Pollard extended his formarm/shoulder area into 'dre's helmet. That does not need to be in the game. Plus its obvious pollard was coming in for a kill shot to cause the incompletion but 'dre is too good and still made that catch.
Sorry it's a dirty hit. He launched himself and both feet left the ground. You can't do that anymore.
He didn't really hit him in the head (full on at least. He does make contact with it). Ground probably caused the concussion.
Seems like he was late arriving and instead of hitting AJ in the hands/chest, he got him in the head. Intent doesn't matter though. Dangerous plays result in injuries. Fine justified.
He has a rep. He caused injury (again). The NFL doesn't want to lose anymore lawsuits so you will get fined as a show that if long term injury happens to a player, they did everything they could to stop it.
Wait, there are actually people arguing that it was a clean hit? Sorry, did you see the same hit I did? He was already falling out of bounds with someone wrapping him up, and then Pollard LAUNCHES himself at Andre's upper body. Some people go to ridiculous lengths to be the contrarian.
holy hell some of you guys have no freaking clue what you're talking about. Yes it's nice to act all tough and b!tch about the "pussification" of football, but if that wasn't a dirty hit, I don't know what the hell is. Unless Andre was 9 feet tall, launching your body 5 feet into the air as the receiver is coming down will draw contact above the shoulders, specially coming from the side where the receiver can't see you and brace for contact. This is textbook targeting and there isn't really much room for debate here. Launching that high up into the air from the side on a normal sized human being is guaranteed to hit the head and neck, which weren't built to withstand blows of that magnitude. I'm all for hard hitting football, but "hard hitting" shouldn't be "life threatening". You can blow a guy up at the midsection and it would be a clean and legal hit, but you absolutely should not launch at the head and neck area.
What does falling out of bounds with someone wrapping him up have to do with this? He was trying to lay a hit that would cause a drop (and nearly did, great job by AJ to hold on). Not that long ago that would have been hailed as a great hit.
Yeah, and then we got data about how damaging those types of hits are, and the NFL has decided to protect its players (still not harshly enough, in my opinion). Grabbing someone with a horsecollar probably also has a higher probability of causing a drop, but the NFL doesn't allow it. Ridiculous.
The rules are the rules. How you feel about the rules is different but according to the rules it wasn't a clean hit. Face masks used to be legal, is that clean? Clothes lines, slaps to the head etc. How old school are you? 2003?
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He was too late to try and break up the catch so he LAUNCHES himself in a SPEARING fashion and TARGETS a players HEAD. LAUNCHING IS ILLEGAL...SPEARING IS ILLEGAL...TARGETING A PLAYERS HEAD IS ILLEGAL. Rules is rules. Great catch by Andre.
People are gonna have to get used to the fact that the NFL is getting rid of "hitting". If you launch yourself high, even shoulder level,you're gonna get fined and probably a penalty. You have to aim to tackle now, not launch yourself.
Launching yourself is only illegal if you lead with your helmet. They have made it hard to hit high, since you can get fined for any contact with the head it seems.
Doesn't matter, he blasted Dre in the head with his shoulder pads. It is illegal. Prohibited contact against a player who is in a defenseless posture is: (1) Forcibly hitting the defenseless player’s head or neck area with the helmet, facemask, forearm, or shoulder, regardless of whether the defensive player also uses his arms to tackle the defenseless player by encircling or grasping him; or (2) Lowering the head and making forcible contact with the top/crown or forehead/”hairline” parts of the helmet against any part of the defenseless player’s body; or (3) Illegally launching into a defenseless opponent. It is an illegal launch if a player (1) leaves both feet prior to contact to spring forward and upward into his opponent, and (2) uses any part of his helmet (including the top/crown and forehead/”hairline” parts) to initiate forcible contact against any part of his opponent’s body.
