NFL: Rules vs Refs
Posted on 11. Jan, 2010 by Chuck Rocker in Sports, Video
Does the NFL have too many rules? For season after season I’ve been bitching about the seemingly endless list of rules protecting key players (ie. kickers and quarterbacks). Why are these professional athletes protected by “rules”. They get paid big big salaries to play a very physical game, sac up and play! If you can’t take a hit…maybe you should be an accountant.
To quote the great Jimmy McGinty from The Replacements:
“That’s why girls don’t play the game.”
My feelings aside, Sunday’s 51-45 Cardinal’s victory over Green Bay was one helluva game. It was the highest scoring NFL game in post-season history at 96 points. While offenses slugged it out over 4 quarters the refs played a big role in the outcome by missing some BIG calls.
Green Bay quarterback Aaron Rodgers was violated several times with no flag thrown. My problem with these “protection rules” is that they are not upheld consistently. First of all, on a 2nd-and-10 situation, Rodgers dumped the ball off to Jarrett Bush and then took a blatant helmut-to-helmut hit from Bertrand Berry. You simply can’t touch a quarterback’s facemask according to the rules…but no call was made. Then on a game-ending fumble, Rodgers was hit by defensive back Michael Adams, who blatantly facemasked him on the way down. This was not “incidental” contact…this was an obvious foul that was not called.
Look, rules are rules. Hands to the quarterback’s face are illegal. No wiggle room here. So why didn’t the ref call this? According to Peter King:
The referee, Scott Green, stands behind the pocket and has to watch first for the loose ball. Once the ball is out, Green’s job is to watch ball for possession. He can’t watch the QB then. If he saw the facemask, it’d mean he wasn’t watching ball. It’s a quirky rule, but it’s the referee’s call — and the ref is charged with possession once the ball is loose.
Seriously??? This begs the question: are there too many rules in the NFL? If you have a rule, it should be enforced…period. Otherwise, why have it?
Check out the video for yourself here and then explain to me why we have refs?
