That hit on Reggie was viciously awesome....and props to RB for getting up. Who on this board could have gotten up from that?
True. That happened on about the third play of the game, and he ended up having a decent night. Course, Deuce had his career game and overshadowed him.
Or maybe a finite period playing one man down, like a power play in NHL? Malicious hit penalty = 2 minutes without position, and player is ejected from game
It's interesting how some running backs lower their head to deliver a blow to the defender, with no penalty. Of course, some RB's have been getting away with stiff arming potential tacklers in the facemask for years....also without penalty.
Doesn't it seem odd that they keep making safer helmets, but incidents of concussion's have risen (I understand that many concussions use to go undiagnosed). A radical fix to the problem would be to remove the face masks from the helmets. Players wouldn't lead with their head's anymore. Of course, this would never happen. But maybe they could tweak the facemask to leave them a little more exposed. Maybe we should combine the ideas and....instead of having someone sit out if they make a malicious hit, they would have to take off their facemask for the remainder of the game. That'll fix their wagon! Signed, Member of fantasyland.
A certain number of plays would be better. Two minutes in football can be three plays, or 10, depending on the offense's tempo.
That's never been a penalty, unless they grab the facemask. I've seen that flagged many times. Good point about RB's lowering the head, though.
Well, I don't think that a LB is considered "defenseless" if a RB is running right at them. The LB is almost always "prepared" to make a tackle. This is about the rare case of the defenseless player who gets nailed maliciously by a rogue player, or stomped on, or something along those lines. In my mind - its a way to rid the league of the players who are on the borderline between living in our society and living in jail. Fines won't get it, but accountability to your teammates will.