Brandon Meriweather, who served a one-game suspension Sunday for the way he hits, vowed to begin targeting players' knees. Meriweather has received numerous fines over the years for his helmet-to-helmet hits. After two more incidents against the Bears on Oct. 20, the NFL suspended Meriweather for two games until an appeals process reduced the ban to one.
"I guess I just got to take people's knees out," Meriweather said Monday morning in the Redskins' locker room. "That's the only way. I would hate to end a guy's career over a rule, but I guess it's better other people than me getting suspended for longer.
"You just have to go low now, man. You've got to end people's careers. You got to tear people's ACLs and mess up people's knees. You can't hit them high anymore."
I'm sure he is not intending to end people's careers but I do think he may take his hits lower. I get that the NFL is trying to make the game safer but the game is inherently violent. There are going to be violent collisions. There will be helmet to helmet hits as guys are crossing the middle and jumping and a DB is trying to make a play. DBs are reacting and intentional or unintentional, there will continue to be helmet to helmet hits.
I will say Meriweather's hit on Jeffery was deserving of a penalty/fine but the one on Marshall looked more like a reaction and there was contact. Meriweather has a history and no doubt calls will come against him because of his reputation. I do believe there are times he is lunging in with his helmet and he needs to be more aware that he has to go in with his shoulder and wrap up. Frankly, basic tackling is a lost art in the NFL as more guys are looking to just hit and knock the other guy down without wrapping up.
I just find it interesting how the NFL is trying to balance safety with inherent violence of the game. Guys are getting bigger, faster, and stronger and there are reactionary plays that happen in the game and guys are taking penalties for it.
2 comments:
Violent hits to the head are a part of the game just like holding, facemask yanks, and false starts. I think the penaltys are just a deterrent like all the other penalties. They dont want guys hitting people helmet to helmet on every play and the only way to stop it from happening on every play is to penalize for it. Same with holding. Its going to happen but penalties deter it.
What i got from Meriwethers comments was that hes not willing to learn to tackle the right way like 99 percent of other defensive players in the league do. Instead he implies its fine to break knees instead of learning to tackle. How about trying to learn to tackle instead of head hunting or breaking knees. I think hes taken too many shots to his head. His comments were some of the dumbest ive ever heard from an nfl player.
I don't think Meriweather is head hunting intentionally. I do believe he believes he is tackling the right way. However, he has had some helmet to helment hits this season. It's always easy to criticize and when you see plays in slow motion, as fans, we sometimes wonder what a player was thinking but if you can try and put yourself out on the field and understand how fast the game is moving and how these guys are trying to make a play, it's understandable that there are some reactionary plays that will result in illegal hits.
As far as Meriweather's comments, reading them without any context, they sound pretty dumb. However, I don't believe for a second the guy intends to break knees and end careers. He was emotional and was trying to make a point that tackling up high has been taken away from the league. Ryan Clark, who I think is one of the more respected guys in the league, helped clarify Meriweather's comments. He said, "Obviously the position that he's (Meriweather) in makes him sound angry, makes it sounds a little more cruel than it truly is," Clark said of Meriweather's comments. "But what he's saying is extremely true or has a lot of fact to in the sense that the one place we know we can hit guys and you won't get fined is extremely low.
"What he says makes a lot of sense to me. You just wish he was in a better position emotionally to where people can really understand it and really know that he's only saying he's trying to be as safe as possible as far as not getting fined, not getting suspended, not getting penalized."
Clark's explanation of Meriweather's comments are I'm sure what he intended. Frankly, it's much ado about nothing to me. The tough part is that as a result of his comments, Meriweather has only drawn more attention to himself and his play. Hopefully he will be able to go out and play his game and not worry that there will be extra scrutiny on himself.
Post a Comment