Alright I’ll be the first to say it, the hit to Chris Godwin’s (wide receiver for the Buccaneers) knee on Sunday sucked.
Not only did that hit result in a torn ACL, putting Godwin out for the year…
But for selfish reasons, he was on my Fantasy Football team, and his early departure resulted in a .1 loss for my team in the first round of the playoffs. To be fair, I’m playing for the toilet bowl… but I’m trying not to finish dead last so I don’t have to sit in Waffle House for 24 hours (I’m fighting for my life out here).
The low hit to Godwin, who was a defenseless player receiving a pass, has stirred a lot of questions about if the NFL should penalize defensive players who tackle at the knees.
One of those players in particular is Godwin’s quarterback, Tom Brady.
He said in a SiriusXM podcast:
“Chris got hit in the knees yesterday which is a play I think they ought to take out of the game of football from a receiver standpoint. You know, I’ve kind of talked to the NFLPA about it for a while, and I’d like to speak to the Competition Committee at some point this offseason.
I’ve seen that hit too many times where a defenseless pass-catcher is in the process of catching the ball and then he’s hit by the defender.
And a lot of the defenders will say, ‘Well, we can’t hit them in the head anymore.’ Well, the point is you can’t hit anyone in the head anymore.
You can’t hit anyone in the knees anymore except for receivers, because you can still hit them in the knees.”
Needless to say, several NFL defensive players didn’t take too well to Brady’s statement.
Dallas Cowboys rookie linebacker Micah Parsons said:
“Lol so let’s stop playing tackle football?”
Green Bay Packers safety Adrian Amos also said:
“I don’t think people understand how hard it is to tackle running full speed with having to make sure you don’t hit the receiver high, all while they are ducking their head…”
Indianapolis Colts hall of famer Robert Mathis also added:
“It’s kind of gone to that though bc of all the offense friendly rules.”
As much as you hate to see an injury like that happen to such a great player, I’m really not sure how that can be changed.
Scoring is already up a ton in the NFL compared to years past due to all of the rules that are made to protect the quarterback. And if you hit a player anywhere high, that’s a 15-yard penalty.
The rules are forcing defensive players to take lower tackling angles, and it’s impossible to protect all key parts of the body in football unless you just turn the NFL into basically two-hand touch.
I don’t see the NFL doing much about the low hits, but if they do, you might as well say goodbye to defense.
We’ll be seeing final scores of 70-68 in the NFL.
