Understanding Hard-Hitting Rules

[mlmdub130]

Originally Posted by FRPLG

He could have kept his head up and still hit him square in the face-mask with his face-mask. I am not sure what keeping his head up would have done to avoid the helmet to helmet hit. Putting his face forward wouldn't change the positioning of his head in general just what part of his head he hit him with. He lowered his shoulder and ducked his head and gets flagged for what? Getting his body into the proper position to make a good tackle? Seems crappy to me. It's unfortunate that Maclin got hit in the head but it was also unavoidable outside of completely changing the tackle positioning which presented competitive risk. The rule simply can't be so black and white... well I guess it can but it looks stupid and causes a load of other competitive issues that apparently the NFL doesn't really care about. They only care about perception of safety for some reason right now.

did you ever happen to play football? i only played a few years i highschool but the number one thing you are alway taught is to see what you hit, and thats not so you don't hurt the player you are hitting but so you don't hurt yourself. ducking your head down is not the proper way to tackle and it's not safe for either the receiver or the defender, it's a very easy was to get seriously injured