have with people complaining about this shit is that some of you don't get it. Of course they deliberately want to rip the god damn guys head off. That's what they're paid to do and why Johnny Schmo who relays the defensive calls in the defensive huddle banged his bare head into the locker six times before running out of the tunnel. It's so much easier said than done for these guys to see the opportunity to behead someone and pull up. This wasn't a Vontaze Burfict on Antonio Brown hit, this was a 205 pound safety who had to put everything he has behind him to try to knock 260 pound Cam Newton down.
While is hard to disagree with the violence of the game, my problem is that the league keeps adding absolute BS rules like taunting to some miniscule idiotic level, and then they are totally unable to effectively and consistently apply a serious rule like a hit to the head. Last year they called over and over the very play that occurred not once or twice but three times last night. They were clear cases of missiles to the head. So either you let them play, or you call it across the board. Yesterday's officiating was crap, absolute crap. They couldn't even spot the ball properly on a critical red zone play . Fuck, what sense does it make? if a DB feather touches the WR after 5 is an auto penalty, but you can aim for the head and more often than not get away with it.
Officiating an NFL game has got to be one of the toughest jobs...and the most thankless. Nobody says "what a good job the refs did" after the game is over. They only remember the screw ups. And a foul can be called on just about every play. Those hits on Cam should have been called, and probably would have if just about any other QB was involved.
The problem is there were about four high hits on Cam and the only one that got called was offset by the intentional grounding.
It's sort of like the LeBron factor. LeBron is fouled on nearly every drive to the rim but he's so strong he runs through it. Cam is similar in that sense, only the fouls are a bit more obvious in the NFL. This is all fixed with an official or even two officials in the booth watching the play develop on a screen. It can't possibly hurt the NFL's billion dollar wallet, the only problem is that the penalties would start being so nit picky it might make the game unwatchable (especially offensive holding in the trenches).
Throw in the commercials and what they're advertising, the Network hype and all that nonsense, Cris Collinsworth, and it's getting unbearable.
def. wasn't victimized ... he made young QB errors. Looked good for a 7th round pick who never played a snap too.. He had the vet poise but i don't see how he exactly looked like a vet either. I think he'll look back at this game and scratch his head at some of the easy big plays he didn't execute. i seen 2 TD's he let slip away.
I thought rule #1 was protect the safety of the quarterback. Guess we all know the real first No Fun League rule is making sure there's no "excessive celebration" - can't have that, that would terrible for the health of the players and fans
Yes, you are missing something. They threw the flag once. He was hit in the head on three separate plays and two of them weren't called.
It's not the same D, but it's close. Collingsworth pointed out how the Broncos were not getting the pressure up the middle last night like they did in the SB, due to the departure of Malik Jackson who went to the Jags. Also, Trevathan had been very good for the Broncos. Who knew that Todd Davis, the player that replaced, him would play so well last night? At least for last night, the team didn't miss a beat in that regard. Can Davis keep up that level of play? If the Broncos can't find a way to generate pressure up the middle, will their D be as dominant? IMO it is understandable why experts wrote the Broncos off. Any time there are changes on a team, they expect the worst. They take a wait and see approach.
Thanks for this info. I didn't even know there was a referees union, but guess I shouldn't be surprised. At any rate, the NFL needs to tell them to shove it. That they're hiring full time refs, and the union can either cooperate, or they'll hire guys who aren't members of the union.
They tried something like that a few years ago, it resulted in three weeks of replacement refs being hideous culminating in the Fail Mary at Seattle.
Awful timing on my part but I was actually talking about 2 plays prior, when the defender's hand/arm made glancing contact. I've seen a 'blow to the head' call on that way too many times, but then they turn around and nearly earhole Cam. Apparently they missed a few calls too.
I'll say times and the game has really changed. I'm not even talking about 50 years ago or anything. Even 10 years ago hits like the ones described in this thread on the QB would bring us to our feet, high-5ing, and were considered good old fashioned football. Or even would've been considered tame. Now we got all the media outlets "outraged" today that its unbearable and I appear to be an outlier or some kind of barbarian here that I don't care if Cam Newton took a couple shots from the defense?? Remember this? It isn't from the dark ages or anything, the QB is still in the NFL. No penalty, no outrage... high 5's everywhere. Imagine if this happened last night. holy shit
I'm in a suicide and four people decided this was a good place to start the season - why, I don't know. Three of the four are now known as "contributors."
This is all true, but it's also true that NFL players are routinely dying before their 60th birthdays, and too many are committing suicide and/or being found to have profound brain damage. Football was almost banned for its brutality 110 years ago, and the NFL is trying to make sure that doesn't actually happen in this century. Sooner or later there is going to be a class action suit by former players (or their estates) against the NFL accusing them of wrongful death, unsafe working conditions, etc., and the league wants to make sure it doesn't put them out of business.
