Aaron Rodgers broke his right collarbone in a clash against the Minnesota Vikings in 2017 (photo credit: Associated Press).
The NFL continues to fight fires they themselves lit
By Ryan Conway
When Aaron Rodgers dropped back and then scrambled to his right, attempting a pass to Martellus Bennett, the immediate repercussions were unclear. Minnesota Vikings linebacker Anthony Barr took down the Green Bay Packers passer, breaking his collarbone and causing debate about the legality of the hit. Barr was never flagged for the take down.
Since then, Rodgers has returned and the league has cracked down on hits to the quarterback – again – with some dubbing it the ‘Rodgers rule’. The new roughing the passer call, designed to protect QBs, has done more harm than good.
Ironically, it has been the Packers who have suffered most from the rule change. Linebacker Clay Matthews drew a flag for roughing the passer against the Vikings during their week two clash – a call which has caused anger and confusion in NFL circles, and a call which kept the Vikings alive on their final drive of the game.
A week later the Green Bay defender was flagged again for a hit on Washington Redskins signal caller Alex Smith. Again, the NFL world dissected the moment asking the fair question: what are defenders to do to avoid the penalty flag.
This is a foul for roughing the passer – the defender lands “with all or most of the defender’s weight” on the passer. Rule 12, Section 2, Article 9(b): https://t.co/s9YKN8NLuT #GBvsWAS pic.twitter.com/ei2QZkvvzx
— NFL Football Operations (@NFLFootballOps) September 23, 2018
The league doubled down on its stance and enforcement of the rule on social media, defending the call made by referee Craig Wrolstad for the hit delivered by Matthews on Smith, even sighting where it could be found in the rulebook which reads:
“A rushing defender is prohibited from committing such intimidating and punishing acts as “stuffing” a passer into the ground or unnecessarily wrestling or driving him down after the passer has thrown the ball, even if the rusher makes his initial contact with the passer within the one-step limitation provided for in (a) above. When tackling a passer who is in a defenseless posture (e.g., during or just after throwing a pass), a defensive player must not unnecessarily or violently throw him 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.”
The National Football League is fighting fires on multiple fronts. Many of their players remain locked in a battle with the league, owners and the President of the United States with regards to taking a knee during the national anthem to protest the brutal treatment and killings of African Americans. Their ambiguous wording of the rule regarding a catch has also caused problems as well as the dip in ratings. Now, commissioner Roger Goodell has another problem.
The rule has so far not only hurt the product on the field but has hurt the players trying to stay within the laws of the game. Miami Dolphins defensive end William Hayes tore his ACL against the Oakland Raiders trying to keep his body weight of Raiders QB Derek Carr. The most damming part of the situation was in the aftermath of the game Carr said: “I wish the guy would have just landed on me instead of tearing his ACL. Nobody wants that. I don’t want that.” The rule seems universally hated, yet will remain in place until the end of the season – at least.
Superstars and leaders of the league have had their say on social media with star defensive end J.J. Watt calling the rule “absolutely out of control” and San Francisco 49ers cornerback Richard Sherman claiming the league doesn’t care about a large portion of their employees.
They don’t care about the rest of us getting hurt. Long as the QB is safe https://t.co/ihjlz3lVQl
— Richard Sherman (@RSherman_25) September 24, 2018
The National Football League has implemented many rule changes and tweaks in the name of protection. Their latest attempt has had the reverse effect. One could make the case that the loss of one of the games best quarterbacks last season was seen more as a loss for the NFL’s bottom line and viewer ratings. After Rodgers went down Brett Hundley struggled his way to a 3-6 record as a starter.
The NFL is driven by jersey sales, ratings and name value. With one of the faces of the shield sidelined due to an injury sustained by a hit from a defender, the NFL’s solution was to make it harder to hit a player which drives a large portion of the jersey sales and accounts for a significant portion of television viewership.
Rodgers’ jersey ranked sixth last season for sales and across the board viewing figures for the NFL were down 9.7% throughout the 2017 regular season. Those figures are unlikely to improve with top tier talent out of action.
The rule change could be seen as the NFL attempting to protect their investments at the expense of a core part of the game. The sport is slowly cultivating an image for being an entertainment business. The chunk plays, high-scoring games and instinctive interceptions look good on the highlight shows. The cost of this, though, is threatening to take the very life-blood away from football.
Gridiron
