Love-tapping the passer

[dgan]

Whenever faced with such an argument neither side can win, I like to look at the extremes:

A. We could make no rules, and just let them kill each other.

B. We could just take away the sack, and the play can basically go on forever as long as the QB is hanging on to the ball. He can't be hit until he runs past the line of scrimmage.

Obviously, both of these are ludicrous. The question then becomes, how far in each direction do we go with the rule? QBs have to be tackled, sacked, hit, and in all other ways FORCED TO PLAY FOOTBALL. That said, I have no problem preventing 'cheap shots' or players 'intending to harm' the QB.

This is why, to me, it is very simple. Take away all the written rules about how not to hit a QB, and just call it unnecessary roughness and leave it in the ref's hands. I don't trust refs any more than you do, but anything is better than what we are seeing now.

And for those that argue that QB is the most important position and gets hurt the most, think of this -- how many QBs does an NFL team have? How many does a college team have? It's funny, you can lose 3 RBs and still throw someone in there, or 5 CBs and still have someone who played in college. You lose 1 QB and your stuck with Gradkowski?!?

It's not that they are hurt more, just that less QBs are developed in football than any other position. College only prepares a handful, and most of those can't play at the NFL level anyway. It is not because they are hurt more often, but that there are fewer of them to go around.

There is something called 'a running game' and 'pass protection'. If teams are that concerned about their QB, maybe they should invest in the rest of their team first instead of drafting Carr and Smith to get thumped every single game because their team sucks.

The league shouldn't referree a team's bad philosophy or management...only the play on the field. The teams should adjust to the rules, not the other way around.

[Free Bagel]

You guys realize that the QB is the only position on the field that is basiclly standing still on half of the plays? Not even mentioned the blind-side hits. And the fact that they touch the ball on virtually every offensive play.

Show me some numbers on QBs being hurt more often, or more seriously than other positions and maybe I'll buy this. As it is though, QB was already one of the positions that was injured least often and least seriously.

I might look it up, but I'm pretty sure QB is one of the most injured positions. And they have a short average career span compared to other players. Brett Favre is an exception.

Wha? I can think of two injured starting QBs right now in the NFL out of the 32 teams and that's Chris Simms and Trent Green. You could maybe throw Culpepper and Brooks in there, but those are benchings under the guise of injury. I believe there are 4 starting QBs even on the injury report (counting Culpepper and Brooks), far less than any of the other skill positions. QBs have exceptionally long careers compared to the other skill postions assuming they're good enough to hold down their jobs.

I can think of one major QB injury that recently happened to a QB when standing in the pocket in that "vulnerable" position and that was Carson Palmer. Culpepper, Vick, Mcnabb, all had season ending injuries as running QBs, not guys that got hit in the pocket in the "vulnerable" position. Heck, even Bledsoe's major injury came when he was running.

Guys get stuck with major injuries all the time downfield jumping for a ball, or diving for a first down, or getting hit in the knee while running....far, far, faaaaaaaaaar more often than you see a guy get a major injury while standing in the pocket.

[jruiss01]

This argument will never be won. There are different types of fans in the NFL. And different players affect them in different ways. I bet Colts fans like these stricter rules because Peyton has less of a risk of getting hurt.

Also there are fans who like to see scoring and shoot outs. There are fans that like to see old fashioned smash mouth football. Fans come in a variety of personalties. That what makes sports so special.

I think that sometimes professional sports take things too far and forget about the actual game. I think this crackdown is too strict and unfair. If you are a Ravens or Bears fan, I'm sure watching those defenses blind side a QB is a lot of fun. I'm not trying to b barbaric, but our primal instincts or whatever you want to call it, like to see that happen. The reality is QBs don't get injured a lot, but when they do they are in the spot light. We've all heard that saying defense wins games, but offense gets the glory. That is the way it goes.

To be honest I think some QBs are prima madonnas and need to be leveled just to remind them of what sport they are playing. But that's just me.