The Game of Football American’s know, and love is under attack and changing before our eyes. Hits and tackles we have seen and celebrated in video collections are now penalties and suspend able offenses. The rules of the sport already severely favor the offense as you can no longer put your hands-on receivers after 5 yards and our hit skill guys. But this new emphasis on targeting (NCAA) and roughing the passer (NFL) and it is ruining the sport. This is happening for many reasons and is why New Football Rules are visiting Beav’s Penalty Box. First the NCAA and the silly targeting issue. Simply put this is INTENDED to protect offensive players from hits where the defender is not trying to tackle perfectly form wise. Head shots, blindsides. What has happened is you have legit dirty hits being called- fans know what these looks like- but now you have college kids having to react at .5 a second when a guy lowers his head or makes a sudden move. The Human element is gone, and you have silliness in almost every college game. Michigan’s captain in 2015 was ejected when a blocker put him on a ground and he landed on an offensive player. SMH. LOL. The problem is the officials follow the letter of the law. This is not an exact science. You can count to see 11 guys, 4 downs or 10 yards. You have kids moving at incredible speeds making split second decisions. And you cannot measure intent. This is a hitting; collision sport and players have never been bigger or stronger. And the size and dimensions of the field have not changed. These are facts people need to consider. Now the NFL. The lowering or striking your opponent with your helmet rule has not been a big news item. But the crazy amount of Roughing the Passer calls is awful. After week 3 last season, we had seen 9 RTP calls. In 2018? 34 in the same time. This craziness was on full display in Sunday’s games. Green Bay Packers star OLB Clay Matthews was called on a perfectly clean play. His sin? He tackled a QB and his body weight helped. LOL. Miami Dolphins DE William Hayes tried to avoid hitting a QB too hard and tore his ACL. SMH. These changes have nothing to do with real player safety. They are about concussions, CTE and lawsuits. And fantasy sports and gambling. Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones told the NFL Comish 4,5 years ago how much better the league is with healthy QBs and better offense. But the weird thing is this fact: star QBs such as Tom Brady, Aaron Rodgers and Ben Roethlisberger hate these rules. Players know what is dirty and not. The hit two weeks ago on Cam Newton was cheap, what Matthews did was not. Here is the other issue: players like to hit and understand the consequences of what this is. WITHIN REASON! Players know what is dirty and illegal. They have played this game one way for most of their lives. You are also making it MUCH harder for both the players and officials. How can a defender tackle a QB and not use his weight? The entire situation is the wrong execution of the right idea. And these rules need to change, or they will remain in Beav’s Penalty Box.
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September 2019
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