Do you like the new NFL?
I’m thinking specifically of the Antrelle Rolle hit on a defenseless receiver that was called against the Giants. The Ravens’ guy, Mark Clayton, was going for a catch. Rolle hit him and gave him a mild concussion.
Rolle said he never tries to intentionally hurt somebody, and he even struck himself while trying to move his helmet to avoid a helmet-to-helmet hit. But when Rolle pummeled Clayton, Clayton had just finished bobbling the pass. Rolle felt if he did not make the hit, Clayton would secure the catch.
“There’s nothing else I could have done except let him catch the ball, grab him and hug him down like he’s my son,” Rolle said. “I don’t go with the intensions of having a head-on collision. That wasn’t a head-on collision. I was just playing football.”
So what’s an NFL safety to do? Watch the receiver make the catch in front of him? Or punish the guy trying to go over the middle?
it used to be the QB who had the responsibility not to put the WR in a position to be killed by laying him out over the middle. I would say this play is Flacco’s fault for throwing a bad pass into double coverage. I want to see the Giants take that penalty every time and not start playing like wusses cause they are a afraid of the flag.
Of course it works both ways – last year Steve Smith’s TD in KC came a play after the Chiefs DB got called for a BS penalty.
Whether the rule is applied equally or not, hurts every defense or not, I don’t like it. You don’t want to get hurt? Respect the middle of the field. Going over the middle is supposed to hurt. You’re not supposed to get injured, but you are supposed to get hit, right?
