God forbid Roy Williams tackle Terrell Owens

[maddog60]

Take a look at this picture of Musa Smith being tackled. Should that play be illegal or not? Could Roy have simply wrapped the waist and brought the man down? How would eliminating tackles like this change the game into flag football?

Doesnt look like he could have tackled him by the waist. I mean he's falling down, and obviously not in complete control of his body.

If anything in that picture it looks like Roy's leg, not his hold on Musa's shoulder pads is what would cause Musa' leg to break. And that kind of stuff happens in the NFL, part of someone's leg getting accidently pinned under someone else and breaking. It's unfortunately a risk that comes with the game.

[cooleyhigh]

The point isn't that Williams resorts to dirty tackling, it is that he isn't that good and finds himself in bad positions all the time to do it.

Consecutive Pro Bowls, you are right he sucks

[steelyeri]

Take a look at this picture of Musa Smith being tackled. Should that play be illegal or not? Could Roy have simply wrapped the waist and brought the man down? How would eliminating tackles like this change the game into flag football?

Doesnt look like he could have tackled him by the waist. I mean he's falling down, and obviously not in complete control of his body.

If anything in that picture it looks like Roy's leg, not his hold on Musa's shoulder pads is what would cause Musa' leg to break. And that kind of stuff happens in the NFL, part of someone's leg getting accidently pinned under someone else and breaking. It's unfortunately a risk that comes with the game.

He's not falling down. That's the way that he does it. He grabs a hold of the pad's and jumps up in the air. I don't think he should be allowed to leave his feet when does that type of tackle. It injures someone every time. Football is a violent sport but it is also a very safe one considering all the contact. It is the league's responsability to keep the leage fair and safe.

[proKrastinate]

I hadn't read this post until today, however, figuring something that garnished so much attention from everyone else deserved my own. I don't feel like going back and quoting everyones name on specific topics, but you will know who you are.

Sample size - just because anyone breaks 4 legs in a season doesn't necessarily mean that this event is common. More astronomical events occur in succession all the time. I chose not to list any, but I am sure that you can produce some of them yourself. Much work is needed to produce statistically sound measurements to determine if this tackling technique injures players more often than tackling someone should. As mentioned before, much more statistical analysis must be done outside of this tackle alone, and how often injuries are produced.

The picture of Musa being tackled doesn't accuractly show the situation. Without the video, we cannot conclude whether or not Roy had any other option to tackle Musa. We can't tell if he was truely falling down himself, while tackling Musa, or whether he grabbed a hold of Musa's collar and used his own body weight to drag Musa down. I didn't see the game, so I have no idea as to how the situation played out. Yet, you can still put all of your weight done upon someone with a collar tackle and still techniqually not leave your feet.

I have no evidence that this tackle does or doesn't produce a large amount of injuries. If the NFL reviews hundreds-thousands of game footage, and concludes that this tackle does produce more injuries, on a much greater percentage than any other tackle that can occur, than I would have to agree upon is banning. I can't see why anyone would disagree, however, that if this tackle produced an equal or lesser amount of injuries as any other legal tackle, that it should remain legalized.

Further, I don't see how the NFL can legalize a tackle by pulling someones hair (which they have already discussed and ruled legal I believe), which is located in the same vicinity as the collar, and then ban a collar tackle. It would be as if there were a double standard. Although I truely believe the NFL is not biased in its rulings toward any player, I would seem to me that ruling this tackle illegal would be going back on a preivous ruling of pulling someones hair in an effort to bring them down. Perhaps the only possibility could be that the collar of the shouldpads are a determined uniform requirement, where as having long hair is not.

[MCG321]

Well, referring to the legal hair tackles, the players make a choice to have their hair flowing from their helmet. They have the ability to cut it and then won't have to worry about getting tackled by the hair...the players can't really do anything to change collar tackles.

[UNDEFEATED]

I said this earlier, If you can pull someones hair(edge and Ricky) to bring him down why can't your horse collar him?

[Azrael]

All I know is his leg ain't supposed to bend where it's bending. OUCH!

[Fern]

Everythings pretty much been said but ill add abit. I personally don’t think the tackle should be illegal but if he does in fact jump up after he does it, and from the picture you can see that his leg is right where the break is, that’s not good. Pulling a guy down from behind is one thing but jumping up and landing on the back of the guys leg is another (from the pic looks like it was intentional too, although that is speculation). If that’s how he does his tackle, especially the ones that lead to the injuries, then something should be done. And as far as the sample size, sure it’s very small, but when it involves the same person and 4 occurrences there is definitely an issue, at least with how that particular player is making the tackle.

Tough situation, I don’t think you can ban the particular tackle because of it though.

[MCG321]

Well, since the NFL wants to penalize that play, I'm sure they've researched the whole league (or started too) and see who else was hurt by these tackles used by various players, not just Roy Williams. But if Roy hurt 4 people with it, I'm sure some other players have been hurt by other defensive players. I'm just not sure where to get a hold of information like that. Probably would need game tapes and such.

I think this post is interesting in a way that you didn't even mean for it to be. Everyone remembers if a Cowboy hurts an Eagle, but no one else remembers any other injuries.

I would have trouble enjoying the game of football if I was this paranoid about the league's love for the Eagles and hatred for Cowboys. I mean, you even spent your Super Bowl writing down calls in Philly's favor. Do you really enjoy watching games like that?

And how 'bout a conspiracy theory about the Eagles getting 4 compensatory draft picks? Should we expect to hear something from you soon?

[eaglesrule]

well, bag is clearly foolish in his zeal to make it like the eagles get an unfair advantage.

Of course he never admits that sometimes, getting calls is a result of your skill.

I am sure a lot of teams jump offsides when they see kearse lined up ina weird spot or you get exotic looks. It is a function of your skill when other teams get nervous and commit penalties.

As for the pictures, he isn't "falling down" he grabs first, than yanks/falls down.