The Solution for Roughing the Passer

The first few weeks of the NFL season has been quite interesting to say the least. The new emphasis on protecting QB has gone from bad to worse and right about now, all QBs should have an asterisk next to their stats so decades from now fans will see that they really didn’t achieve some of the lofty passing totals.   Terry Bradshaw had one of the strongest arms in the history of the NFL. In fact, Terry almost went to the Olympics in the 1960’s and at one point held the High School record for the javelin throw. Despite this strength, Terry was not playing track and field once he crossed over the hash lines and knew he had to release the ball sooner or face a helmet to his face.   Today, an average noodle armed QB can stand in the face of a fierce pass rush and not worry about a hit because even if the pass is intercepted there will be a flag for “Roughing the Passer” or the defender will pull up and just give him a pat on the back.

The penalties called the last few weeks have been nothing short of shocking. Clay Matthews of the Packers has been putting on a text book clinic on how to tackle not just a QB but anyone else on the field. You use your shoulder, not your helmet, to hit the object and wrap your arms and drive to the ground. The NFL has said that you cannot come down with your body weight on top of the QB for fear of hurting her, I mean him. This does beg the question however, how in the world are you supposed to tackle? A perfect tackle late in the game against the Vikings that would have ended the game was called ‘roughing’ despite the fact that Matthews actually held out his left hand to cushion the fall.   The 15 yard penalty was used to keep the drive alive and suddenly a sure Packer win became a tie. Now what happens if Clay decides to wrap the QB up but instead of driving him to the ground, he instead dives to his left so the QB is whipped to the ground? The truth is a QB is always vulnerable and no matter how they try to protect, they will get hurt. Jimmy Garappolo destroyed his knee in a non-contact injury on Sunday and now has a torn ACL. At some point the NFL has to decide on whether they want to play football or not and maybe Ace Ventura was on to something back in the 1990’s. The NFL should institute a new rule that requires all QB’s to wear a pink tutu that is held together by Velcro and is checked by the referees before the start of each series.   When a pass rusher likes Matthews or J.J. Watt comes rushing in, all they have to do is rip the tutu off and the play is over and is a sack from the place of the ripping off. This way the fierce pass rush is rewarded and NFL stars like Kirk Cousins and Alex Smith will not have to face a solid tackle. I would insist on the color pink so it coincides with breast cancer awareness month in the NFL which occurs for the whole month of October and perhaps switch to orange colors in November for Thanksgiving. Just to keep it festive, Green, Gold and Red tutu’s can be used for the month of December. Imagine Kirk Cousins in a red and green tutu, having it ripped off him in Lambeau field on a -15 degree night on December 20^th and Clay Matthews doing a dance while holding up the red and green tutu for the fans to rejoice. Cheese heads, Christmas and Tutus!   Merry Christmas America!

As somebody who played football for many of my formative years and all through high school, I can tell you first hand that my coaches would have been showing Clay Matthews last few sacks and imploring the rest of the team to tackle in this same exact manner. It literally has become a joke watching perfect form tackles turn into game changing penalties. Since the NFL doesn’t want to change this policy, go to my tutu idea or maybe some flags hanging out the side belt.

-BSB