Washington Redskins tight end Niles Paul lay motionless on FedEx Field late in the second quarter, his hands seemingly frozen in carbonite as refs ruled his brief grasp of the ball an incompletion and tossed flags signaling an illegal helmet-to-helmet hit on a defenseless receiver by two New York Giants safeties.
Inside of two minutes in Thursday night's game, the play fell under official replay review, and the call was reversed. Paul's two steps and a "football move" — in this case ducking his helmet and shoulders to absorb the hit from Antrel Rolle and Quintin Demps — gave young Niles a 28-yard reception.
Unfortunately, the catch also gave Paul a concussion that ruled him out for the remainder of the game.
Both the initial call and the reversal of it raise some interesting questions for the NFL's competition committee, the first of which Vikings safety Harrison Smith raised on Twitter in the aftermath of Paul's injury.
Good question, Harrison. When is a receiver no longer defenseless? Here's what the rulebook says.
"A receiver attempting to catch a pass; or who has completed a catch and has not had time to protect himself or has not clearly become a runner. If the receiver/runner is capable of avoiding or warding off the impending contact of an opponent, he is no longer a defenseless player."
So, was this actually an illegal hit? In one breath, Paul clearly had become the runner, and in another he did not have time to protect himself from the onslaught of two safeties at full speed. So, the legality of the collision is left up to interpretation, and officials doled out a 15-yard penalty for unsportsmanlike conduct, despite both safeties seemingly leading with their shoulders into where they figured Paul's would be — a scenario that many defensive backs complain forces them to aim for the knees.
Now, the question becomes: If a ball-carrier's natural instinct to ward off impending contact is to duck his head into said contact — absorbing a hit that could have just as easily been dubbed legal as opposed to illegal — what can the league do to further protect its players from further concussions?
from Yahoo Sports http://ift.tt/Yj10lO
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