Football’s a Contact Sport, Except When the Quarterback’s Involved
By Larry Brown March 24, 2009 - Posted in Football

So I think we can all agree that the NFL is a violent game that produces tons of injuries each week. Players wear pads as a necessity to protect themselves but most of the time that’s not even enough. A large part of the appeal of the game is the hard-hitting. Heck, that produces half of my material during football season. And even though I understand why the NFL is putting in more rules to protect its star players, it comes across as nothing other than undermining the nature of the game. Witness the Tom Brady Rule which came into effect after he suffered a season-long knee injury:

The fifth provision of Rule 12, Section 2, Article 12 (roughing the passer) says that: “A rushing defender is prohibited from forcibly hitting in the knee area or below a passer who has one or both feet on the ground, even if the initial contact is above the knee. It is not a foul if the defender is blocked (or fouled) into the passer and has no opportunity to avoid him.”

Patriots owner Robert Kraft offered up his explanation considering he lost his star quarterback last year: “It’s not good for the league. What makes it special is special players. It’s like going to see a great movie and the star isn’t in the movie. It’s the same principle.” OK, so basically the league’s admitting that it’s more important to make football into a good movie or TV show than to let the sport play out naturally, the way it’s supposed to be played. Contact and hitting is part of the game. Brady’s injury was part of the game. You can’t hide and run away from it — it happens. Players already get fined and flagged for dirty hits. That’s the stuff I’m OK with them eliminating (the wedge, too). But to flag a player for doing something like what Bernard Pollard did means you’re trying to change the nature of the game. Why even bother sending a defense out there if you’re not going to allow them to hit the quarterback?

About Larry Brown:
Larry Brown has over nine years of professional sports media experience, working in online, radio, and TV capacities. He recently was a nationally syndicated sports radio host. Follow him on twitter @LBSports
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2 Comments
  • SpinMax

    Complete crap! The rule is fine as it is.

    As for the other new rules I like seeing an automatic 15 for blindside hits that
    get someone in the helmet. Hell I like any 15yds for helmet shots. The hit on
    McGahee should have been.

    outlawing the Wedge is so so wrong

  • Gene

    Aside from the “star issue” raised by Bob Kraft, there are other economic issues at play here. For instance, teams have too much money tied up in star quarterbacks. Because of that, and the fact that a team cannot get cap relief if a starting quarterback goes down, that team more often than not cannot compete.

    The flat salary cap prevents most teams from having an experienced backup quarterback under contract. For instance, no team may ever again carry a Joe Montana, Steve Young and Steve Bono at the same time like the 49ers did in the late ’80′s and early ’90′s.

    If the owners weren’t so greedy, they would provide cap relief where quarterbacks are concerned, and then these silly “skirt” rules would not be necessary.