NFL Owners Meetings: Day1 Horse-Collar Tackles Banned

[SoMiss2000]

Re-opened!


If you guys can't discuss this without any insults or personal attacks, it will be locked permanently. P2K, Cowboys threads, and the Cowboy fan doesn't mix. You may want to keep your insults, jokes, etc aimed at the players, fans, etc to a minimum.

[Stu]

Quote: Originally Posted by SoMiss2000

Re-opened! If you guys can't discuss this without any insults or personal attacks, it will be locked permanently. P2K, Cowboys threads, and the Cowboy fan doesn't mix. You may want to keep your insults, jokes, etc aimed at the players, fans, etc to a minimum.

Thanks SoMiss.

ZB9 makes an interesting point in regards to officiating. With some of the recent rule changes, I wonder if Officials sometimes have too much to look for.

This may have gotten lost on the last page but does anybody know the answer to this:

Quote:

Just for clarification, what rules are we talking about that have changed in recent years? - Horse collar tackles (2005) - Enforcing of defensive illegal contact (2004) - Protecting the QB (2001) What else am I missing?

[Programmed2Kill]

Officials are going to make mistakes. It happens. Too much to look for, yeah...but they also have to look out for the players' safety as well.

[jmood88]

Quote: Originally Posted by coogrfan

As I've said several times, I think this is another attempt by the league to increase scoring. This rule bascially forces a trailing defender to either take his chances and dive at the ballcarriers legs, or take a 15 yd penalty. The only other alternative is that it really is about player safety. If so, it's an extremely poorly worded rule.

Exactly. And since there's really no way to uniformally enforce this rule, there's going to be a lot of terrible calls. This is a really stupid rule. They need to have some of the owners and coaches try to run after a player going full speed and try to arm tackle them. When you're playing football you don't have time to think about a way to tackle them so that the other player doesn't get hurt. If everyone did that then you would see scores in the 70's or 80's. The nfl is handicapping the defense.

[OHguy00]

Quote: Originally Posted by utexas

And what are you doing now? hmmmm

Calling you out for trying to call people out.

[Stu]

Quote: Originally Posted by jmood88

They need to have some of the owners and coaches try to run after a player going full speed and try to arm tackle them. When you're playing football you don't have time to think about a way to tackle them so that the other player doesn't get hurt. If everyone did that then you would see scores in the 70's or 80's. The nfl is handicapping the defense.

I think that's a little extreme. You're saying the players are the ones who should decide the rules because they're the only ones on the field? This rule is not handicapping defenses anymore than the facemask rule does. It really isn't going to have a huge affect on how the games are played.

[jmood88]

Quote: Originally Posted by camulos

I think that's a little extreme. You're saying the players are the ones who should decide the rules because they're the only ones on the field? This rule is not handicapping defenses anymore than the facemask rule does. It really isn't going to have a huge affect on how the games are played.

I am not saying that but a rule like this is not something that can be determined by someone who isn't playing. This rule is nothing like the face mask rule. There's no reason at all to grab someones face mask and no one ever grabs a face mask to tackle someone. This is going to have a huge effect on games. How are you going to say whether someone can make a "proper" tackle when the players are running at full speed?

[Stu]

Quote: Originally Posted by jmood88

I am not saying that but a rule like this is not something that can be determined by someone who isn't playing. This rule is nothing like the face mask rule. There's no reason at all to grab someones face mask and no one ever grabs a face mask to tackle someone. This is going to have a huge effect on games. How are you going to say whether someone can make a "proper" tackle when the players are running at full speed?

It's very similar to the facemask rule. In both cases they are grabbing a piece of the opposing players equipment to make a tackle and in both cases increases the risk of injury. People grab facemasks to tackle all the time, maybe not intentionally but it still happens.

The way I understand the rule is as ESPN wrote: "A 15-yard penalty will be called only if the tackle immediately brings the ball carrier down, and only if he's in open field."

This wording leaves very little room for interpretation by the officials because it is targeting a specific tackling technique, that is every bit as obvious at full speed as a face mask or any other penalty called.