Too Much Contact

Week 27 finally went too far. Although no one got injured, a least two players felt a lot of pain on plays that didn't need to happen. Even before those plays (which were relatively late in the game) there were plenty of plays that basically involved tackling a player even if it was relatively softly.

In the post game discussion, I initially defended a couple of these soft tackle plays because the players were not really moving at any kind of speed at the time and they were similar to what we've seen this year - in retrospect, I was really wrong. I love that our game has contact but there are limits to the level of that contact.

Even if people think that the light tackling should be allowed because people don't get hurt, I'm going to disagree. I'm not saying that people won't hit the ground in accidents or because of legitimate plays. However, I think that there's a good chance that those plays that were over the line happened because we've allowed light tackling to become more acceptable. When players think they can take a guy to the ground lightly, they are already approaching the ball carrier with a different mindset - it makes it much easier to accidentally step over the line with regard to the level of contact, particularly if you have experience playing in pads and instincts take over.

To be clear, I'm not talking just about last week or even the players who were there. There are players who were not at the game that tackle too often and I think that most players (including myself) have made a play that they regretted where they did something in the heat of the game. So while it would be easy to argue specific plays or players, that's not the purpose of this missive and I hope that people don't decide that's what's needed. What I wanted to do here was to get back to a level of contact that is still fun but safer.

After the game last week, I had some email or phone calls with exchanges with some of the players who I know best outside the game and while I don't know that they would agree with everything that I'm writing, I have taken their input into account and tried to draw up some reasonable standards.

There are basically two items:

1) Tackling is not permitted - That's not to say that sometimes people won't hit the ground. If two guys go up for a ball, there's a good chance they will come down in a heap. We have also always allowed a defender to wrap up a defender to get a flag or wait for help to get the flag. Notice the operative part of that - "to get a flag or wait for help to get the flag"? You're not wrapping up and taking down and wrapping up should happen downfield where the defender is in front of the ball carrier and therefore able to wrap up cleanly. It's not chasing the guy down from behind and diving around their waist. Diving for a flag is fine. Diving and wrapping up is likely going to result in a tackle.

Now, if the ball carrier continues to struggle after being wrapped up, it is possible that people will go down but it is unlikely to be a serious issue because at that point, neither ball carrier nor defender likely has much momentum - plus, there is an element of choice involved. The defender chose to wrap up and the offensive player chose to struggle. If the offensive player objects, he doesn't have to struggle (or could try to pitch the ball away). If the defensive player objects - he doesn't have to wrap up and can instead try to get the flag without contact.

2) No "hitting" - There are two distinct areas of the field to discuss - down field and at the line/backfield.

2a) Downfield blocking or contact needs to only be with hands. That allows for stiff-arms (which have always been legal in the game) but does not allow a blocker to lead with a shoulder and it doesn't allow the ball carrier to just run over someone or lead with their shoulder. I think Barry and Treadaway can provide examples of what can go wrong when you don't follow this rule.

2b) At the line, offensive lineman can have contact with their shoulder but that should be happening during the grapple and not "at speed" or distance. Think about if Jesse were blocking Mark - as Mark is starting to overpower Jesse's hand block, you could see Jesse reasonably rolling with Mark and trying to brace or force him outside. That's different than finding a rusher coming free and then stepping in front of him with a shoulder - that's a hit and is not permitted.
This idea can probably be developed further but the basic idea is sound. One last thing I should mention is that a defender hitting the QB's arm with his hand or arm on the throw is a lot different than hitting him in the ribs or legs.

I'd like to think these are relatively common sense ideas that people will support and welcome efforts to better define them and keep the game from becoming "Full Contact Football with Flags" which it was slowly moving towards and instead keep it as "Contact Flag."