Players and their ridiculous excuses for illegal hits

[Joker]

It could have been worse...it COULD have been Pollard again...

 

[PlainOldEd]

IMO it wasn't dirty. If it was 4-5 inches higher it would have been squarely in the middle of his thigh, and at high speed I don't think you can fault a guy for missing a moving target by 4-5 inches.

 

[ripatsfan91]

At this point, there are two things the nfl can do.

1. Make a "strike zone" on a defense-less receiver from maybe an inch or two above the knee to the neck. All of the big injuries :Gronk, Keller, Cobb have been on receivers who didnt even see the hit coming. Gronk didnt even have a chance to protect himself from that low hit.

2. Take away the helmet or seriously limit the amount of padding that the helmet provides.

It was a legal hit. But I didnt like it; he went so low that the epicenter of the hit was at the knee. He could have tried to wrap up the ankles or gone a little bit higher. Imagine if that hit was on a WR like AJ Green; his lanky legs would not be able to hold up to that kinda hit. I think it would have been a career ender.

 

[Jangles]

That is just being negligent and launching yourself at a guys knees instead of wrapping up. "B-b-b-b-but tackling Gronk is hard!" He's a football player, toughen the **** up.[/QUOTE]

Does this thought of yours not apply in favor of Ward too?

Gronk is a football player, and injuries happen. Instead of feeling anger towards Ward, perhaps you should just toughen the **** up.

 

[NSPF]

Does this thought of yours not apply in favor of Ward too?

Gronk is a football player, and injuries happen. Instead of feeling anger towards Ward, perhaps you should just toughen the **** up.

Are you an idiot? You don't toughen the **** up out of some douche tearing your ACL.

 

[Deus Irae]

Does this thought of yours not apply in favor of Ward too?

Gronk is a football player, and injuries happen. Instead of feeling anger towards Ward, perhaps you should just toughen the **** up.

Are you an idiot? You don't toughen the **** up out of some douche tearing your ACL.

Reading comprehension fail

 

[NSPF]

Reading comprehension fail

I read it just fine, but I decided that telling ME to "toughen the **** up" was such an inane statement that it wasn't possibly what he meant. I guess stand corrected, but what the hell do I have to do with anything? My toughness is not relevant to the conversation in the slightest.

 

[Bobs My Uncle]

Back in the day a shot like this to a players knees would have meant serious payback. But the league no longer allows players to settle things out on the field anymore. They've turned most of these guys into pansies.

That he gave his fear of being fined as an excuse for going for Gronks knees is sickening. And if his reason might have been that Gronk outweighed by 70#, Too ****** Bad. Work out more and add some beef to that body and man up to the job. If that don't work then sit down and let a guy better suited to the job try his hand at tackling Gronk properly.

 

[ripatsfan91]

After seeing BB's death stare directed at Ward, wouldn't be surprised if he told Logan Ryan to target Gordon's knees later in the game

 

[Observer]

If you think this should be legal, you have probably taken a few too many hits to the head. Seriously, hits to the side of the knee like that should be banned, no question. Going low from the front is one thing, you won't bend their knee 30 degrees in the wrong direction from the front. However, going in from the side like that should absolutely be illegal, because it's dangerous. Football is a violent game, but THIS:

Is not violence. It is ending someone's career. And don't tell me it's because of the concussion rules, there is no way he would have Gronk's head in that situation, he's probably not even tall enough. That is just being negligent and launching yourself at a guys knees instead of wrapping up. "B-b-b-b-but tackling Gronk is hard!" He's a football player, toughen the **** up.

Well said. I think you are being soft on him by saying he was being negligent, he was malicious.

 

[Hael]

I don't think it was malicious, rather it was the case that you can't possibly control whether you hit him a few centimeters low, as opposed to a few centimeters high at those speesd.

Look, as a football player you are traditionally instructed to take out big guys via their legs. You aim for their thighs/knees as opposed to their hips/waist, b/c you typically bounce off a big guy's torso if you are significantly smaller.

Here the defender probably made contact a few inches lower than he would have liked (even if his intent was only to tackle rather than to injure), b/c Gronk could have vaulted him if he had timed it right. It so happened that it was at a really bad angle for the knee, but well that's football. It's just bad luck that Gronk happened to be planting right as contact was made.

 

[UK_Pat37]

This is just ridiculous.

T.J. Ward says that he may have been fined if he hit Rob Gronkowski up high | masslive.com

Basically Ward admits to going at Gronk's knees because he was afraid of getting fined for tackling Gronk "high". Last I looked, Gronk is damn near 6'7 and he's got a pretty big torso.

Contrary to what others have said, it's plain as day that Ward went at Gronk's knees. There were 2 other players there. Had Ward hit Gronk at the waist and wrapped up, Gronk was getting taken down by the other two. Plain and simple.

This excuse that he had to go at another player's knees is BS and is going to cost someone their career..

Firstly, t wasn't an illegal hit? So what is your title whining about?

Sorry but I'm getting tired of the TJ Ward bashing here. You weren't complaining when we went low on Josh Gordon were you? I bet you failed to even notice it. Heck, would you have even complained about the hit if Gronkowski got up? I doubt it somehow.

You're only crying...yes crying...because on one of the MANY occasions Gronk has been taken low he got a freak injury that could have happened to anyone. Go over all of his career games and see how many players have attempted to go low on him...it happens a lot to him and many of the larger players in the league.

Going low is part of this sport.

The only thing I'm going to criticise Ward on his making up an excuse for the simple fact he's scared of what people are saying. He shouldn't be. The hit was fine. He wasn't going out to injure Gronkowski and I'm sure he feels terrible about it. No one truly sets out to injure people.

The reason he went low...and he knows it...is purely because it is the most effective way to take down a player of Gronk's size...he has 65lbs and 8" over Ward. I'd have done the same thing and, if you were a player, you'd be stupid to not to.

Taking Gronkowski much higher than the knees is ineffective for a player of Ward's size against the likes of Gronkowski.

 

[supafly]

As Matt Chatham said today, "dirty" or "illegal" are terms that don't apply here.

"Illegal" or "dirty" is when you poke a player in the eyes on purpose, attempt to trip him, kick him in the groin, or even possibly leave your feet to jump and throw yourself at the helmet/head area to spear.

This was a case of a legal hit, and simply a dangerous and unfortunate situation. Hopefully they can re-establish the target area to be from the numbers down to the thighs instead, but even then defensive players are going to complain and say that they are too picky.

It was interesting to see Josh Gordon take the same exact hit and get up just fine, as Gronk too has done many times himself.

 

[RayClay]

Then having played rugby and tackled guys much bigger than myself, I would say you were taught very badly. Firstly you can't rely on other players to to "finish him off" and secondly, a player can be 5'0 or 6'11", if he doesn't have his legs under him, he's not going anywhere.

the difference is there;s very little"tackling" from safeties in the NFL. Thanks to the heavy, hard shell missiles on their heads, any 200 pounder will stick his head infront of a huge galloping player without fear. The helmet trumps any size player and any body part.

 

[PatsFan2]

Firstly, t wasn't an illegal hit? So what is your title whining about?

Sorry but I'm getting tired of the TJ Ward bashing here. You weren't complaining when we went low on Josh Gordon were you? I bet you failed to even notice it. Heck, would you have even complained about the hit if Gronkowski got up? I doubt it somehow.

You're only crying...yes crying...because on one of the MANY occasions Gronk has been taken low he got a freak injury that could have happened to anyone. Go over all of his career games and see how many players have attempted to go low on him...it happens a lot to him and many of the larger players in the league.

Going low is part of this sport.

The only thing I'm going to criticise Ward on his making up an excuse for the simple fact he's scared of what people are saying. He shouldn't be. The hit was fine. He wasn't going out to injure Gronkowski and I'm sure he feels terrible about it. No one truly sets out to injure people.

The reason he went low...and he knows it...is purely because it is the most effective way to take down a player of Gronk's size...he has 65lbs and 8" over Ward. I'd have done the same thing and, if you were a player, you'd be stupid to not to.

Taking Gronkowski much higher than the knees is ineffective for a player of Ward's size against the likes of Gronkowski.

Voice of reason.:rocker:

 

[Kontradiction]

the difference is there;s very little"tackling" from safeties in the NFL. Thanks to the heavy, hard shell missiles on their heads, any 200 pounder will stick his head infront of a huge galloping player without fear. The helmet trumps any size player and any body part.

Except the helmet came nowhere near the knee.

 

[TruthSeeker]

This is just ridiculous.

T.J. Ward says that he may have been fined if he hit Rob Gronkowski up high | masslive.com

Basically Ward admits to going at Gronk's knees because he was afraid of getting fined for tackling Gronk "high". Last I looked, Gronk is damn near 6'7 and he's got a pretty big torso.

Contrary to what others have said, it's plain as day that Ward went at Gronk's knees. There were 2 other players there. Had Ward hit Gronk at the waist and wrapped up, Gronk was getting taken down by the other two. Plain and simple.

This excuse that he had to go at another player's knees is BS and is going to cost someone their career..

Thanks for saying what I've been saying since the late 90's, and about 100 times lately, and 50 times since the Gronk injury. From the chest, down to the thighs is a HUGE tackle radius, especially for someone like Gronk. ALSO, if he had wrapped up, even down low where he went, it's quite possible the knee doesn't get hurt. Because he went for the knee with his helmet, as well as a follow through with his shoulder pads, it's like a missile right to the knee. His follow through is like a batter's follow through, which is more violent, wrapping up is like a checked swing in baseball, which cause less power to the target. BUT, some morons will say it was a text book hit and where else should he tackle. A textbook tackle is wrapping up around the thighs or waist, PERIOD.

 

[TruthSeeker]

Firstly, t wasn't an illegal hit? So what is your title whining about?

Sorry but I'm getting tired of the TJ Ward bashing here. You weren't complaining when we went low on Josh Gordon were you? I bet you failed to even notice it. Heck, would you have even complained about the hit if Gronkowski got up? I doubt it somehow.

You're only crying...yes crying...because on one of the MANY occasions Gronk has been taken low he got a freak injury that could have happened to anyone. Go over all of his career games and see how many players have attempted to go low on him...it happens a lot to him and many of the larger players in the league.

Going low is part of this sport.

The only thing I'm going to criticise Ward on his making up an excuse for the simple fact he's scared of what people are saying. He shouldn't be. The hit was fine. He wasn't going out to injure Gronkowski and I'm sure he feels terrible about it. No one truly sets out to injure people.

The reason he went low...and he knows it...is purely because it is the most effective way to take down a player of Gronk's size...he has 65lbs and 8" over Ward. I'd have done the same thing and, if you were a player, you'd be stupid to not to.

Taking Gronkowski much higher than the knees is ineffective for a player of Ward's size against the likes of Gronkowski.

UK, I respect your opinion, but I'm going to disagree with most of your thread. Football players have been taught for their whole careers how to tackle, from Pop Warner ball and up. Unfortunately, the fundamentals of tackling has been lost, and most people go for the BIG hit to get seen on TV and get noticed. The mantra that, "since we get fined for hitting high, we must hit low" is the biggest load of bull**** I've ever heard. The tackling radius on MOST ballcarriers is quite large (below the chest to the thighs is a big radius), a textbook tackle is done by bending the knees, having your head up, and thrusting your body forward, using your shoulders AND arms to WRAP UP either around the waist or around the thighs. Trust me, you do that, and I don't care if you're 6'7" 260 or bigger, the carrier is going down also. Ward used his comments as a cop out and as an excuse for his lack of talent as a tackler.

BUT, the fundamentals aren't being taught anymore. Because of that, the HIGH hit was created, as well as getting noticed by knocking out an opposing player. ESPN and media are partly to blame. They love showing knockout hits. Now that that is being taken away, the moron mongoloid players think that going low is the only answer. Sure the hit wasn't illegal, was it dirty ? Well, if you purposely throw yourself like a missile with your head AND shoulder pads at someones knees WITHOUT wrapping up, that's up for debate. BUT, most likely those tackles will blow peoples knees out (happened to the TE on Miami also). Ward is saying, "I didn't mean to hurt him", yet his actions caused it, if you didn't mean to hurt someone, aim your tackle higher and wrap up. It's like pointing a gun at someones knee, pulling the trigger, and saying, "I didn't mean to injure his knee". Aim your poor form tackle at someones knee while you are running full speed, most likely you're going to blow that person's knee out.

Also, tackling like Ward did will invariably cause a player to get paralyzed, it's only a matter of time. Poor tackling will cause this, that's why they are teaching the kids "heads up football". But Ward's head was down, and he should consider himself lucky. I will feel bad for the next player this happens to (getting paralyzed), because it will happen, like all the times it's happened since 1990, due to poor tackling.

They've outlawed blocking at the knees, they've outlawed hitting the QB's at the knee....kinda makes me think they should probably outlaw these knee tackles.

 

[Kontradiction]

Firstly, t wasn't an illegal hit? So what is your title whining about?

Sorry but I'm getting tired of the TJ Ward bashing here. You weren't complaining when we went low on Josh Gordon were you? I bet you failed to even notice it. Heck, would you have even complained about the hit if Gronkowski got up? I doubt it somehow.

You're only crying...yes crying...because on one of the MANY occasions Gronk has been taken low he got a freak injury that could have happened to anyone. Go over all of his career games and see how many players have attempted to go low on him...it happens a lot to him and many of the larger players in the league.

Going low is part of this sport.

The only thing I'm going to criticise Ward on his making up an excuse for the simple fact he's scared of what people are saying. He shouldn't be. The hit was fine. He wasn't going out to injure Gronkowski and I'm sure he feels terrible about it. No one truly sets out to injure people.

The reason he went low...and he knows it...is purely because it is the most effective way to take down a player of Gronk's size...he has 65lbs and 8" over Ward. I'd have done the same thing and, if you were a player, you'd be stupid to not to.

Taking Gronkowski much higher than the knees is ineffective for a player of Ward's size against the likes of Gronkowski.

This thread is simply what happens when people either have limited or no critical thinking skills and/or general knowledge of safety and corner play. DB's have been going low on bigger TE's and WR's since football was invented. Their job is to stop them from further forward progress and when they give up that much size to the ball carrier, going low is the most effective way to tackle him. We've all seen Gronk time and time again drag DB's for more yardage when they try to wrap up. In Ward's case, wrapping up wasn't an option at all. And you're right about the McCourty hit. Nobody was complaining about that in the game thread either, even though the hits were identical. He was wearing the right laundry.

 

[fnordcircle]

Another thread where a vocal segment are determining the morality of a player's actions based on what jersey the player was wearing.

edit:

He was wearing the right laundry.

Man, get out of my brain I didn't even read your comment before I posted mine.