‘Penalized for playing hard’
Rash of roughing the passer calls results in confusion
Eddie Goldman made a huge mistake on his way onto the field in the fourth quarter of a close game last week in Denver. The 318pound nose tackle forgot to bring with him the amenities that would help Broncos quarterback Joe Flacco feel more comfortable.
What Goldman needed, apparently, was a waterbed to place in the pocket to cushion a potential Flacco fall. Maybe a pillow to increase the quarterback’s comfort. A bouquet of daisies, perhaps? Just as a friendly gesture?
Instead, Goldman was a total barbarian. He tore past Broncos guard Dalton Risner on a second-and-14 play, shot into the backfield and mauled Flacco as he threw. The football fluttered away and fell incomplete and Goldman marched back toward his huddle without much remorse.
Didn’t apologize. Didn’t hug Flacco. Didn’t even think about calling 911 for help.
Goldman acknowledged Thursday it felt like so many hard hits he has made in his football life. But he also had a fearful suspicion the minute he drilled Flacco.
“I knew they were going to throw the flag.” he said. “I don’t know why. It was just that type of game. Like, they were really flag-happy.”
In the 2019 version of the NFL, such vicious behavior could mean only one thing. Flag. Personal foul. Roughing the passer against Goldman.
Fifteen free yards for the Broncos.
Instead of facing thirdand-14 from the Bears 29, the Broncos had firstand-10 at the 14 and finished the drive with a field goal, cutting the Bears’ lead to 13-6. It was a huge swing at a pivotal point in the game. And it left Goldman scratching his head.
“That’s very frustrating,” he said. “You’re playing hard and basically you get penalized for playing hard.”
In 2018, in the interest of increasing player safety and better protecting quarterbacks, the NFL amended its roughing the passer regulations. In Rule 12, Section 2, Article 11 of the rulebook, the league’s provisions detail the prohibited acts of defensive players against quarterbacks, noting it’s illegal to “drive through” a quarterback on impact or to be “stuffing” him into the ground.
The rule goes on to say “a defensive player must not unnecessarily or violently throw (the quarterback) down or land on top of him with all or most of the defender’s weight. Instead, the defensive player must strive to wrap up the passer with the defensive player’s arms and not land on the passer with all or most of his body weight.”
In fine print, in the notes section of the rule, is also this line: “When in doubt about a roughness call or potentially dangerous tactic against the passer, the referee should always call roughing the passer.”
Still, the spirit of the rule and the on-field implementation of it have caused quite a bit of confusion and controversy over the last couple of seasons and particularly last week.
Let’s not forget, Goldman’s illegal hit was the second most absurd roughing the passer call in the Bears-Broncos game. In the final half-minute, with the Broncos looking to seal a dramatic 14-13 win, Bradley Chubb was flagged for roughing Mitch Trubisky.
Chubb’s crime? He, too, forgot the waterbed, the pillow, the flowers. Instead he hit Trubisky while the quarterback had the ball in his hand while Bears left tackle Charles Leno still was blocking him. And somehow at 6-foot-4 and 275 pounds, Chubb failed to transform himself from a full-speed torpedo into one of those lace scarves that grade school kids use to practice juggling.
Chubb landed on Trubisky, was flagged for 15 yards and surrendered key field position in a game the Bears won a few moments later with a walk-off 53-yard field goal they probably never should have had the chance to try.
Four days later, Chubb was still agitated.
“They called it and that was the game,” he told reporters in Denver. “Can’t really do anything about it. … I’m not thinking about anything there. I’m just going out there to play football, and if I think it’s a clean hit and everybody in the stands and everybody on the sidelines think it’s a clean hit besides one person, then I can’t do anything about that.”
Chubb is justified in his irritation. That flag, it can easily be argued, was resultchanging for the Broncos and potentially trajectorychanging for their season.
Al Riveron, the NFL’s senior vice president of officiating, declined the Tribune’s request for comment on the calls against Goldman and Chubb. The league sees those penalties as judgment calls, left up to the discretion of each crew.
But Broncos general manager John Elway told an audience at a business seminar in Denver this week that league officials admitted to him that they were “dead wrong” on the call against Chubb.
Bears coach Matt Nagy, meanwhile, was asked about Goldman’s wrongdoing and what the defensive tackle is supposed to do differently.
“When they’re landing on guys, (the officials) are looking for that little extra oomph,” Nagy said. “So it’s not an easy job by any means for them to see that.”
It’s also not easy for players to avoid landing on top of opponents whom they are trained to tackle and, well, land on top of.
Added Goldman: “The rule is you can hit him and then move to the side. So as you’re hitting the ground, you have to move to the side a little bit.”
Again, the unrealistic demands put on massive defensive players moving at full speed are worth further discussion.
“I don’t know how they came up with that,” Goldman said.
That said, Goldman — like so many around the league and in the NFL’s massive viewing audience — would prefer neither hit be called in the future. “Quarterbacks deserve the protection,” he said. “A quarterback is very important to a team. But at the same time, it’s football.”