Okay dude...the Tebow thing is cool and all, but saying the Broncs will beat the Patriots is going a little far.
no its not
Okay dude...the Tebow thing is cool and all, but saying the Broncs will beat the Patriots is going a little far.
Rex Grossman isn't as bad as everyone makes him out to be. Santana Moss is back, which also helps.
Also, let's put that whole QB sliding discussion to bed with one name: Ryan Fitzpatrick. The man has not once slid in his entire career in Buffalo, instead he leads into the defender with his throwing shoulder. He ran over one of San Diego's safeties yesterday on a ~20-yard scramble, and he regularly takes on linebackers one on one. Motherfucker doesn't give a shit, he's going to hit YOU.
Quarterbacks are way too protected to begin with, out of the pocket they should be fair game. Bunch of fucking sallies.
ESPN's John Clayton said:The other controversy is of bigger concern. Trying to scramble away from pressure, Brady tried to run and started to go into a slide. Linebacker London Fletcher, one of the more respected sportsmen in the NFL, was cautious enough to aim his shoulder in a spot that wouldn't hit Brady in the helmet. Still, he was penalized for a personal foul, which sent him into a rage that almost put him in position to get ejected.
Listen, it's great that the NFL is trying to clean up the sport and protect quarterbacks. But Fletcher was trying to hit Brady the right way. Plus, Brady entered his slide late, making him a runner. Defenders have complained years that Brady, Peyton Manning and other top quarterbacks are overly protected by officials. The Brady play was a classic example. Even Mike Pereira, the former head of officials who now works for Fox, said he thought the flag shouldn't have been thrown.
Mike Pereira said:I don’t agree with the [roughing the passer call on Fletcher], [He] was sliding late and there was no hit the head.
The Slide Rule doesn't only apply to QB's though as all of you seem to (rather stupidly) think. Personally, I don't like seeing any player taking a hit that could critically damage their body. If a player doesn't want to take a hit, then they should be allowed to declare themselves down, and hitting anyone doing so SHOULD be a personal foul, since it does exactly what the person sliding was trying to avoid. It's not pussy shit to try and avoid hits... especially lunge hits like the one London Fletcher tried to do.
Putting your team in a position to even make a field goal is bad? Injuries are a part of the game lol.
Deep down somewhere you've got a Tebow fetish lmao [sarcasm]
In all seriousness, the reason why Tony Sparano got fired is because the Dolphins organization wants to look early for a potential Head Coach. A Bill Cowher, Jeff Fisher, Brian Schottenheimer, and other candidates. Why do you think the Chiefs and Dolphins fired their coaches 3 weeks before the end of the Regular Season? Obvious is obvious. It's better to look sooner than later, reeling in a coach in the NFL is serious business, especially a winning coach.
No, I do not.
I feel like the reason Soprano was fired was because the Dolphins, formerly the #1 winning organization of all time (since the first Super Bowl) are desperate to keep fans believing in the team at this point. He was actually getting some pretty good results, just inconsistent at this point.
Since you won't take my word for it,
If Brady wants to fucking slide and declare himself down, there's nothing stopping him. The part that is incredibly irksome is that he slid AFTER the defender began his tackle, AFTER the point where the defender had NO CHOICE but to hit him, and got a flag for it.
I know you're just defending the flag because you don't want Brady getting hurt, but this whole protecting the quarterback thing has gone way too far.
spoken like a true patriots fan
A) The video is to remind people how unremarkable a hit has to be to cause the most sever types of damage. We see 10 hits like that a year, and yes they are fully illegal, but they still fucking happen.lol okay valkyries. usually i find your posts to be an interesting counterpoint in most discussions, but this is pretty ridiculous. what you are basically saying is that you believe defenders should not have the ability to leave the ground at ANY time during a tackle. football is a violent fucking game. i am in favor of protecting players with correctly implemented rules (ie we need fucking instant replay so this brady sliding thing doesn't happen). but lunging is a PERFECTLY CLEAN HIT as long as heads don't make contact and the player isn't defenseless. which brings me to your video "evidence" supporting your argument.
the tatum clip has nothing to do with this tom brady example. absolutely nothing. classic straw man bullshit. that hit would be absolutely illegal in today's NFL in TWO different ways. hitting a defenseless receiver and helmet to helmet. yes, that was tragic but the NFL has addressed hits like those, along with roughing passers and kickers who are also deemed to be "defenseless". but this case involves a TYPICAL RUNNER as you have so clearly stated, which is NOT DEFENSELESS because they can fucking MOVE AND RUN. to extend these kinds of regulations to TYPICAL RUNNERS, whether they be running backs, receivers after they have established themselves with the ball, or QUARTERBACKS, is simply going too far, in my humble opinion.
regardless, this isn't even the heart of the problem with the tom brady slide, because FLETCHER STARTED HIS TACKLE BEFORE BRADY STARTED SLIDING. you are right, there is no specific time span where a runner can or cannot start a slide too late... except when it comes to flagging the defender for VIOLATING the rules that state the sliding player has "given up his right to advance the ball". and you CANNOT flag a player for violating that rule when he starts the tackle before the ball carrier starts to slide. except that's what happened here. it's absolutely moronic and you are using the "lunging tackles" issue to try to defend the flag, which was uncalled for because LUNGING TACKLES ARE LEGAL ON ESTABLISHED BALL CARRIERS (as long as they don't lead with the head or make contact with the ball carrier's head). you can disagree with lunging tackles all you want, but it's legal. as it should be. you can argue that ball carriers that have slid to the ground are now 'defenseless' and 'down' but brady isn't even on the GROUND when fletcher makes contact. because, once again, fletcher started his tackle before brady slid. NOT ONLY THAT, but fletcher does one of the most HARMLESS fucking "lunges" i've ever seen, if you can even call it a lunge. he leaves the ground for LITERALLY A SPLIT SECOND.
watch the video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iv1f37dVNZ8
holy shit. this flag is even more of a joke than i thought now that i've rewatched it a few times. this is NOTHING like the stuff that, say, ryan clark does when he lunges at players. which is often, but not always, deemed a legal, clean hit. brady starts sliding AS SOON AS he realizes fletcher is about to tackle him. so brady is reacting to what fletcher is trying to do and trying to protect himself by sliding feet first instead of barging in, shoulder first. which is perfectly fine, but if you expect fletcher to lay down and not even ATTEMPT to hit brady (who is REACTING to fletcher's obvious motion to attempt a tackle) then you "legitimately do not understand" how defenders play in the national goddamn football league.
by the way, in case you are wondering, one of the main reasons why people hate brady is because he LITERALLY fucking APPLAUDS shitty fucking calls like this, as you can see in the clip. you can try and draw shitty flags if you want, but don't be a (BAN ME PLEASE) when you actually get the calls.
tl;dr, the call was god awful and your reasons for supporting it are absolutely shit.
By the way London Fletcher didn't even leave the ground, in fact he was as low as he possibly could be. Both of his feet were on the ground when he contacted Brady. Are you seriously saying this wasn't a wrong call?
Please don't tell me...
Shinryu, the rule states that the play is dead when the player "gives himself up" by not attempting to advance the ball. The issue is the timing. Was Brady considered to have "given himself up" the millisecond he began his slide? Ergo, anyone who slides right before they get hit gets a 15 yard penalty; maybe coaches will catch on to this! Wouldn't that be an exciting addition to NFL games! A degree of common sense must be applied to this from the referee's perspective. The defender had no time to react to the slide; it is ridiculous to expect them to be able to hold up in time for close plays like the one in the New England game.
If I were an Offensive Coordinator, I would tell my runners to slide all the time if they were to be hit like that because that's an easy 15 every time (News Flash: They probably already do).
Yes he did. Tell me you're watching the same video? He left his feet right before he hit Brady.
TMQ said:Just two plays later, Brady scrambled again. This time the Washington defenders pulled up -- and Brady did not hook-slide. If a quarterback can't be hit simply because he might slide, how are defenders supposed to play?
This is idiotic bile and people legitimately just don't understand football if they think it was a clean hit, and a bad penalty call.
I know this is exactly what they did, but I really hate that line of thinking. If you wanted to fire him when he was 0-7 or when he was 1-7, why wait until the next time he loses? More time to look for a coach, more time to give the interim coach a shot at proving something... It just seems silly to wait for them to lose just because you want it to be "called for" if you ask me :xthe timing of the sparano firing was perfect, and in fact this is what the dolphins brass had been waiting for since probably...october? waiting for the dolphins to lose "big" so the firing would be "called for".
i agree, i think it's kinda shitty that it was basically saying "yeah, it's nice that you won/barely lost all those games and you rallied an 0-7 team to go on a pretty good streak... but it's been time for you to go for a while now." but that's the reality of it i guess. the media would give the organization too much shit about firing a coach after a win, which i pretty much agree with...I know this is exactly what they did, but I really hate that line of thinking. If you wanted to fire him when he was 0-7 or when he was 1-7, why wait until the next time he loses? More time to look for a coach, more time to give the interim coach a shot at proving something... It just seems silly to wait for them to lose just because you want it to be "called for" if you ask me :x
I for one think it would be a wonderful addition to NFL games, because as Valkryies clearly thinks anyone who slides and gets hit immediately afterwards deserves a free 15 yards.
Well fuck, I was just being sarcastic. Good to know.
A correct tackle does not involve losing control of one's body. If you had to lose control of yourself to tackle someone, a quick running back will destroy you every single time, as he'll just side-step the tackle and run right by you. Fletcher made a stupid play with a poor tackling attempt, and paid for it."Correct tackling"? Any legal hit is a "correct tackle," so long as the player is not defenseless (aka he's a runner) and the blow is not to the helmet, or against any other similar rule (that's why they call it "legal!"). Fletcher's lunge was a "correct tackle."
He is horizontal to the ground, with no control over his body, and will go to where he targeted. But this does not matter, as this is not about the fact that he lunged, but about the fact that he got penalized for 15 yards because he hit a sliding player. Your whole point is that he had no control over his body, and mine is that it doesn't change the NFL rule because he chose to try a tackle that way.Fletcher's feet on the ground before the "lunge," Fletcher's feet on the ground when he makes contact. If you're confused about the second pic, his right foot is coming down to the ground while the left is coming off of the ground. Pardon the quality, youtube vids don't screencap well!
But you ARE allowed to hit QB's, you're just not allowed to go full-tilt like an idiot at every person that runs by you with the ball. You will get blown away by any decent runner for what Fletcher did, and will get penalized for hitting a sliding player for anyone with the wherewithal to slide into the hit. The second run Brady pulled on that drive, he ran right by a guy who literally stood still with indecision. He didn't even attempt to square up and tackle Brady, which would've resulted in an entirely legal play! Something you continuously fail to understand. You can tackle someone without provoking a penalty by sliding into your hit! I'll give you hint: it involves not losing control of your body.Was reading TMQ earlier and he pretty much voiced the same opinion as everyone else I've heard about the subject, but went on to add something I hadn't noticed (too busy watching Falcons-Panthers):
You can penalize a person for trying to hit someone in the process of sliding, as the rule states.How did you even think that was a rational question? You can't hit someone in the process of sliding, and they place the ball where the player hits the ground at the end of the slide. While this could create interesting circumstances where a runner could try and fly 10 yards forward whilst sliding, it's not a double standard, it's just the rule as it is now. If you want to complain that the rule should be changed, BY ALL MEANS GO FOR IT. But so far, you've only said that the penalty should not have been called, when in fact, it should have, because it was a direct violation of the rules. There literally cannot be argument about that fact.I have one more question to ask, though. When a runner slides, where do the officials mark the ball? According to the rules, they mark the ball at the spot where the player "gives himself up;" this is always the spot where they make contact with the ground on their slide, NOT at the initiation of the slide! How can they mark the ball at that point, yet penalize anyone who hits the runner before they reach the ground on their slide? Seems like that would be a double standard! If they don't consider the ball to be downed until the player reaches the ground on his slide, then clearly they must think he hasn't given himself up yet, so clearly any hit on him is legal in that regard (not counting helmet-to-helmet etc.)
Triplette called forearm to the head, which didn't happen at all. So apparently, the list of people who understand Football is just me. I'm willing to accept this, because despite all the complaining, I know the rule, and I know I'm right.People who understand football: Jeff Triplette, TheValkryies
Definitely a poor move by the Dolphins management with the timing. Give him until the end of the season. Going 4-2 in your last 6 games isn't a reason to cut ties with a coach.I know this is exactly what they did, but I really hate that line of thinking. If you wanted to fire him when he was 0-7 or when he was 1-7, why wait until the next time he loses? More time to look for a coach, more time to give the interim coach a shot at proving something... It just seems silly to wait for them to lose just because you want it to be "called for" if you ask me :x
So yes, overall it was a horrible call.Even Brady said Monday he didn't believe there was a foul on the play. "I thought it was a really clean play by him," Brady said on WEEI-AM (via ESPN Boston). "I think we're pretty fortunate we got the call."