Joe Flacco joins in criticism of too many soft roughing-the-passer penalties
You know the NFL may have gone too far protecting quarterbacks when the quarterbacks themselves disagree with the rules.
Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers complained about the rules. He said he didn’t think the controversial penalty on Packers linebacker Clay Matthews last Sunday should have been called, which isn’t surprising. That’s Rodgers’ teammate. But Rodgers said he didn’t think the hit he took from Vikings linebacker Eric Kendricks in the same game should have been a penalty either, and he was surprised there was a flag.
“I’m a traditionalist,” Rodgers said. “I’ve watched the game and loved the game for a long time. And some of the rules, I think help. Some of the rules are maybe going the wrong direction. They’re trying to think about the progress of the game and the safety and stuff.
“But it’s still a collision sport, and those to me are not penalties.”
Rodgers isn’t the only quarterback feeling that way. Baltimore Ravens quarterback Joe Flacco thinks the rules have gone too far, as well.
Joe Flacco thinks football is meant to be violent
Flacco said he didn’t agree with the penalties that changed the game or the fines, which are often a small fortune.
Mostly Flacco sounded like he just didn’t think football is meant to be played the way we’ve seen, with the soft roughing-the-passer calls.
“It’s a violent sport. It’s meant to be that way,” Flacco said, via ESPN’s Jamison Hensley. “I definitely have feelings for those guys over there because not only are they penalizing people and affecting outcomes of games but they’re also taking paychecks away from people and they’re acting like it’s no big deal. But it is a big deal. That’s a lot of money for anybody. So, there’s a lot of issues with it, I think.”
Maybe the suggestion that quarterbacks should wear flags touched a nerve. Quarterbacks are often among the biggest players on the field, and they want to be treated like football players.
QBs not even agreeing with QB protection rules
The call on Matthews clearly changed the result of Packers-Vikings, and it has been a hot topic all week. Kirk Cousins, who was hit by Matthews, didn’t even seem to fully agree with the call.
“I’m sure it was probably a generous call, and two or three years ago, it probably doesn’t get flagged,” Cousins said, according to 247Sports.com.
There’s probably a happy medium somewhere, like the helmet rule controversy in the preseason. There was outrage — there’s always outrage about something among NFL fans and observers — and the calls were scaled way back as the preseason went on. The same could happen with roughing the passer.
The NFL is in a tough spot. They need to promote player safety, but it’s more than that with quarterbacks. We don’t want to see Brett Hundley and Tom Savage playing late season games. So they added rules to help quarterbacks. As it turns out, not all quarterbacks want so much help.
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Frank Schwab is a writer for Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at shutdown.corner@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!
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