How to stop cheap shots to the QB - New England Patriots Forums

Bill B. · 10-07-2009, 11:02 PM

Follow hockey's lead and use "enforcers" to retaliate. You hit a marquee player in hockey and you can expect a fight coming you way. Defensive players don't mind taking a cheap shot since they are on the giving end of violent hits. Just think if someone takes a shot at your QB, one of your offensive lineman can throw down the helmet (the equivalent to dropping the gloves as a signal to fight) and trading blows with a defensive lineman. If some of these defensive players knew some pain was coming their way they would think twice about a cheap shot. Third man in would be ejected. The ones who are complaining the most about the rules pritecting the QB are the guys on defense, who aren't in a position to be hit that much.

Before you all burn me for suggesting this, I am only kidding. It will never happen and wouldn't really work. But I bet a lot of you were thinking how cool it would be to see Logan Mankins or Sebastian Vollmer put a beatdown on Terrell Suggs or Ray Lewis.

***ALP*** · 10-07-2009, 11:30 PM

LOL

nice idea

and yea, i would like to see someone show up Ray lewis

but u do have a legit point....if an O-lineman starts to chop block, i expect d lineman all over the league will start talking about "protecting the player"

maybe some of these guys do need to be cheapshoted, just so they can shut the hell up

Snarf · 10-07-2009, 11:37 PM

How about we just give all quarterbacks flags?

Karnage · 10-08-2009, 12:16 AM

They could always take a new twist on the in the grasp rule...I call it "Line of Sight"...If a defender has open lane to the QB and closes to within 3 yards...as long as the quarterback can be seen by the defender the play is blown dead and it's a sack....how awesome would it be to hear that mic'd up..."BS ref that was a sack!! I was looking right at him! No way I couldn't see him from there!"

***ausbacker*** · 10-08-2009, 12:23 AM

How about we build an offensive line that allows no sacks, no quarterback hurries and no quarterback hits?

Karnage · 10-08-2009, 12:26 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ausbacker

How about we build an offensive line that allows no sacks, no quarterback hurries and no quarterback hits?

LOL...I think they have that...it's called Madden 10 on rookie mode...but in all fairness...what teams outside of Detroit and Oakland don't try? If it was that easy no team would even need a running back

Patspsycho · 10-08-2009, 01:40 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bill B.

Follow hockey's lead and use "enforcers" to retaliate. You hit a marquee player in hockey and you can expect a fight coming you way. Defensive players don't mind taking a cheap shot since they are on the giving end of violent hits. Just think if someone takes a shot at your QB, one of your offensive lineman can throw down the helmet (the equivalent to dropping the gloves as a signal to fight) and trading blows with a defensive lineman. If some of these defensive players knew some pain was coming their way they would think twice about a cheap shot. Third man in would be ejected. The ones who are complaining the most about the rules pritecting the QB are the guys on defense, who aren't in a position to be hit that much.

Before you all burn me for suggesting this, I am only kidding. It will never happen and wouldn't really work. But I bet a lot of you were thinking how cool it would be to see Logan Mankins or Sebastian Vollmer put a beatdown on Terrell Suggs or Ray Lewis.

We already did.

His name is Terdell Sands.

This guy whacked his own kicker.

***PatsFanSince74*** · 10-08-2009, 08:00 AM

Interesting thread. Here are my two cents as someone who will admit that he almost took the bait in the first post.

There's an inherent contradiction here.

American Football at its origins was a running game. Even the forward pass was unused until 1906 when it was employed by that football powerhouse, St. Louis University (some date it to 1895 at UNC). Interestingly enough, the Pass had been emphasized in the rules a year earlier to make the game safer after several players died in the college game (there's disagreement over whether it was part of the original 19th century rules, but it was at least a "point of emphasis" in 1906). The NFL didn't make it legal until sometime in the 1930's.

My point is simply that NFL Football is a very rough and dangerous game, as New England fans know all too well with our collective memory of Darryl Stingley. No one envisioned its becoming a multi-billion dollar Entertainment enterprise with its star power concentrated, primarily, in its Quarterbacks.

So, in a sense "the star QB who is to be protected at all costs" is a product of "Football as Entertainment" (which drives the big bucks the game commands) and is really an aberration; but, it is an aberration that drives much of the popularity of the league.

There's no easy resolution to this. Ray Lewis and Rodney Harrison (the latter in a joking manner) brought this again to the forefront this week.

The evolution of NFL Football into a game that is driven by a Peyton Manning or a Tom Brady really isn't consistent with the origins and essence of "football," but it's making a lot of people very rich and so the League is constantly going through hoops to keep the product on the field as close to its roots as possible while protecting the geese that lay those golden eggs.

tanked_as_usual · 10-08-2009, 08:52 AM

just eliminate all holding penalties (both offensive and defensive) and turn the game back into a man's game

sdaniels7114 · 10-08-2009, 08:56 AM

Why not just tweak the offensive holding rules a bit? The only way to completely protect QB's is to give them the red shirt treatment during the games. Since that would be awful, I'd say the next best thing is to give the OL more tools to keep the defense out.