TIME FOR NFL REFS TO CRACK DOWN ON DIRTY WORK
There’s growing concern for player safety after recent incidents, writes Barry Wilner.
Maybe the public address announcer at NFL stadiums is a job for Michael Buffer these days.
You know: “Let’s get ready to rumble !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ”
Brawls. Dirty hits. Malicious moves. Targeting. Launching.
“The unnecessary stuff is over the top,” says Broncos linebacker Shaq Barrett, who was not involved in any of the incidents and, presumably, is a neutral observer. “We should try to get that out of the game.”
Leagues at all levels have spent more than a decade seeking enhanced player safety. Most of the time, those initiatives involved rules changes.
In the NFL, mostly they have worked. Not so much lately.
Troy Vincent, a terrific defensive back in his playing days and now the overseer of football operations for the league, promises the NFL will look at any adjustments that will diminish the awfulness seen in recent weeks.
“We have had clear directives from the competition committee,” Vincent says. “They asked us and the players to remove some of the helmet-to-helmet hits that we have seen, as well of some of the blindside blocks and other types of disparaging techniques and behaviours on the field. We have clear directive that this is not something that should be progressive, but that we strongly consider removing a player that is using these techniques that we want out of our game immediately.”
Yet the prohibited keeps happening and, it seems, to a higher degree.
“You’re always talking about keeping the poise and understanding the big picture is winning the game,” Saints coach Sean Payton says. “Part of that is mental toughness. You don’t have to respond and be macho. So many times I hear, ‘I’m not going to be punked,’ and I get that. And yet, listen, there’s a discipline element that you’re preaching as coaches. You’re trying to make them understand the big picture, which is winning, and all these side things that can take you down a path contrary to the goal.”
While fans of specific teams will take umbrage at one of their guys getting suspended — that’s a basic principle of fandom, that your team can’t be wrong — more objective observers recognize the danger zone these incidents occur in.
Two of the most insightful voices in this area, former NFL executive Pat Kirwan and former pro quarterback Jim Miller, discussed the ugliness of what we just saw, during their SiriusXM NFL Radio program this week. They brought up a point worth pondering: Why aren’t players being tossed when they go so far across the line of fair play?
Kirwan: “They should have by now. They think throwing flags is going to stop it. I quote Ray Lewis, we are talking about a receiver coming over the middle and he did a number on the guy. I asked Ray: ‘What was going through your mind?’
“(Ray replied:) ‘Look, I’ve got the middle in our zone drop. Anyone who is coming in there, here comes the receiver, at no time in my life did I ever think of the rule book and let him in there with the ball.’ ”
Miller: “At what point will the officials eject?”
Kirwan: “As soon as the head of officials tells them if you don’t eject, we are going to suspend (an official). You’ve got to get this under control. Or the league office stops the game like they should, and say ‘He’s out now.’ Why can’t they eject from New York?”
The unnecessary stuff is over the top. We should try to get that out of the game.