Posts Tagged ‘James Harrison’

Week 12 open forum, assignments

• Assignments, Open Forum, Week 12
Sunday, November 28, 2010 – 1:19 pm | Comments Off

by Ben Austro

Updated 11/29 for new feature, below

If you see a call that is a turkey, let us know in the comments section of this post. Referee assignments are after the jump.

Update: Starting this week, we will update the open forum with any calls we read about that aren’t worthy of (or if we don’t have time for) a full, standalone post. If we miss one, send us a link in the comments. Some of these may expand to full posts later in the week, as well.

  • Steelers at Bills. Steelers linebacker James Harrison believes that he shouldn’t have been flagged for roughing the passer (for helmet-to-helmet contact) in the third quarter (via Scott Brown, Pittsburgh Tribune-Review).
  • Jaguars at Giants. Jaguars coach Jack Del Rio questioned the offensive pass interference call against Kassim Osgood in the fourth quarter (via Vito Stellino, The Florida Times-Union). Also in that game, there was no penalty called on Jaguars defensive back Tyron Brackenridge for contact after a fair catch on Darius Reynaud. While Giants coach Tom Coughlin didn’t question the call, the game supervisor, former veteran referee Johnny Grier, phoned the league office in Manhattan about the non-call according to Mike Garafolo of The Star-Ledger of Newark, N.J.
  • Eagles at Bears. A question was raised in a discussion board about a player who does not try to advance an onside kick. When a player “gives himself up” he does not have to be touched down by an opponent to have the play declared dead. This happens more often on kicks (because it prevents the clock from running), but the same applies when a quarterback takes a knee to run out the clock.

 

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Helmet-to-helmet hit may result in butt-to-bench, increased fines

• News
Sunday, October 24, 2010 – 9:46 am | Comments Off

by Ben Austro

After some nasty helmet-to-helmet collisions on the football field, it was comments made in the broadcast studio that attracted the attention of the NFL. On Sunday Night Football, former Chargers and Patriots safety Rodney Harrison—who was voted twice by his peers as the dirtiest player in the game—said that fines had no impact on his on-field behavior:

Fining me five- or ten-grand really didn’t affect me. But I got to a point where when they suspended me, I knew the effect on my teammates. [It was] the disappointment, me not being out there, not the $100,000 that got taken away from me. … That’s what they’re going to have to do to if they’re going to change the nature of these hits: you have to suspend guys.


Much different than the Harrison who declared in 2006 after his second dirtiest player crown: “All I can say is as many guys as say I’m a dirty player, just as many come up and tell me they admire how I play, the hard work, the commitment, the toughness. That’s the pride you’re looking for. I take pride in that. But dirty? I don’t think you guys can look in my eyes and say I’m a dirty player.”

The league took a hard-line stance, handing out major fines (compared with other helmet-to-helmet hits as recent as last week) for the hits that started this conversation:

  • Falcons cornerback Dunta Robinson hit Eagles receiver DeSean Jackson in the head so hard, Jackson does not remember the hit. Robinson was fined $50,000.
  • Patriots safety Brandon Meriweather was also docked $50,000 for a hit that had Ravens tight end Todd Heap out for the remainder of the game.
  • Steelers linebacker James Harrison knocked two Browns players out of the game and was fined $75,000.

Recently, fines of $5,000 to $10,000 were the standard. In one case of these three cases, a player essentially played for free, as the fine exceeded his game check.

After these fines were assessed, the NFL released a DVD (video) to all teams and this statement on Wednesday:

TO NFL PLAYERS AND COACHES:

One of our highest priorities is player safety.  We all know that football is a tough game that includes hard contact.  But that carries with it an obligation to do all that we can to protect all players from unnecessary injury caused by dangerous techniques from those who play outside the rules.

The video shown today shows what kind of hits are against the rules, but also makes clear that you can play a hard, physical game within the rules.

Violations of the playing rules that unreasonably put the safety of another player in jeopardy have no place in the game, and that is especially true in the case of hits to the head and neck.  Accordingly, from this point forward, you should be clear on the following points:

1.         Players are expected to play within the rules.  Those who do not will face increased discipline, including suspensions, starting with the first offense.

2.         Coaches are expected to teach playing within the rules.  Failure to do so will subject both the coach and the employing club to discipline.

3.         Game officials have been directed to emphasize protecting players from illegal and dangerous hits, and particularly from hits to the head and neck.  In appropriate cases, they have the authority to eject players from a game.

ROGER GOODELL, Commissioner

We will have a round-up of the reaction from players and coaches to the NFL’s increased enforcement for these hits.

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Originally published October 23, 2010 at 10:01 PM | Page modified October 23, 2010 at 10:11 PM

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Steve Kelley

Stiff penalties on headhunters is important in protecting NFL players

Hard hits, violent hits, are part of football. And injuries, even serious injuries, are inevitable. The league can’t legislate the violence out of the game, nor should it. But it has to protect the unprotected and it has to punish the players who launch themselves head-first into receivers and running backs and quarterbacks.

Steve Kelley

Seattle Times staff columnist

For many years, when sportswriters stayed at the same hotel with the team, I watched the Seahawks players climb onto their buses before riding to the stadium for their Sunday road games.

That afternoon they would play their most dangerous game and I couldn’t help wondering which players would finish the day healthy or hurt, or even hospitalized.

Every game, they put their lives and livelihoods on the line the way athletes in most other sports never do, and I’ve always admired their grace under that enormous pressure.

Football is a violent game, and the players of the NFL accept that fact every day when they run onto the practice field, every Sunday when they board their buses and every game day when they collide at high speeds and with intimidating intent.

In the past few years, groundbreaking research has led to an increased awareness of the dangers and the long-term physical costs for the players who play this game.

We now know that the effects of the thunderous hits we see on Sunday might not fully be realized by the players absorbing those hits until later decades. The hits they take in their 20s can lead to serious health issues in their 40s and 50s.

NFL players are dying young. They are suffering from ALS, Parkinson’s disease and dementia. Some former players’ suicides have been linked to head trauma they suffered while playing in the NFL.

To its credit, the league has begun paying serious attention to the damage that can be done from head trauma. Finally, the seriousness of concussions is being addressed. We no longer hear jokes on the air about a player “getting his bell rung.”

But now the league is struggling to find the answer to a complicated riddle.

The NFL, which has celebrated the violence in its game because that violence is so much a part of football’s attraction, is trying to find a way to legislate against the most violent helmet-to-helmet hits. A 15-yard penalty, or a five-figure fine, aren’t enough.

Last weekend, Pittsburgh Steelers linebacker James Harrison knocked two Cleveland Browns out of the game.

Atlanta’s Dunta Robinson hit Philadelphia receiver DeSean Jackson and both were on the ground after the play. Jackson has no memory of the hit.

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The most dangerous strike came from New England safety Brandon Meriweather, who knocked out Baltimore tight end Todd Heap, after the front of Meriweather’s helmet crashed into the left side of Heap’s.

Week 3 “Official Review”: Taunting, OPI, pleas for PylonCam

• Calls, Follow-up, Week 3
Saturday, October 3, 2009 – 12:08 pm | Comments Off

by Ben Austro

As done in previous weeks, there is a two-part “Official Review,” one for NFL Network and one for NFL.com. The topics were not nearly controversial this week for the league’s vice president of officiating, Mike Pereira:

  • 49ers defensive back Shawntae Spencer signaled incomplete on a pass that he broke up in the game against the Vikings. However, since he was over the prone receiver, it was deemed a 15-yard taunting foul.
  • Texans receiver Kevin Walter, running a tight end-zone route, collided with a Jaguars defender. It appeared inadvertent, but it drew an offensive-pass-interference call. Pereira gave his wavering support for the call on the field, but in the subtext, it is probably going to be scored against the covering official’s grade. In this case, the covering official was field judge Jim Howey.
  • Other noncontroversial offensive-pass-interference calls from the Falcons–Patriots (which nullified a Falcons touchdown) and Steelers–Bengals.

The bulk of the conversation between Pereira and NFL Net talking head Rich Eisen focused on a call for plane-of-goal cameras in every stadium to supplement the broadcast cameras. This started when a Texans go-ahead-touchdown attempt was thwarted by a goal-line fumble. Replay was inconclusive as to when the player was down, so the field call stood. (Bonus: Pereira showed the videotape of the replay assistant’s efforts from the referee’s field monitor perspective.)

When we watched Super Bowl XLIII, there were fixed camera positions on the goal line, as was evident from the coast-to-coast interception return by James Harrison (video). Primetime games and playoff games (and, to a lesser extent, the key afternoon matchups) have more camera angles than other standard regular season games. It’s just a built-in flaw in the system, just as much as a network television director making a choice of replay angles is. Replay is not supposed to be the fix-all. (Eisen went on to suggest a camera mounted on the pylon.)

Technology is always explored for improving the mechanics, such as using laser-sighting or GPS technology for measuring first downs. The gain, though, must be a part of the equation. Do you place a camera on the pylon for a goal-line play that happens once in a few weeks? There are eight pylons on the field and do you add cameras to similarly patrol the sideline and end line? And it would not have solved this situation, because the play was not the breaking of the plane of the goal, but the knee that is a yard or so back.

Inconclusive video is a perfectly acceptable call, especially since the coach had the discretion to throw the challenge flag in this instance.

Head of refs firm on fumble, but should have been reviewed

• Calls
Tuesday, February 3, 2009 – 11:40 pm | Comments Off

by Ben Austro

sb43Mike Pereira, the NFL vice president of officiating, conducted his last “Official Review” segment (video) of the season on the NFL Network today. Periera is retiring at the conclusion of next season.

Pereira did acknowledge the controversy about not having Kurt Warner’s fumble on the last play reviewed:

Looking back at it now after the fact, you know, it was close enough, although it wouldn’t have changed anything whatsoever. … Had [replay official Bob McGrath] stopped it, it would’ve stayed a fumble. But, again, looking at it, at that big of a play at the end of the game, I would’ve sent it down and given [head referee Terry] McAulay a chance to look at it. …

You learn and … next time it happens, at this point of the game, this big of a play, let’s go ahead and [call for a replay review].

Pereira stated that McAulay had a chance to see the play after the game and concurred that the ruling would stand. The ruling on the play was that, although Warner had the ball in his hand while it was moving forward, he did not have control of it. I don’t think that will be enough to satisfy conspiracy theorists.

However, it appears the replay guidelines will be amended to state controversial calls at pivotal points in the game will get a review.

Also in the segment, Pereira backed up the assessment we had on James Harrison’s interception return. He also said that Santonio Holmes’ celebration on the game-winning touchdown should have been penalized, but since it happened so long after the play, the officials’ attention was to set up for the point-after attempt.