Here's what's wrong with the rule

During the Sunday part of Raiders-Dolphins, the CBS broadcast team had the following conversation:

BRUCE ARIANS: "Yes, it's interesting because he took Derek Carr to the ground, and it seems that Derek Carr's overall weight is exaggerated, which was a penalty the first two weeks. It's great for me that, you know, when we have new rules, they are slightly modified every week. For me, it was an obvious body weight over a quarter. "

GREG GUMBEL: "Well, that does not tell you, when his arms are spread, coach – it does not tell you that he's trying to avoid it?"

ARIANS: "No, he's a Superman landing just above him."

Gombel: [laughs] "D & # 39; agreement."

TRENT GREEN: "It's a technique – you put your arms outside so that your total weight falls over a quarter."

Gombel: "Oh."

The defender, the defensive end of the Dolphins, William Hayes, eventually tear the ACL to the right knee. As we would learn later, Hayes was injured at the knee precisely because he was trying to avoid landing on quarterback Raiders Derek Carr. Yet neither Arians, a former NFL head coach, nor Green, a former NFL quarterback, have been able to properly assess Hayes' intent, even with the opportunity to replay. The fault for that is not theirs. As had been the case in recent years with the rule of capture, the league has muddled the rules of the draft.

Thirty-four penalties were imposed on the first 49 games of the season. That's not much (0.7 per game), but the nature of the calls – notably the linebacker Clay Packs, the linebacker of the Packers – who looked like usual football matches – sparked enough indignation for the competition committee. It was widely believed that the committee would issue a sort of clarification decree, just as it had done before the start of the season with the Helmet Regulations, which went from a potential threat to the nature of the sport to a reflection after stroke marked four times until now. Instead, however, the committee chose to maintain the draft status quo:

This statement is misleading. While it is true that the NFL has put in place "a provision on body weight" since 1995, until this season, this provision stipulated that (underlined by me) "a defensive player must not throw unnecessarily or violently [the quarterback] down and land on it with all or most of the weight of the defender. This year, the word "and" in this sentence has been replaced by "or," which is a fairly significant change.

The league says it has simply focused on the QB, but by changing that one word, it has fundamentally changed the meaning of the rule. Now, by rule, it's a flag foul if a defender lands on a quarter, no matter what. The problem is obvious, as have discovered players like Matthews. But before the end of Sunday's game, the league reiterated that the call against Matthews was correct. Which, according to the current wording of the rule, is true:

In addition to Troy Vincent's statement on Thursday, the NFL distributed a video in which the chief referee Al Riveron pointed out that it is a fault whenever a defender falls on a quarter with "all or almost all the weight" while not attempting to break the fall. Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers, who was injured last season – the momentum for this year's rule change – is one of four examples of plays now considered illegal. The four legal moves displayed (starting at 1:10) involve defenders who make weapons or players who arrive at the QB at angles that allow them to fall to the QB side. It should be noted that Riveron did not mention any of the coins that gave Matthews flags.

As the first three weeks of play have shown, it may be physically impossible for defensive players, whose goal is to bring the player back to the ground, to avoid falling on that player by letting him down. bringing to the ground. angle at which he gets to him. Matthews made the remark after being postponed Sunday. "Obviously, when you face a guy ahead, you're going to land on him," Matthews said. "But when you have such a blow, it's a football match. I even went up to [Washington QB] Alex Smith after the match, asked him: "What do you think? What can I do differently? Because it's a football game.

During training camp, the league asked an official to tour all 32 teams to show the media a video tutorial (integrated here) for this year's rule changes and points of interest. I went to the presentation at Jets camp, where longtime referee Tony Corrente was on hand to answer questions. I asked Corrente how a player had to prevent himself from reaching a QB once he would have jumped into it. "They are incredible athletes, even big men," said Corrente. "Put it on the athletic ability of these players." Even though, like William Hayes, they have to go to great lengths to do it. What happened to Hayes was an unintended consequence of the rule change, but it was nevertheless a consequence.

Returning to this statement by Troy Vincent, who stated that the Competition Committee seeks to "ensure the consistency of arbitration". Based on comments made Wednesday by Saints head coach Sean Payton, competition committee member Kevin Seifert to be more consistent in judging whether a player planned land on a QB as a standard for throwing a flag.

"Listen," said Payton (emphasis of mine), "I think the point of interest in the offseason was very simple and that avoided the player intentionally putting all the weight on the quarterback. Payton also said there needed to be more consistency between the crew and the crew, and Seifert's research showed that 18 out of 34 referees (53%) had been selected by four referees. 17 teams from the league.

But, as the discussion above between Arians, Gumbel and Green suggests, it is not as easy to judge intention on these types of hits as to consider some defenders. "They're still calling it so," Matthews said Thursday: "I think there's going to be more penalties, players will obviously be upset, coaches will continue to not know how to train it, and the fans will continue. " to be offended by the fact that the NFL does not seem to be able to go out of its own way. Then there's the Browns defensive end, Myles Garrett, who told Cleveland.com that he preferred to take a flag rather than hurt himself for not being penalized. . "I'm not ready to rip something [the quarterback] as he is a child on the floor, "Garrett said. And, again, the intention had been taken into account in the rule. Now it's gone.

All of this is a natural consequence of reverse engineering rules that do not fundamentally concern public relations. The league is less interested in player safety than in quarter protection and the encouragement of points. But one show The concern for player safety remains paramount. "The league may be reluctant to give up a rule with its base for player safety," writes Judy Battista of NFL Media. After all this, Matthews said Packers President and CEO Mark Murphy had told him to "change nothing" in his playing style. "I think it was more, so just keep playing in the way I have," added Matthews, according to the Green Bay Press Gazette. It should be noted that Murphy is also a member of the Competition Committee.