Something about Willis McGahee getting injured in big games and Ryan Clark delivering big hits. We knew going into the game at Heinz Field that this AFC Championship Game would be a hard-hitting battle, and it proved to be one. In fact, with under four minutes left in the game and the Steelers up by two scores, the hitting was still just as strong as it was in the beginning of the game. Here’s the bone-crushing tackle by Ryan Clark on Willis McGahee at the end of the game that caused McGahee to leave on a stretcher:
Luckily McGahee was moving his arms when he was carted away because the last thing we wanted to see was a major injury suffered. It wasn’t long ago that Kevin Everett collapsed after a hit on a kickoff, getting paralyzed by the blow. The fine Clark will probably receive for the helmet-to-helmet hit won’t pay for the years taken off McGahee’s life with that blow. Goodness.
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” The fine Clark will probably receive for the helmet-to-helmet hit won’t pay for the years taken off McGahee’s life with that blow. Goodness.”
THAT’S crap. It he is getting a fine for it, it should have been penalized during the game.
Well said, Hope. How can they not throw a 15 yarder? And that asswipe Phil SImms says it’s a legal hit. WHAT?!!?
LB,
Everyone was saying the same “dirty” bullshit about the Welker hit.
http://tinypic.com/view.php?pic=zstqbk&s=5
That’s a screengrab. Clark’s feet are still on the ground at the time of the hit, and he’s leading with his shoulder. By all accounts, that’s a perfectly legal hit.
I love how people consistently criticize the defensive player (unless its Hines, then he’s the one criticized) when helmets make secondary contact. Willis had just as much to do with the injury as Clark…he lowered his head to where Clark’s head was. You can’t fine every guy that happens to have a helmet touch another guy’s helmet, regardless of how the contact was initiated.
And Clark led the hit with his BUM shoulder. If the media wants to pounce on Ray Lewis’ cock everytime he jumps on a pile late or showboats, then credit should be given to a guy like Clark, who puts his injured body on the line at every juncture.
I have watched this over and over @http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fGvq-ptJEVo&feature=related.
It’s a closer, slower view. It seems to me that McGahee also turned his head into the hit. I think this was two guys trying to play tough football who connected badly. Seriously, I don’t like the helmet to helmet b.s. that’s been happening a lot, but you really need to watch it, stop it, and take another look.
No fine, just tough football.
Don’t give the ‘accidental’ explanation, that has never worked before for the NFL. D lineman hit QBs in the head
all the time while trying to deflect a pass and they get busted on it every time no matter how unintentional.
Spin,
QBs are a different monster. The NFL protects them more than any other position. I don’t like how over-protected they are, but that has no bearing on a safety hitting a RB. This was almost identical to the hit Clark put on Welker, and the NFL told everyone that it was a clean hit.
They need to take some of the padding out of the helmets and we will see how long they continue to use them as weapons. The Clark hit was clearly helmet to helmet and it was clearly what he was aiming to do. He is just one of the many cheapshot artists in the NFL that has NO concern for the type and severity of the injuries he might inflict.
Both games on Sunday rank in the top of the all-time worst officiated performances. It looked like the NFL wanted an Eagles vs Steelers Super Bowl and as such had it officiated in an effort to bring about that result.
Street thugs and gang members abound in the NFL, but it is as much the fault of our college program as anything. Afterall, how many players leave their life in the NFL for a life in prison? What a bunch of great roll models for our kids, and we wonder why things continue to get worse.
“The Clark hit was clearly helmet to helmet and it was clearly what he was aiming to do.”
Watch the video. Can you deny that Clark SQUARES his body as he hits? He turns SIDEWAYS as he moves into the tackle… can you deny this? No? OK, then ask yourself why he would want to “lead” as you say with the SIDE OF HIS HEAD???? If you watched the Steelers, you’d know that Clark always leads with his shoulders. He’s hyper aggressive about it, and I don’t like it often because it is more violent than necessary and it always leaves the possibility that things like this can happen, but it’s NOT a spear, he simply does NOT lead with the helmet, unless he is suicidal (lead with your temple?), the helmet to helmet contact is the result of McGahee dropping low to try to break a tackle. Had Clark remained high and square-shouldered to McGahee as everyone seems to think he should have, he would have been trampled.
The hit was over aggressive, but welcome to Pittsburgh/Baltimore. Clark makes big hits in big games. If I were his coach, I’d suggest he think of his own health and lay off a bit, but I’m not his coach and even if I were, I bet he wouldn’t listen.
Street thugs and gang members abound in the NFL
You know jack shit about Ryan Clark.
Was active in the community while with the Giants, participating 2002 United Way Hometown Huddle by conducting a football clinic at the Highbridge Center for members of Alianza Dominicana, a local United Way agency that services families in Washington Heights. Joined forces with students from the Leadership In Public Services High School located at Ground Zero for “Operation PaintFest.” Sponsored by the Foundation for Hospital Art, the participants created paintings of hope that would later be donated to the five New York hospitals involved in the September 11th tragedies.
Get f*cked, or quit making foolish statements
Hey TecHomo, you are the one that needs to come to reality about the quality of the individual in the vast majority of the NFL. Where did I say anything directly about your gay fantasy Ryan Clark other then it was helmet to helmet and clearly designed to injure. Professional sports in this country clearly demonstrates the moral decline of our society. Most would rather win by causing injury then win by being the superior, and causing injury does not take that same effort. Grow up TecHomo, and stay away from youth sports, it is attitudes like yours that perpetuates the moral decline. RD
No, it is childish attitudes like yours where idiot fans think they have the last word on everything.
Give me facts about how many thugs are in the nfl, or sports in general.
Give me facts that Ryan Clark tries to injure, even though he’s been exonerated BY THE F*CKING LEAGUE ITSELF on two occasions where assholes like you make blanket statements.
Give me facts about so many ex-footballers going to prison.
You stand on nothing but your measly opinion, which means absolutely nothing in the grand scheme. You say Ryan Clark tries to injure then immediately align it with the thugs in the league. I give you facts that Clark has been exonerated and he’s a model citizen and NFL player.
But thanks for the childish nickname. That really proves your point.
Pittsburgh Cheap Shots Reign Supreme
by John Molori on January 20, 2009
Carson Palmer knows it, so does Tom Brady and Matt Hasselbeck. Now, Willis McGahee knows it too. The Pittsburgh Steelers are cheap shot artists, plain and simple. They have been since Bill Cowher became their head coach in 1992, and they remain so with Mike Tomlin at the helm.
It is intrinsic in the game plan devised by defensive coordinator Dick LeBeau to take every opportunity to hurt the opposition whenever possible. Latter day Steeler football is all about blindside hits and helmet first shots. They rely on the consistent ignorance of NFL officials and the blind eye of the league to get away with it.
Steeler fans and the national media who seem to genuflect at the mere mention of this organization should stop sidestepping the issue and embrace what their team is, a band of thugs, no more, no less.
The media is especially guilty. In the wake of Ryan Clark’s dirty hit on Baltimore running back Willis McGahee late in Sunday’s AFC title game, announcers Jim Nantz and Phil Simms immediately exonerated Clark calling the hit perfectly legal. Their replays showed that Clark’s hit was clearly helmet-to-helmet, but Steeler love had taken over the broadcast booth. Clearly, this legendary team could never administer a dirty hit. Please.
It’s no surprise that Simms let Clark off the hook. He has, in the past, cowered, or shall I say, Cowher-ed similarly. In the first half of the 2002 AFC title game between the Steelers and New England, Simms failed to take a stand when Steelers linebacker Jason Gildon rolled over onto Tom Brady’s legs nearly injuring the Pats’ QB.
Later in the half, when Lee Flowers delivered his infamous dirty hit to Brady’s leg knocking him out of the game, Simms was again mum.
In the second half of that game, New England’s Ty Law shoved Hines Ward while the two were out of bounds. Referee Ed Hochuli tagged Law for unnecessary roughness, but failed to call Ward for a blatant facemask.
CBS showed several replays of the call, and not once did Simms remark on the obvious facemask. But this is Steeler football, baby. Smile to the cameras. Hire a coach that sucks up to the media and loves to be on TV, and you can get away with anything.
Monday, on SIRIUS NFL Radio, Randy Cross and Solomon Wilcots also defended Clark’s hit on McGahee. Wilcots said that there was a little helmet to helmet contact, but stood up for the Steelers. Cross actually said that helmet to helmet hits on a runner do not exist, whatever that means. The pair then chuckled about Willis McGahee being “liquified.” Yeah guys, seeing a player carried off on a stretcher always tickles my funny bone. Later in the show, Cross and Wilcots seemed more concerned about the health and state of Clark than McGahee.
Pittsburgh’s recent history of cheap shots is the stuff of which championships are made. The Steelers’ only Super Bowl title since the Reagan administration was a direct result of perhaps the most fiendish hit in recent memory.
Flash back to the 2005 NFL Wild Card playoffs, Pittsburgh at Cincinnati. The Bengals had finally put together a great season led by quarterback Carson Palmer. They looked every bit the championship team until Pittsburgh’s Kimo von Oelhoffen delivered a vile hit damaging Palmer’s ACL, MCL and PCL. The cheap shot ended the Bengals title hopes and changed the balance of power in the AFC North for the rest of the decade.
Once again, the Steeler apologists immediately absolved von Oelhoffen of any wrongdoing. In true Steeler fashion, von Oelhoffen said he did not mean to hurt Palmer, the same way Ryan Clark sat on the Pittsburgh bench Sunday night seemingly remorseful about his hatchet job on McGahee. Sorry guys, in both cases, the damage had already been done. Palmer has never truly recovered from that hit, and has battled other injuries ever since.
The beloved Steelers of course went on to win the Super Bowl against Seattle in one of the worst officiated games in Super Bowl history. Most of the bad calls, of course, went in favor of Pittsburgh. First time Super Bowl referee Bill Leavy and his crew negatively affected the outcome of the game in embarrassing fashion.
They missed several offside calls against Pittsburgh, called a phantom hold on Seahawk Sean Locklear nullifying a big reception by Jerramy Stevens and called a bogus block below the waist on Seattle QB Matt Hasselbeck.
A called fumble by Hasselbeck was correctly overturned by replay, but a clear helmet first hit by Deshea Townsend on Hasselbeck with 6:20 left in the game went ignored. Another dirty Steeler hit, another non-call by officials, another bogus Steeler victory.
The Steelers are not only dirty, they are gutless. At least the Raiders of the 1970s accepted what they were. Jack Tatum, George Atkinson and the gang admitted that they were out to injure and maim. The Cowher-Tomlin Steelers seem to want it all. They want to be respected as a hard-hitting football team that does things the right way, yet on the field, their record of questionable actions speaks for itself.
The towel waving Steeler fools and the merry band of Black and Gold boosters in the media can try to cloak the cheap shots in fabled glory. Bill Cowher can sit at the CBS anchor desk flapping his chin about hard nosed football, and Mike Tomlin can feign concern for victims of his brand of football. Their words are meaningless. On February 1, the Pittsburgh Steelers may in fact be crowned the NFL’s champs. In truth, they are nothing more than a bunch of chumps.
Homer – that’s the biggest bullshit article I’ve ever read. How fast have Patriots fans and writers gone from pretentious douches to whiny bastards? rodney harrison is as dirty as they come. and wilfork intentionally tried to take out losman.
give me something other than a bitter writer (like some fact). let’s all take the word of some two-bit writer who’s trying to drive pageviews by piggybacking off this insane accusation.
tecmo,
Every team has there share of cheap shot artists, but some seem to be flagged and fined more often then others. Right or wrong, the Steelers seem to have more then their share of incidents of players being carted off in the big games.
The fault drops squarely on the league for failure to enforce their own rules. Helmet to helmet is against the rules plain and simple, and there is no distinction between intent. It is only the result of the action and the rules are clear. Clark should have been flagged.
Rule 12, Section 2, Article 8
***************
( g) using any part of a player’s helmet (including the top/crown and forehead/“hairline” parts) or facemask to butt, spear, or ram an opponent violently or unnecessarily; although such violent or unnecessary use of the helmet and facemask is impermissible against any opponent, game officials will give special attention in administering this rule to protecting those players who are in virtually defenseless postures (e.g., a player in the act of or just after throwing a pass, a receiver catching or attempting to catch a pass, a runner already in the
grasp of a tackler, a kickoff or punt returner attempting to field a kick in the air, or a player on the ground at the end of a play). All players in virtually defenseless postures are protected by the same prohibitions against use of the helmet and facemask that are described in the roughing-the-passer rules (see Article 11, subsection 3 below of this
Rule 12, Section 2);
Penalty: For unnecessary roughness: Loss of 15 yards. The player may be disqualified if the action is judged by the official(s) to be flagrant.
*************
This is a league wide problem, or should I say league wide excluding the Steelers. I can’t wait for the day the shoe is on the other foot, maybe then we will actually hear some objectivety from Steeler fans.
Homer – I’m the most levelheaded Steelers fan you’ll ever meet. But what the hell does a bunch of other fans bitching have to do with this? The only reason it keeps coming up is because people like you keep bringing up the situation even though it’s been put to rest. Clark was not flagged or fined by the league, yet everyone wants to point out the Steelers’ wrongs. Ben got speared in the back by a helmet at least 2 seconds after delivering a pass…which had him grimacing on the sideline and Leftwich warming up, but everyone wants to talk about McGahee because he went to the hospital.
All I keep hearing is non-Steelers fans moaning about something everytime a Steelers player does anything remotely controversial. Even though Clark was cleared, this same bullshit will persist. How about move on with your life?
THE LEAGUE ITSELF CLEARED CLARK. WHY IS EVERYONE ELSE SELF RIGHTEOUS ENOUGH TO STILL CHASTISE HIM? WHY DO FANS THINK THEY KNOW MORE THAN THE LEAGUE ITSELF? YOU CAN QUOTE THE RULES ALL YOU WANT, BUT THE LEAGUE KNOWS THEM AND MADE A DECISION BASED UPON THEM.
Answer me those questions and maybe we’ll talk.
tecmo, I posted the actual rule and laid the blame squarely on the league. What part of the rule is ambiguous?
“using any part of a player’s helmet (including the top/crown and forehead/“hairline” parts) or facemask to butt, spear, or ram an opponent violently or unnecessarily; although such violent or unnecessary use of the helmet and facemask is impermissible against any opponent”
Clark SHOULD have been flagged. Period end of story. The rule is plain and simple, but the league is very selective in its enforcement. The league called Clark’s hit H2H, and yet also called it legal. If they have a rule against such hits, how can it be legal? Like I said, the problem is squarely on the shoulders of the league. They need to enforce their rules as written, or change them. Clark’s hit fit the very definition of the rule, clearly helmet to helmet, and clearly violent. No one seems to be arguing against those two points, and yet the league calls it legal despite that exact wording within their rules.
What do you want to bet that within the first two quarters of the Super Bowl one of the Cardinals, I am thinking either Warner or Fitzgerald is knocked out of the game ensuring another round of discussion on questionable hits by the Steelers?
I agree that the league is not consistent, but when the hell do you put this to rest? He wasn’t flagged, wasn’t fined, end of story. But you keep bringing up Clark and the Steelers. Why? Because they’re still playing and your team isn’t?
No mention of the guy that used his helmet to clearly ram and try to injure Ben after the play? No mention of Bart Scott, at the end of the game, using the crown of his helmet directly into Willie Parker’s grill? No flags or fines…should I start lighting up random blogs or messageboards until someone takes the bait and argues the point?
Everyone wants the opportunity to shit on a successful team and not look at anyone else in the league. That bullshit article espn ran about the steelers and hgh right before the afc championship? the guy used no facts and cleverly didn;t include the fact that every other team most likely has a similar scenario going on. But no, let’s shit on the Steelers because they’re successful and still playing.
You have no idea how annoying it is to root for a team that everyone tries to dig up dirt on. Keep preaching the same thing and making ridiculous bets based on your own opinion rather than letting the damn story die.
Or bring it up again. Like everyone else. Real original.
tecmo, you are right I have no idea what it is like to have everyone just try to dig up dirt. I am a Patriot fan. End of that story.
I am the first to admit Harrison, Wilfork, Seymour are all cheap shot artists. I do not condone it from my own team, and I don’t try and hide behind the fact that everyone is doing it, or it wasn’t flagged, or they were not fined. It trickles down from the adults to the children, and the next generation is worse. The league needs to put an end to it before the next one to be carted off the field is headed for the morgue.
The difference between you and me is that I have yet to hear anything from you that might accept any responsibility for the actions of your team. No objectivity, and as such, no reason to talk with you any further. For the record, I am AFC all the way. How many Steeler fans felt the same way toward the Pats?
Thread closed.
No…the difference between you and me is that you somehow feel that you’re the beacon of light and truth, exposing the major flaws of a huge organization as if everyone else can’t already see them. What difference does it make if you make your voice loud enough for some random people on the Internet to see? I defend a guy that was exonerated, but people just can’t take that as the end result. If you wish hard enough, maybe somehow the league will reverse its decision and set the natural order back in its place.
You have strong feelings one way…I’m not saying you’re not allowed to. But continuing to preach about it won’t flip the script. Having an opinion doesn’t make you right, especially when the league and millions of people think otherwise.
You can be AFC all you want, but don;t expect others to. I’d back Arizona if they were playing any other team but the Steelers.
I have read all about this hit on a number of sites, and I have watched the video many times. I happen the feel that Ryan Clark like a number of other players throughout the league are in fact headhunters and it is a dangerous practice that needs to be stopped. But at the same time I have to laugh at all these posts about he was exonerated, no flag thrown, and he is a model citizen. Since when does any of that crap mean anything? The NFL is a business, and decisions are made for business reasons and nothing else. You can put a guy in a wheelchair for the rest of his life, but don’t you dare make a snow angle in the end zone or that will cost you. It has never been about enforcing the rules (hell I don’t think the NFL even understands there own rules) or even what it right or wrong, unless of course you still believe OJ was innocent.
GO LIONS! Dave from up Nort…