more horse shit
ESPN.com - NFL - Competition committee bans ‘horse-collar’ tackle
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.
ridiculous. so open field tackle. that traditionally means outside of the tackle box, beyond the linebackers. so if you have a receiver let’s say on the right sideline past the linebackers, covered by a corner AND a safety, does that count as open field? if on a crazy blitz, some defender gets through lightning quick ala LT in his prime and makes a tackle behind the line of scrimmage, let’s say on an end around or a reverse, is that open field and no horse-collar allowed? and no penalty unless immediately brought down? what’s immediate? even the roy williams-TO tackle, i don’t know if i’d call that immediate. i mean i guess the immediacy part goes to the reason for the rule: player injury protection. if he’s going fast one way and is immediately brought down another, that’s the likely place for an injury. but say you have a bruising fullback who somehow makes it into the open field, horse collared, but in csonka effort he just drags defenders, who have horse collared him, no penalty? what if he drags them a yard or two, then falls back severely injuring himself, is that penalty/fine worthy? regardless, like i said the other day, if you can use a guy’s HAIR to tackle him, you should be able to use his pads. either that or disallow them from taping their jerseys down or something. you have got to give a defender something if he’s trying to catch an offensive player.
