Looks like the NFL agrees... NFL defends Wes Welker hit Blow to Welker legal, part of game ?A lot of people think it?s a foul to leave your feet,? NFL vice president of officiating Mike Pereira said yesterday from New York. ?Launching is not a foul. There is nothing in the rulebook that states that at all. It?s a misconception people have. ?It is a foul to hit with your helmet against a defenseless receiver. It is a foul to throw a forearm into the neck or head area of your opponent. I don?t think either of those things happened. I?m not a fan of those high hits but if you do it with your shoulder you?re OK.? As to the hit itself, Pereira was clear (as was the video) Clark made sure to stay within the rules. ?He does actually lead with the shoulder on a high hit up in the area of the neck, but he left the helmet out of the contact,? Pereira said. ?When you look at it and slow it down it probably was not an illegal hit. You might have to factor in that it was deflected early and does that make it become late. But the actual hit itself is probably OK.? If that was the call it was incorrect, Pereira points out. Yet even at that, Pereira was not opposed to a mistaken flag being thrown because of the shocking nature of the collision and the need to protect players from the game?s obvious violence. ?The actual hit itself is probably OK but the officials are told to err on the side of safety,? Pereira said. ?That was a tough call to make in real time but we want to lean toward safety. The rule clearly states if you don?t lead with your helmet it?s not a foul, but we threw the flag and I?m happy we did because I think we need to do it when in real time it looks so tough. It looked like a decleater type hit.? bostonherald.com
So just to summarize: The Wilfork hit on Cutler this year, plus this: Wilfork was fined a total of $35,000 last season for four different episodes. They included hits on Buffalo quarterback J.P. Losman and Dallas tight end Jason Witten. He also was fined for putting a finger inside the facemask of New York Giants running back Brandon Jacobs and grabbing the facemask of San Diego's Michael Turner during the AFC championship game. All resulted in fines - Wilfork is a dirty cheap shot artist. This is not my conclusion. This is the conclusion of the NFL brass. http://www.sportsline.com/nfl/story/11070018 The Clark hit, that Wilfork himself called dirty, was actually legal. Pats = dirty cheaters Steelers = hard hitters :metal:
Clark's hit on Welker might be the second biggest hit I've ever seen by a Steeler....Hines Ward's hit on Rivers this year is also top 5, but the best all time hit was Gary Jones laying out Don Beebe on Monday Night Football back in the early 90's Don Beebe himself said the hit bent his facemask
Goddamn NFL taking down youtube videos. Is there another link to it floating around somewhere? Nevermind, found it http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hyhSPd-TK1o
The 70's were filled with hits like this. It was in the late 70's before the "clothesline" tackle was out lawed. This hit would not have been flagged in any are pre 1980's. A tipped ball means all bets are off. This was not helmet to helmet. NFL = no fun league now days.
Intent has nothing to do with it, the question in my mind is whether it was a legal hit or not. I am reminded of a seattle game where the WR was laid out cold by the safety and TO is just staring at the aftermath and the he is wired up and the free safety walks and says "your next motherfucker." A person can have nothing but evil in their heart and if they stay within the rules for whatever reason, fear of prison or in the case of a football player penalties and fines so be it. The play wasn't whistled dead, the ball was in the air and had been touched so Welker was free to be unloaded on. I don't want him, to be crippled or anything or lose his career but you have got to make these WRs respect the middle. The way I look at it everytime a WR makes a catch he is taking money away from the defense so I hope we never lose the linebacker mentality.
So hilarious. Notice, no mention of the dirty play - as alleged by other NFL players - of Vrabel, Wilfork, Harrison, Seymour, and so on. Only whining about a legal, albeit hard hit. So here's what USA Today reported back in 2006: http://usatoday.printthis.clickabil...ll/2008-01-25-1253941532_x.htm&partnerID=1662 Patriots say they play aggressively, not dirty By Howard Ulman, AP Sports Writer FOXBOROUGH, Mass. — A poke to the face. Some late hits. A bunch of unsportsmanlike conduct penalties. Even a fine for taunting an opposing coach. Perfect in the standings, the Patriots are hardly the model of proper behavior. Call them chippy, even dirty. They just shrug their shoulders. They're not about to change their aggressive style, even if it starts yellow penalty flags flying and opponents' lips flapping. Rodney Harrison has been the target of enough critics of his body-crunching blows during a fine-filled 14-year career to remain unaffected. "Who cares? It's football," New England's safety said. "We sign up for a dirty sport, a tough sport, a very physical sport, and that's what we do. And, when you're on the field, anything can happen." And any team can do it. Harrison missed all three playoff games last season after spraining his right knee in the last regular-season game when he was blocked by Tennessee wide receiver Bobby Wade. Harrison and his teammates didn't think it was the cleanest of plays. "Football's a dirty game," Patriots linebacker Tedy Bruschi said Friday. "We're a bunch of grown men out there with helmets and shoulder pads and we're trying to knock each other down. Sometimes you need to grab a shoelace or anything you can to bring the other guy down. "So I think the word 'dirty' goes along with the game of football." . . . Harrison was fined $5,000 for unsportsmanlike conduct for unnecessarily taunting Baltimore coach Brian Billick on an interception return in the Patriots' 12th game. Later, emotions ran high in the regular-season finale, with both sides aiming for important goals: the Patriots' quest for a 16-0 record and the Giants' desire to stop them. So high, in fact, that Patriots nose tackle Vince Wilfork felt compelled to make a point - right through the face mask of running back Brandon Jacobs - with a finger as both teams jostled after the whistle. He wasn't penalized and said he missed Jacobs' eye. But the NFL didn't look the other way. It slapped the 325-pound Wilfork with his third fine of the season, $15,000, bringing the total for his bad-boy behavior to $32,500. . . . In the next game, Harrison reasserted himself as the Patriot most likely to cross the line between legal smashes and WWE-style smackdowns. The officials hit him hard with two unsportsmanlike conduct penalties in the fourth quarter of the 31-20 divisional playoff win over Jacksonville. One of those led to a field goal. "I'm very disappointed about the personal fouls," Harrison said. "I wouldn't be Rodney Harrison if I took away my aggressive style. So I'm going to play my game. I'm going to be a lot smarter, but it won't change." One week later, the Patriots may have been at it again. At least San Diego center Nick Hardwick thought so. He unleashed some serious verbal punches at defensive end Richard Seymour, who rarely, if ever, had been accused of dirty play. Hardwick labeled Seymour "a dirty, cheap, little pompous (expletive)" after the Patriots 21-12 win in the AFC championship game last Sunday. He accused Seymour of a litany of nefarious deeds: stomping feet, slapping heads and punching people in the back. Seymour looked more like a gentle giant on Thursday, smiling as he discussed opponents' complaints. "They can say whatever they want to say. I can't control that," he said. "The people that are around you know who you are, and I think that's the most important thing. And if we ran around worried about everything someone else says, that isn't the way that you go about handling your business." Wilfork goes about his business despite the fines. The toll: -$12,500 for a low, late hit on J.P. Losman on Buffalo's first series of the third game that sidelined the quarterback for the rest of the day and two more games with a sprained left knee. -$5,000 for an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty for a late hit on Dallas tight end Jason Witten in the sixth game. -The $15,000 for his gesture at Jacobs. Tack on another $5,000 for linebacker Mike Vrabel, the bill for his unnecessary roughness in the final minute of New England's 34-17 win over Cleveland in Game 5. Cleveland quarterback Derek Anderson prepared to spike the ball with 11 seconds left. Vrabel hit left tackle Joe Thomas low, Thomas was knocked back and Anderson ended up on the ground. Guard Eric Steinbach had a one-word description of Vrabel - "classless" - and said he deliberately dived at Thomas' knees after the outcome of the game had been decided. Vrabel's defense: "I don't play that way and I'm sorry that they feel that way ... and we're going to move on." On to the biggest game of the season. The Giants better get ready to absorb some hard hits, maybe even a few after the whistle. But are the Patriots a band of dirty outlaws or just another aggressive team that occasionally crosses the line? "I wouldn't call them a dirty team," defensive end Osi Umenyiora said on HBO's "Inside the NFL." "They have certain individuals, like I am sure we have certain individuals, who are perceived to be dirty, but people wouldn't call them a dirty team." But what about the actions of Patriots left tackle Matt Light in their last meeting? "He did a couple of things that he shouldn't have done," Umenyiora said. "We are really going to go at it this time."
Fair enough... intent is pretty tough to prove, and usually has to accompany an illegal hit anyway. I am a big proponent of there being BIG hits when playing. So long as they are legal - and not out to harm someone. I was surprised that the league didn't fine him honestly... I think they cross the line at times with what should and shouldn't be fined. I think the refs have been flag crazy on protecting players this year as well.
SteelCurtain essentially made the the point I tried to make. The whistle never blew and the ball was tipped, so Clark had the right to hit Welker. Was it cheap? Yeah, a little bit. But Clark made the hit without seeing the ball hit the ground, because after the tip, the ball goes behing Clark to where another Steeler could have picked it. Since there was no whistle, Clark kept going. If that ball got picked, that wouldn't have been a penalty; it would have been a block that prevent Welker from making a tackle on the INT return. How many times have we seen WR's, QB's, K's who give up on a play, slow down, or don't maintain their awareness only to get lit up on a block? Sure, you can say it's cheap and even dirty, but it's legal.
Patriots fans....you live by the sword..you die by it. Your players have been some of the dirtiest bastards the last few years so much so you are blinded to the fact...and then you still whine and cry when the league basically upholds what all us Steeler fans are saying...it was a legal hit....It was a brutal hit. Suck it up... Tell me when Welker can count to 10 on his own again..Thanks
Look up "Football player" in dictionary......you'll see Wes Welker's picture there... The game after he took that vicious hit.....12 receptions/ 134yds Poor Haters
I'd assume the definition of a football player would be someone who plays the sport internationally known as football... Anyway, the hit may have been unnecessary but it wasn't dirty. He didn't need to hit him but there should have been no reason why he shouldn't have. If Welker hadn't relaxed and stopped playing while the ball was still in play the hit wouldn't have been so massive. It's like hitting someone just before they go out of bounds... they're still fair game until the play is over.
