New "TOUCH FOOTBALL" NFL rules!

[ChicagoRed]

Saturdays game was proof, to me, that the league is really going overboard with it's new player protection rules. The roughing call against Toler (I think it was him) on the sideline against a breakout run play was a perfect example of 21st century football in the eyes of the NFL. The runner was hugging the sideline and our defender didn't know if he was going to go out of bounds or not. Toler didn't give him a rough, violant hit. Toler basically forcefully BUMPED him out of bounds. The tough hit against Early Doucet was a clean hit and, IMO, was not a penalty. Doucet didn't have a tight enough chin strap and his helmet flew off. So what---that's football. Is every WR now going to loosen his chin strap and have his helmet fly off when he takes a good, clean hit, causing a flag??? These type of calls are purely subjective! Every official will judge these penalties at their own descression. How on earth can a player try to figure out in a split second what will be voilant or "within the rules". Come on-----if we want to watch flag football, we can go to almost any public park on a Saturday afternoon and see them play. I'm all for calling flagrant hits (example--Boldin) but the out of bounds bump.......give me a break!!

[Cardinal Nation]

Preaching to the choir buddy. I hate seeing injuries as much as the next man, but every man that steps onto that football field knows that he is involved in a collision sport. If a player hits another player in a way that is designed to cause injury (e.g. helmet to helmet) then flag him to death. But if a blitzing player gets flagged for 'not cradling the QB, or landing on top of him with his full weight' (direct quote), then that is going to get my goat every time.

[UNOPrivateer85]

theres no room for cheap shots, but if it is a clean hit, i WANT to see the tackler come as hard as possible. every person on teh field, as mentioned above, knows the dangers. when they are telling people essentially to "ease up" they are hurting the game, players abilities, and even in some cases increasing the chance to be injured. great defensive hitters have that "i want to hurt u when i hit u" mentality, but keep within the rules. im the nicest guy you can meet, but on the football field, i would want to it to hurt to be hit by me. then in cases such as out of bounds and sliding, that gives the offensive player a huge advantage. defensive players now second guess if they should "let up" on the hit, and thats how you get hurt. when you dont go full speed, full-force and the other man is, youre likely to get hurt.

[Superfuzz]

I was angry because Toler's hit was totally clean. He was flying full speed towards Sproles when he sidestepped to the sideline while Toler the human missile was airborne, about a foot (maybe less) from Sproles' body.

So was it an out-of-bounds hit? Yeah, by about an inch and a few milliseconds.

There was literally no way given the laws of Physics that Toler could have stopped. Sproles only sidestepped after he saw Toler already inches from him at tilt, he was still gobbling up yardage, not making his way for the sideline when Toler was coming at him.


And I can see why the Doucet hit initially drew a flag, but refs pick up flags all the time, and that should have been one of those times. Clean hit.

[House~of~Cards]

I agree with everything posted here. I am more on the side of the realization that this is a contact sport, injuries will happen, players have to keep their head on a swivel and protect themselves.

I was discussing this same thing with buddies at work and the comment was made, "its preseason, refs are trying to send a message". Well if thats true, one message I got was that Harrison is still going to be allowed to continue his BS like last year and as we saw in the SB.

The hit he put on Leinart in the preseason game should have been flagged and should be a training aid to refs as what to look for to call roughing the passer, or unsportsmanlike conduct. He did 3 things "wrong" there IMO.
He continued the hit after the ball was gone.
He went "Greco Roman" on him for the take down.
He left his feet and drove all his weight in Leinart.
I was pissed after I saw that. And happy that Leinart nutted up and looked pretty decent on the next drive.