'Twas Neither "Rough" Nor, "Un-Necessary"

In football, there is a penalty for something called "Un-necessary Roughness."

The penalty was created to help round off the edges of an already savage game. Football, even back in the olden days, was plenty "rough" enough when played within the boundaries of the rules.

Therefore, if a referee saw somebody applying "un-necessary" amounts of roughness, it would be deemed a penalty.

Okay, then.

The Davonte David hit that essentially and undeservedly GAVE the game to a Jets, was clearly NOT "un-necessary roughness". The "hit" or "tap" if you will, was a split second after Geno Smith had veered out of bounds, David was running full speed from half way across the field, and one never knows if a QB is going to play the "tip toe" game for an extra few yards down the sideline.

An extra few yards that, it must be noted, might be the critical yards in turning an un-makable under any circumstances 66 yard field goal, into a "you've at least got a shot!" 59 yarder.

Yet we ignore the actual WORDS which were created and used for very specific reasons in the game of football and the rules themselves.

Now, you wan't "un-necessary" roughness? Clay Matthews on Colin Kaepernick. While's that pic is a great poster for a kid's bedroom wall - mighty #52 flying through the air, golden locks flowing - it was an idiot's play. A sure penalty. Chance for injury on your own, but I suppose something that Clay thought was "necessary" in order to send a "message" about not backing down from the Niners.

I am also starting to re-think the entire premise of QB's getting "slide" protection anywhere on the field.  It remains a very "bang-bang" play, with lots of shades of gray.

Saints S (rookie) Kenny Vaccaro delivered a "slide stopper" hit to Atlanta's Matt Ryan. You can see the GIF here. (I am opting not to embed them in these posts, as per many people's gripes about what it does to page load times. Feeback: received.)

To me, it was a pretty clean hit. Vaccaro was going down almost as soon (or late, depending on how you want to look at it) as Ryan decided to slide. From there, gravity dictates the outcome. Vaccaro decidedly does NOT use his helmet as a weapon, and does not target Ryan's head.

Perhaps as long as the league would aggressively enforce the no spearing/no helmet hunting on these slides, then they wouldn't need to be so ticky-tack.

Maybe QB's should just worry about throwing the damn ball, and if they want to go out in space and get their Adrian Peterson on, then prepare to be tackled.

Period.

WATCH GENO SMITH PLAY HERE

WATCH COLIN KAEPERNICK PLAY HERE