Quote:
Originally Posted by Welpe
Except that it was. His crown of his helmet is buried in his chest and his facemask is on the ball right below. Break it down and look at the stills, you can see it.
A player delivering a blow like this is at great risk of breaking his own neck due to axial loading, which is one of the main reasons why this hit is illegal.
I suspect there are some supervisors such as Bill Carollo that are saying this is not a foul because they don't deem it to be targeting. I don't know how one can draw that conclusion after reading the printed guidelines as to what targeting is but it is what it is. I have a strong feeling if this were to have been called targeting, it would have been supported at least by Redding.
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I've tried to look at it from every angle possible. A taller player getting his head, and body down to make a tackle on a player that was shorter, stopped running, and basically trying to get in the fetal position to avoid the hit. In the position Clowney had to get down into to make this tackle, his head isn't going to be exactly upright. However you should have noticed that his facemask was coming up during the tackle. He knew where the football was, and recovered. Something not likely if you're looking down at the ground.
When you play DL, you don't come in standing straight up. Tackling drills are fine, but they don't allow for tackling a moving target. I'm not advocating that it's too bad if a player breaks his neck. All I'm saying from a fundamental standpoint is there isn't really any other way Clowney could have made any better of a tackle.
I think you, and I have a different definition of what the crown of the head is. Haven't yet seen anyone penalized when a player tries to leap a pile, and the runner, and tackler hit head on with both heads down.....
I don't know what officials are looking for as in "targeting", but this doesn't look like an example to me. You would be better off showing some old Oakland Raider film clips to me.