June 19, 2013

More On Leading With the Helmet

October 24, 2011 by 26 Comments

Thank James Harrison.  Seems like an odd thing to say on a Cleveland-based sports blog, but it is true.  The NFL was on the path to over-regulating tackling and hitting anyway, but James Harrison’s plays against the Browns (including a near decapitation of Josh Cribbs) are pretty much the reason we find ourselves watching the NFL as it is today.  Even Browns fans seemed to be upset with Mike Carey’s unnecessary roughness call.  I understand that completely.  I am not in love with the rules as they are either, but you can’t put this toothpaste back in the tube.  The NFL is being safety conscious, and you might as well learn to live with it.  Yesterday’s play was a bit on the soft side, but these pictures will show you why it was called.  In the end, the rule has everything to do with form and intent and less about the end result.  Meaning, Colt McCoy doesn’t have to go off on a stretcher for the play to be illegal form.

First, notice the positioning of Mike Carey with relation to the play where he threw the flag.

Mike Carey couldn’t have been in a much better position to see the play.  Maybe if he was directly in the center of the hashes.

The replay shows that even though he only grazed Colt McCoy’s back, it wasn’t good form by the DB as he was definitely leading with his helmet and potentially making it a weapon.


Don’t mistake this post as me saying I absolutely love love love this rule.  Like everyone else, had this penalty gone against the Browns, I would hate it.  If T.J. Ward had done the same exact thing to Charlie Whitehurst, it would have annoyed me when the yellow flag went flying.  Don’t get mad at Mike Carey though.  It wasn’t a bad call.  It is a supremely over-reaching rule with pretty dire consequences that makes the game seem less fair on a weekly basis.

Maybe it makes the game safer.  That’s debatable. It makes the game worse.  That’s probably not.

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  • Pale Dragon

    The irony is that by lowering his helmet he was avoiding a helmet-to-helmet hit.

    The rule is a good rule because a hit like that could have led to a neck injury on the defender. It was bad form, and unnecessary to make the tackle. A simple wrap up would have brought McCoy down.

    The refs yesterday were way too trigger happy with penalties, but it seemed to go both ways.

  • humboldt

    Good call. That is a dangerous technique that needs to be phased out of the game.

  • mgbode

    I agree that I am not a huge fan of the rule as there should be some gray area allowed by the refs. But, there is not, he dropped his head, and the flag was warranted.

    In the end, I expect this rule to have an affect like it does in my son’s Kindergarten Flag Football league. They have a rule you cannot cross the LOS until the QB hands the ball off (or throws it). At first, the kids just swarmed the ball, but after a few flags, they learned to wait and then attack. They changed how they approached the plays just as defenders will change how they approach tackling.

    always tackling with your chin up is good form and will prevent unnecessary injuries (both to the defenders and guys being tackled alike).

  • Lyon

    Completely agree Craig. Does the rule suck? Yes. Was it a correct call by the letter of the rule? Yes.

    No need to drop his head like that. Just keep the chin up & he gets a legit sack. & our drive isn’t extended.

  • http://www.waitingfornextyear.com @WFNYTD

    I will say I thought that the call was the worst I had ever seen…until I saw this post. Well done Craig

  • jimkanicki

    good take craig. i know you and i went back and forth on twitter about this at the time… i thought it was a really soft call. but i was watching it in a bar with the sound off. on further review: you were right and i was wrong. :-) that still photo makes it clear how the ref needed to throw the flag.

  • Lyon

    beat me to it mgbode.

  • natedawg

    You will never be able to eliminate calls like this because of the way they game is played. I think as time passes, we will expect this a lot more and see 1-2 on average calls like this per game.

  • mgbode

    @lyon – great minds and all.

  • Harv 21

    Carey seems to be one of the league’s better officials. Well-positioned, decisive (look how quickly he throws that flag) and even enunciates his rulings so clearly into the mic to the fans that I rarely hear him booed. Players must respect that.

  • Lyon

    Agreed Harv. He seemed to call the penalty, then when all the Seahwaks reacted he went back on the Mic & explained the helmet was lowered.

    He always does a good job of letting everyone know what the call was. As opposed to some refs who call personal foul & expect everyone to just accept it & move on.

  • Vengeful Pat

    I thought this call was miserably bad when I first saw it at the bar, and I thought we got away with that penalty on Kam Chancellor. Then I saw the replay and saw that Chancellor actually did graze McCoy’s back and definitely led with his helmet in a spear-like fashion, and I changed my mind. Carey made the right call. Chancellor’s rep while at Virginia Tech was as a safety who tries to make big hits, but who can’t cover the pass. Seems like nothing has changed.

  • BuckeyeDawg

    My initial reaction was the same as everyone else’s…but when you see the play from Carey’s point of view it makes a lot more sense.

  • The Other Tim

    The thing is, it makes the game safer for the tackler.
    See what you hit.
    Ask that college kid who broke his neck on Saturday if he wishes he’d kept his head up.

  • Nicko

    I liked the call on the punt return. Now that was a bad call. Was that Carey too?

  • NJ

    Liked the call. I’m glad to see officials call these based on the technique being used rather than the result or the way it looked. Seemed like for a while there you’d only get a flag if you killed a guy. Spearing is spearing… end of story.

  • mgbode

    @Nicko – again it is POV. it wasn’t Carey (LJ – not sure the name), but he was in front of the defender who fell and behind him the blocker pushed forward his hands. now, he whiffed and didn’t actually hit the defender as he fell, but I can certainly see how the ref thought he did.

    i’ll take a game where we get the phantom calls :)

  • Lyon

    @mgbode. I’ll take it as well. It’s nice to be on the good side of those calls. We got to experience this more when LBJ played here & I could get used to it again :)

  • http://www.60bpm.com/ Robbie

    What I remember is about three plays before this one, a Seattle lineman leveled McCoy WELL after he released the ball. The guy could have let up and he continued into McCoy and I think he even made contact with McCoy’s helmet.

    According to the rules, I noted that the guy got away with one.

    And still when this play got called I thought it was a little much. I thought maybe it was a bit of a make-up call.

    Whatever. We like it when our players dish-out great hits, not so much when it’s someone else’s team dishing it out. As long as the calls are consistent for both teams, I’m not going to get too upset.

  • http://www.60bpm.com/ Robbie

    What I DO know is that every game involves McCoy getting absolutely blasted from him blind side like this. Is that HIS fault for not reading the defense or is someone missing their assignment or getting beat badly?

  • Ike

    It took a couple of replays as I was watching the game yesterday, but I totally understand why this was called (in “Today’s NFL,” which is a whole other conversation).

    You can’t lead with your helmet into a QB’s back; that’s called spearing. If Chancellor had any kind of aim (which is hard when you’re not looking at what you’re hitting) he would’ve knocked McCoy right out of the game on that play.

    It was a very dangerous play, for both players. Had Chancellor actually connected, nobody would be questioning this call. You can’t lead with your helmet, plain and simple.

  • http://serandez.blogspot.com Ezzie

    Funny – at the game, in the upper deck behind the Seattle bench, we couldn’t really see what the call was about (or hear it when it was announced). Nice to finally understand it, and great breakdown.

  • Joe

    Well done…

  • Stevo

    I never remember being taught to lower my head when making a tackle. In fact, just the opposite. I was taught to keep my head up. This can prevent injury (for the tackler!) and helps keep your eye on the ball carrier. In fact, I found it effective to try to aim my facemask at the ball (helps keep your head in front and can cause a fumble).

    While I agree this call was iffy, by rule it is correct. In fact, if he plants his facemask square in Colt’s back, and wraps up with a good form tackle to the ground, this hit may have been even more vicious. Think whiplash.

    I also don’t understand all of the players saying they have to “re-learn” how to play the game. This is BS. All they have to do is what we were told every. single. day. in practice. “Keep your head up!”

  • Harv 21

    @Stevo: there’s been a lot said about tacklers’ injury risk with that technique. Marc Buoniconti’s paralysis 20 years ago and his father’s crusade included that issue. But seems like TV’s love of “devastating hits” just drowns out player safety issues. Just this weekend heard more than one color guy making the usual just-put-a-skirt-on-the-player complaint after one of these penalties.

  • Greg

    While I certainly appreciate the effort taken to explain this and everyone’s opinions agreeing with the call, I have to completely disagree. The guy is clearly trying to hit McCoy’s back with his left shoulder pad. I think it’s kind of silly to expect any tackler’s helmet to not drop at some point in a tackle form–whether in the textbook “keep your head up” form or in an allegedly “improper form”. When aren’t tacklers coming in with their heads down to some extent? The intent of the rule should be to avoid “actual” spearing, not this type of situation where if you actually watch the replay McCoy was barely hit compared to what normally happens on a blindside QB sack—if you watch the replay the DB’s helmet and shoulder pads barely touch McCoy, in fact, he basically arm tackled his waist. This wasn’t a head shot and it most definitely wasn’t spearing. What the DB was “intending” to do and what he “actually” did could be two different things–one action should result in a penalty and the other should not. Just like the punt return “block”–he may have intended to actually block the guy in the back (penalty), but he whiffed (no penalty)…refs screwed up in both cases IMHO. I will just agree to disagree…thx