League brass to players: ‘You gotta play’

Defenders at times have avoided hitting QBs for fear of being penalized

NEW YORK — The NFL doesn’t want players worrying about getting flagged or fined.

“You gotta play,” NFL football operations chief Troy Vincent said Tuesday at the league’s fall meetings. “You hope that no player is thinking about a rule. We want them to play (with a) free mind where you’re just free and you play.”

Chiefs rookie linebacker Breeland Speaks said he didn’t take Tom Brady down because he was concerned about a roughing-the-passer penalty in the fourth quarter of Kansas City’s 43-40 loss at New England on Sunday night. Brady eluded Speaks and ran 4 yards for a touchdown to give the Patriots the lead.

“We watched that video and watched that play and Tom did what we’ve seen Tom do a thousand times,” Vincent said.

“He stepped up in the pocket and the defender didn’t make a play or didn’t create a sack, but you don’t want any player thinking about a penalty or being fined but you hope that he would make that adjustment on some of the things we’ve put in place and that’s not just for his opponent’s protection but for his as well.”

MORE FINES THAN FLAGS:

There have been only six penalties for illegal use of the helmet, but Vincent said about 10 players have been fined for such hits and almost 70 warning letters have been issued to players about using the crown of their helmet to initiate a hit.

“We told officials if they don’t see all three elements of it, we can fine it on Monday and we’ll get the conducted corrected,” McKay said. “I think the players have adjusted, the officials have adjusted and I know the coaches have adjusted.” CONCUSSIONS DOWN: Concussions in preseason were down from 91 to 79, a 13 percent decline.

ADVANTAGE, OFFENSE:

Teams are scoring more than ever. The number of points (4,489), touchdowns (504) and touchdown passes (328) are the most in league history through six weeks.