I know it wasn't helmet to helmet, but that hit to me was worse than a lot of helmet to helmet shots. A lot of time those helmet to helmet shots are accidental, or incidental and are the result of "wrong place wrong time" type situations where the receiver turns, or lowers his head, etc. right as the defender is launching. This was a clear head shot by Pollard and is significantly more dangerous to me than some of the hits that get flagged in the league. That is a head hunting hit and SHOULD be outlawed. Trying to hit a guy in the head to rattle his brain so that he will drop the ball is the EXACT move that needs to be done away with as it results in head injury.
When a receiver is "under control," going down in another tackle, I don't think another player should take a "free shot." That is very dangerous. Hitting a defenseless player is cowardly. Glad he was fined.
You don't hit them to hurt them, you hit them so they drop the ball. That's how the game used to be played anyways.
He launched himself into Andre's helmet. It might not have been helmet to helmet, but it certainly wasn't clean.
Your telling me that Pollard adjusted mid flight to Andre's downward fall just to go for Andre's head? Pollard is one hell of a calculator.
He didn't have to adjust for anything. As Andre came down, he launched himself. He didn't care where he was going to hit, but in that situation, chances are you're going to end up making contact above the shoulders. It was a textbook "targeting" hit, and the refs flat out missed it. The fact that there was no penalty, yet he's still getting fined $42,000 (as opposed to nothing, or even $10,000) should tell you that the League wasn't pleased with Pollard. Frankly, I don't even see how it's a debate. It was about as cut and dry as the Kareem Jackson hit earlier in the game.
Not sure it was a dirty hit or not but there are ways to "target" an area of the body once you're off your feet and unloading on a guy. Come on dude you should know this from, at least, your futbol playing days if you didn't happen play football when you were younger.
Definitely iffy, but I think this was more predicated on Pollard's reputation and the fact that Andre had a concussion. The NFL is definitely softer, but if that means these players can live longer and healthier lives, so be it. That is a price EVERYONE should be willing to pay. At least the NFL doesn't have that egregious targeting penalty in the college football. Edit: You know, it looks a lot worse than I thought. Pollard seems to launch clearly after Andre is on his way down (watch from 6:38) <iframe width="480" height="360" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/OAhLn_QR2t4?rel=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
I agree that a huge part of the fine is the fact that a concussion was sustained as a result of the hit.
When you slide tackle its a gamble just like tackling a guy in the air. You lunge for a tackle because its just faster than running at the target. Pollard did that clean shoulder first and extended with his forearm.
After watching the replay a few times. Pollard didn't leave his feet until Andre already had 1 foot down.
Looks clean to me, though not surprised by NFL's response (other than the amount being so high). I can remember a similar hit by Pollard when I was at the Ravens-Jaguars game 2 years ago. <iframe width="560" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/PZNZkdvxGmQ" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> He got fined for that one too.
That just seems like a normal NFL hit. It didn't even seem that vicious. I think the only reason he got the fine was the concussion.
? Most hits today don't hit a player in the head. If you hit the defenseless guy in the head, you get fined. Concussion or no concussion.
If Pollard launched his shoulder pads at the ball instead of AJ80's helmet, he might have had a better chance of getting an incompletion. Just shows you where Pollard's priorities are. He would rather put the hurt on than win the game.
I hate seeing that players nowadays want to just HIT instead of wrapping up and tackling. It causes them to have a reason to try to hurt the other player instead of getting them down for the purpose of ending the play. I wished they would still wrap up. I've seen many of our DB's just try to strip a ball or hit instead of tackling properly which costs us scores and yards. *cough*KareemJackson*cough*
