San Diego fans booed loudly after no penalty was called on a helmet-to-helmet hit that left Chargers RB Darren Sproles with a concussion but referee John Parry said the no-call was precisely in keeping with the rules. The play occurred late in the second quarter of the Oakland Raiders' 28-13 win over the Chargers Sunday when Sproles was hit by rookie LB Rolando McClain after a 7-yard reception. Sproles was attended to on the field while the fans booed. He got to his feet and walked off, but he did not return to the game. Parry said no penalty was called because Sproles had taken at least three steps after the catch and was no longer considered a "defenseless" receiver. "You can't hit helmet-to-helmet on a defenseless player," said Parry. "He was not considered defenseless. He was considered a runner because the act of possession was complete. The minimum of three steps were taken, so he was not deemed to be a runner so helmet-to-helmet is legal." Source: USA Today
Personally I don't see a problem with that. To be sure you need more camera angles, IMO, but you can see Sproles lower his head which is stupid, and McClain lead with his shoulder. Not his fault from the limited view I saw.
you also gotta consider that Sproles is what 5'5 ? its kinda hard for a big guy like McClain to get a solid hit on him anyway
He was not defenseless. He turned his head, took some steps, and saw defenders engaging. Now, McClain shouldn't have lowered his head like that. That is indeed leading with the helmet, but Sproles was able to see the hit coming
I'm a big Sproles fan, as he came from Kansas State, but seriously this is the right call! He saw McClain coming... Its just that normally he does not take straight shots like this. Being smaller and much more agile than most of his competition, he usually only takes a glancing blow.
exactly ............... and this is the root of all of these discussions but people will continue to just microanalyze each and every hit to determine if they think it was clean or dirty and then snitch about the 'pussification' of the league........... I would compare what's going on right now in the nfl to what happened to the nba ........... at some point, the nba turned into street ball with players just looking to make a highlight film and forgetting how to play fundamentals. That's why they got passed by the European teams so easily who were teaching good, fundamental team basketball. The same thing is happening right now before our very eyes in the nfl, and it's actually slowly been getting worse for several years ...... very few players actually play fundamentally well anymore and it's just become 'street ball' to many of them ....... because of that, in many ways, the nfl is becoming the new nba.
Being a "tackler" doesn't get you on YouTube because those enormous hits are non-existent. Yes I agree Capt, read my signature saying...lol
The protection of certain players and the microscope on others plays more to the "pussification" of the league than the knowing how to tackle... To continue your NBA analogy, for me the NBA changed with players always getting favorable calls, or getting away with things others wouldn't. To put a finer point on it, when traveling became more than 3 steps and for others players 4 steps. Now when a QBs get touched, it depends on which QB it is or which player does the touching whether there is a flag/fine. I understand why players have stopped fundamental tackling in the open field, as it can lead to shoulder injury. However, I think with a head injury is much more serious than a shoulder injury it won't change as the rules are geared toward offenses scoring points.
