San Francisco Chronicle - (Sunday)
Fear of making mistake hurting NFL’s credibility
“I think this: Somewhere within the first five to 10 plays of the game, the quarterback must go down. And he must go down hard.”
— The late Al Davis, in an NFL Films piece about his Oakland Raiders
People around the league loved that quote, particularly those paid to take down the quarterback. You might say things are a bit different today, given the fresh new directive, “If you insist on tackling the quarterback, do it gently. Make him feel like he landed on a pillow.”
This is no league for Mike Curtis, Chris Hanburger, Jack Lambert or other search-anddestroy linebackers from Davis’ era. All-time sack leaders Bruce Smith, Reggie White and Deacon Jones would be appalled. But maybe the gonesoft era isn’t so surprising from a league that has bungled the issue of head injuries for years.
The issue this week is the roughing-the-passer penalty, somehow bent and twisted by referees terrified of making a mistake.
When Atlanta defensive tackle Grady Jarrett sacked Tampa Bay’s Tom Brady at a crucial stage of last Sunday’s game, he did absolutely nothing wrong. He executed a textbook wraparound tackle — no aiming at the head — and took Brady down in the flow of action. Sure, he landed on the quarterback; these things happen. What was Jarrett supposed to do, flip the connected bodies around so he lands on his back? In any case, the roughing call had people wondering if the league had informed officials to protect the cherished Brady at all costs.
Then came the Las Vegas Raiders’ 30-29 loss to Kansas City on Monday night, a game spoiled by another inexcusable call. Defensive tackle Chris Jones closed in on Derek Carr and didn’t just tackle him, but shook the ball loose and recovered the fumble himself. Brilliant play! Hold on, there’s a flag.
At issue here, and surely in the weeks to come, is a rule stating “the quarterback is protected from being tackled with full body weight.” Well, first of all, Jones clearly used his left hand to brace himself as he fell to the ground. “So how should I tackle?” Jones wondered after the game. “How should I not roll on him? I’m trying my best. I’m 325 pounds. What do you want me to do? I’m running full speed trying to get to the quarterback.”
Somehow, with all this focus on the quarterback, people have forgotten that defensive linemen cherish the sack above all. It’s their statistical equivalent of a touchdown pass. They face a violent path to the quarterback, slamming into brick walls of humanity, and once clear of all that, they’re in no mood to smell the flowers.
Nobody wants a return to the old days, where NFL Films reveal savage takedowns worthy of an assault charge. But it would be nice to get just a shred of common sense in this league.
On Sept. 25, Miami’s Tua Tagovailoa was allowed to continue playing against Buffalo despite a head-to-the-turf collision that left him wobbly and disoriented — and four days later, a head injury against Cincinnati found Tagovailoa carted off the field (why was he there in the first place?) and transported to a hospital.
Now, in the wake of the Jones-Carr incident, we get Perry Fewell, the NFL’s senior vice president of officiating administration, defending the call in a public statement. That’s so astonishingly wrong, it nudges the borders of sanity.
The league reportedly has no intention of reworking the rules in midseason, but here’s a tip for the refs: Remember that, traditionally, quarterbacks are fair game as long as they’re holding the ball. Once they officially become “the passer,” with the ball released,
that’s when most roughing calls have been called in the past — and rightly so.
Remember the big picture — both sides of the ball — and don’t let fear cloud your judgment.
Not at all fun
What goes through your mind when you hear an ambulance or a fire truck pass by? Party hats? High-fives? Didn’t think so. Maybe you recall that horrifying night when they carried your dad off to the hospital. When part or all of your house burned to the ground. When a car wreck took the life of a friend.
Welcome to life inside the modern-day sports stadium, all over the country, blaring sirens when something wonderful (home run, touchdown) happens. It’s so absurdly inappropriate, you wonder if somebody pushed the wrong button in the sound booth. No chance; this is an epidemic. Dodger Stadium, Rogers Centre (Toronto) and the University of Washington football games are just a few of the venues “pumping up the crowd” — as they apparently believe — with the sounds of tragedy.
What kind of blithering idiot thinks of such a thing? Make that plural, because these tonedeaf marketing morons are everywhere. Some fans must actually enjoy it, but for my money, if just one fan sinks into depression, yanked into a heartbreaking memory against his or her will, that siren goes straight to the trash heap.
A few years ago, I read about a Serbian athlete hearing sirens at an American sporting event somewhere, and it took him back to his house being bombed in Belgrade during the war. That has been a current theme, incidentally, as topflight soccer has returned to war-torn Ukraine.
As Russia’s invasion of the country continues, the Ukrainian Premier League has begun staging games for the first time since mid-December. It’s a display of defiance and haunting, to be sure, with no fans in attendance. The risk of bombs and missile strikes is too great. More than once, players, staff and match officials have had to take cover in bomb shelters when air raid sirens sounded.
You might say that has no bearing on an American sporting event, but you might also acknowledge what sirens are for, what they represent, and how there’s really only one proper response to that sound.
It’s not “Woo-hoo!”