League chief wants players to play ‘free’

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.

“Hestepped 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.”

Overall, roughing-the-passer calls are down since the competition committee clarified to game officials the techniques used in such hits during a conference call last month. There were 34 roughing calls through the first three weeks and 19 in the three weeks since the call.

Vincent said the league didn’t advise officials to cut down on the calls, but emphasized to them making sure they see it clearly.

“If you don’t see the complete play, don’t call it,” Vincent said. “That was a directive from the competition committee. That was always the point of emphasis but after the [conference] call and after watching the video, the committee and our coaches [said]I:f` you don’t see the complete play, we ask that you leave the penalty in your pocket.“’

Packers linebacker Clay Matthews was penalized three times in the first three weeks for roughing the passer, including two of which that appeared to be normal tackles. Matthews suggested the league has gone soft and argued that defensive players no longer know what constitutes a legal hit. Dolphins defensive end William Hayes tore his right ACL trying to avoid landing on Raiders quarterback Derek Carr.

Some other things we learned on the first day of the NFL’s fall meetings: More fines than flags: There have been only six penalties for illegal use of the helmet, but Vincent said between 10-12 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. Concussions down: Concussions in preseason were down from 91 to 79, a 13 percent decline. Concussions on kickoffs were zero in the preseason, down from three. Concussions in practices were down from 23 to 9. Jeff Miller, the league’s executive vice president of health and safety initiatives, credits a reduction plan the NFL put into place last year, improvements in helmets in part spurred by the league ratings of helmets and banning of some, rules changes such as the “helmet rule” and the kickoff rules, and the education of players. 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.