Armchair Quarterback: NFL finds another way to limit ‘D’
The way the NFL is going with its rules changes, we’ll soon be seeing arena football league scores as defensive players are being stripped of every thing except their jock straps.
The latest rule, likely to be ratified this week by the league, is the outlawing of the horsecollar tackle whereby a player tackles another by reaching inside the shoulder pads from behind and bringing him down. The tackle was brought into the limelight by the Cowboys’ Roy Williams this year when he brought down the Eagles’ Terrell Owens, fracturing the wideout’s leg which kept him out until the Super Bowl. It was also the same sort of tackle which left the Titans’ Tyrone Calico with two sprained knees in a year which saw him injured most of the season.
Agreed, there were injuries from the horsecollar tackle. But then, football is a contact sport, and players injure body parts every week. Is the horsecollar so dangerous it must be banned? Well, they’ve been doing it since football was invented. Why is it just now it’s being banned?
Although I have mixed emotions about the upcoming rule change, I strongly suspect it is another move by the league to give yet another advantage to the offense in hopes of upping scoring around the league. The league knows the old adage of defense wins championships and offense fills the seats.
Given this adage, the league has been trying to tweak the system in light of the major trend toward defensive domination of the league. You can track it all the way back to the Ravens’ win several years ago. Since then, it’s pretty well been teams like the Pats and Bucs who have dominated the title.
While defense can be a beautiful ballet to the trained eye, the average fan is not electrified by a bull rush by the nose tackle, a perfect shoulder-to-chest hit by the linebacker on a running back, a sweet swim move by a defensive lineman or a well timed safety blitz from the secondary. Instead, the fans come out of their seats when McNair hits Mason (cut), I mean Calico (hurt), um, Bennett (yes, he’s still with us), with a long bomb for a touchdown.
It was obvious what the league was doing last year when they tightened the rule about contact with receivers more than five yards down field. The turf was littered with yellow last year, calling those cheesy little defensive holding calls every other play for minor contact. This came after the Pats defense “mugged” the opposition the year before, evoking complaints from the sore losers.
Folks, football is a contact sport. If the defense is getting the better of the offense, perhaps it’s because offenses just aren’t as good as they used to be. Back in the old days, when defenses were dominating, smart coaches would come up with brand new schemes to confuse defenses. They’ve been doing this since the forward pass was invented. However, now the teams find it easier to simply legislate an advantage to the offense by restricting defenses.
Yes, we need to protect quarterbacks in the pocket and we need to protect helpless receivers from helmet-to-helmet hits and even linemen from low blocks, but I think the league needs to look at its over-legislation of rules to help the offense. While it may make offenses a bit more high flying, the end result will be a lack of offensive imagination and a lack of aggression that makes defense intriguing.