Like a legendary coach once said: “What the hell is going on out here?” Those famous words from Vince Lombardi were reborn in the exclamations of the 81,441 fans in attendance at Lambeau Field when Clay Matthews was called for roughing the passer on Kirk Cousins with 1:36 left in the game. The flag gave Minnesota a 15-yard penalty and erased what would have been a game-ending interception by Green Bay Packers’ rookie cornerback Jaire Alexander. The Minnesota Vikings would go on to score a touchdown on that drive and end up tying the game with the Packers in overtime.
A week later, Clay Matthews was flagged for roughing the passer again when he appeared to cleanly sack Washington Redskins quarterback Alex Smith midway through the third quarter. Although the play looked to be nothing more than a hard-hitting tackle, the National Football League has confirmed that Matthews was flagged for lowering his helmet into Smith’s shoulder and then landing on him with all of his body weight.
This was Matthews’ third roughing the passer penalty of the season and, even though Matthews has not been fined for any of the calls, the NFL has stated that they will use Matthews as an example for how to get the call right; much to the dismay of NFL fans everywhere.
The NFL has seen 34 roughing the passer penalties in the first three weeks of the 2018 season compared to 16 during the first three weeks of the 2017 season. While this may feel like a large increase, the league has shown no signs that they will ease up with calling the penalty.
In a statement released by the NFL’s executive vice president of football operations, Troy Vincent, Vincent stated Thursday that a competition committee has reached a decision regarding the excessive enforcement of the penalty, “In reiterating its position on quarterback protection, the committee determined there would be no changes to the point of emphasis [lowering the helmet] approved this spring or the rule, of which the body weight provision has been in place since 1995,” Vincent tweeted in relation to his statement.
Now don’t get me wrong, I see how the threat of helmet-to-helmet contact is a concern for referees on any given tackle. But if referees are going to call a penalty on a defender using “most of or all of their body weight” on a tackle, then I’d imagine we’d have to see a flag on almost every tackle. When a 250-pound linebacker is running towards the quarterback at full speed, how is he not supposed to “intentionally” fall on the quarterback with all or most of their body weight.
Would it have been better if Matthews had whipped Smith around like a wrestler tossing his opponent to the other side of the ring? Should he have gone straight for Smith’s legs and risked the chance of Smith either evading the tackle or possibly tearing his ACL? Football is a game of inches and seconds, and in that adrenaline-packed moment, how is a defender supposed to keep in mind every subsection of the lengthy roughing the passer rule when his primary job is to tackle the guy with the ball?
However, I can understand the reasoning behind wanting to protect arguably the most valuable asset on a football team. After all, NFL owners are giving unprecedentedly hefty contracts to their quarterbacks despite the fact that they seem to be getting hurt more than ever. Think of all the quarterbacks who were sidelined in 2017 with season ending injuries. Aaron Rodgers, Carson Wentz, Deshaun Watson, Andrew Luck, Ryan Tannehill, Carson Palmer, Sam Bradford; all of whom missed significant parts of the season—if not the entire year—due to their injuries.
However, not to undermine the seriousness and severity of the injuries these athletes suffered, but football is a physical game that guarantees the risk of such unfortunate occurrences. That’s why a team has backups. That’s what a quarterback signs up for when they line up under center.
The game is faster and defenders are bigger and stronger than ever. The risk of an injury can occur on every single play, but to over-enforce penalties for unnecessary roughness and roughing the passer is to take the game out of the hands of players and into the hands of officials who spoil the purity of the game. And where does one draw the line?
I don’t care if players choose to stand or kneel for the national anthem. I’m not concerned with whom Nike sponsors or what President Donald Trump thinks of the NFL’s TV ratings. All I want is to watch a football game where I don’t have to think about how the outcome would have been different had the refs not thrown the flag.
If the league keeps heading in this direction, before you know it we’ll start to see flags around the players’ waists and no one will have to worry about getting tackled.
Andrew Heller is a second-year graduate student majoring in English. AH804286@wcupa.edu.