"Roy Williams Rule"
 

The NFL league meetings begin next week and one item expected to be on the agenda is the so called Horse Coller tackle that injured TO's leg. The NFL is expected to review whether or not this be made an illegal tackle. Do yall feel this tackle should be banned, or is the NFL wasting time when there are more pressing needs?

IMO, it should be banned. Roy Williams has hurt 4 players with this tackling technique, and it's the same style of tackle that injured Vick. And these are season ending injuries(except for JAmal Lewis, who Roy did it to and he was only out two games). It needs to go. It seems to be an easy way out for defenders to bring guys down. With the injury rate, it's as bad as facemasking, which is now illegal thankfully. Even if they don't make it illegal, it definitely needed to be looked at.

They can eliminate this right after they eliminate chop blocking by o-lineman.

Sure you can go ahead and say that they should ban this kind of tackle, but honestly, when a guy is trying as hard as he can to catch a guy from behind, he's going to grab whatever he can get his hands on. A guy is going to make a tackle in whatever way he can. I would like to see this kind of tackle penalized, because it can do some serious injury to players, but I just don't know if a player will be thinking in his head while he's making a tackle, "I'm not supposed to tackle him here, i should probably slide my hands down here and try to make the tackle." I don't know, just a thought.....

The same could be said of the face mask now though, don't you think? It's rare to see a guy intentionally grab a face mask these days. I think that's the point - not to try to stop something from happening all together, but to try and minimize it as much as possible.

i don't think banning that type of tackling will solve the problem.....the injury that T. Owens got while being tackled would have happened no matter where he would have grabbed him from behind......if not the collar ..he would have grabbed his shoulders or his arms... still possiblly resulting in the same injury.....but if they're gonna ban that type of tackling...then they need to ban the type of tackling thats used to FB, TE & RB coming out of the backfield on short passes..where the defender squares up and tackles him below his knees as soon as he turns around .....possibly breaking his legs.....to me thats more dangerous...

They should just ban all types of tackles. Just put flags on the players. Wait, someone might dislocate a finger when they go to get the flag. Okay 2 hand touch. I'm against the face mask and block from behind because they are just cheap, but look at all the no touch rules now. You can't even touch the quaterback anymore. It's football. Back in the day the guys were alot tougher. One day I can see them make a tackle zone rule where you can only tackle between the guys shoulders and waist. Guys get injured just cutting a pass route on their own. This is a tough game and that's the way it is. If you don't want to get tackled run out of bounds of fall down. Just don't want this to become pansey ball. No offense to anyone in advance.

Exactly WhoDat. The face mask is illegal, and guys seem to be able to get along without making that tackle, or not as much as before just fine.

lynwood, I understand what you are saying, but guys are bigger, faster, stronger, and more athletic than the old days. ONE technique is REPEATEDLY injuring players. What if it was Deuce or Joe that got hurt for the season cause of this tackle? Defenders need to take better angles than relying on cop outs to bring players down. I totally agree with WhoDat's point that you don't see the facemask, and to a greater extent the clothesline tackle nearly as much in today's game. Look what happened to Ferguson when Darius clotheslines him. Think it's banned for a reason? I would rather see my stars on the field playing than injured by sloppy technique. If you can't catch a guy and tackle him, get off the field.

Also agree the chop or cut block should be banned. Another cheap shot. Anyone who advocates a technique that allows players to get injured either played in a different era, or never played and doesn't realize you are risking your health on basically every play, why increase that chances of injury by allowing players to perform a technique KNOWN to hurt players for a season, not just a couple of games.

sure injuries are apart of the game but I agree you can't have tackles that can cause career ending potential. You can't face mask, you can't chop block, you can't hit a defensless player... you shouldn't be allowed to do something to serious hurt a player causing him serious injury and thats what the league does and I am sure they will ban this tackle. I still dwell over the Warren Sapp incident hitting a player -blind siding a player- who clearly was not involved in the play at all!

I think they are talking about banning that kind of play as well Euph. Something to the extent of if a player is clearly not involved in the play or well out of distance for the play, which 25 yards away for an offensive lineman would be, then it would be illegal to tee off on that player cause they are having no bearing on the play. I don't recall the exact verbiage, but I know that is being disucessed as well.

... why is it that people want to watch violence, but don't want anyone to get hurt???

I think people want to watch a game although it may have potential for injury, and not watch a game knowing beforehand a certain style of play is gonna injure someone. I certainly don't watch on Sundays hoping for anyone to get hurt, but that's just me. If there are tactics injuring players, for me, someone who wants to watch a game and see the stars, and not having stars sidelined with injuries from avoidable plays, banning those tactics is important. For those that are looking for injuries, not important. It's only a difference in what kinda game you are looking to watch. And since mainly only Roy Williams is perfomring this style of tackle, if it is banned who is it really gonna effect? Roy Williams. Who cares about him?

I also wanna ask, has anyone seen how Roy performs this tackle? He doesn't simply grab around the collar and drag a guy down, which would be bad enough. Once he grabs them around the collar, he lifts his legs off the ground. Meaning a close to or above 200 something pound player running full speed in one direction now has a two hundred something pound player draped around his neck and collar pulling him to the ground. It's dangerous and should be illegal.

I agree this should be banned. Of course it may still happen, but hopefully making it a penalty will force coaches urge their players in training camp to avoid this at all cost. Putting an emphasis on this will help to minimize the number of occurences in the league. Many of the times this tackle is made is simply b/c the defender takes a bad angle on the ball carrier and tries to amend their problem. Coaches pushing players for better angles will greatly decrease the number of injuries on this type of tackle. While I love seeing contact, the last thing any fan wants is to see a player's career ended because a defender took a bad angle.

I hate seeing someone's career get ended but more careers have been ended due to Turf injuries i'd bet. So the defender takes a bad angle, is he not supposed to tackle the guy at that point? So i won't blame someone for taking a bad angle since the play can turn the opposite way in a heartbeat. And exactly how many injuries have been season ending or career ending from this type of takle? I'm not for cheap shots at all so let me make that clear. I'm not for twisting someones head off or twisting their ankles once the've been tackled. I'm not for hits 25 yards away from the play or blocks from behind. The ref's should use their good judgement(haha) on excessive roughing or unsportsmanlike conduct. I honestly would like to see some good tackles with both arms wrapped around the runner, but that is not always going to happen. This is a physical sport. I don't watch it for the violence. If i wanted to watch a violent sport i'd watch the NBA.

That is hilarious :D

That was funny.

Just to answer your question though lynwood,

http://www.dfw.com/mld/dfw/sports/football/11333402.htm

These three players are outside the 2 games Jamal Lewis missed because of the tackle by Roy, and outside of whoever it was that did it to Vick in 2003. I wish I could find the video someone showed of the tackle so you could see how he drags his feet out from under himself. It is dangerous.

Thanks for the info Whodi. Three players in a year by one player is something. I'd like to see some video but i'm sure once they rule they'll release some. I do believe his statement about them wanting to make it an offensive game. Wish our defense could drag someone down by anymeans.

I got a couple Lynnwood. On the Musa Smith one, the video doesn't follow all the way through/

http://esc25.midphase.com/~smithj/musa.gif

But on the TO one, you can see where he grabs the collar, and lifts his legs off the ground making TO carry him briefly. That is what is dangerous IMO.

http://esc25.midphase.com/~smithj/TO.gif

I still say that before they rule this type of tackle out, they should ban the chop block. The only reason they're on this is because the players injured by it are more high-profile than the in-the-trenches d-lineman that end up losing their knees over it. It's shameful, really, that they'll work so hard to ban this and ignore an equally treacherous technique.

I agree with that Scotty. That also has to go, no doubt.

Again thanks for the info and the links. After watching the video the tackle does not look as bad as it's been made out to be. It's obvious T.O.'s Foot was caught on the turf and Musa's stiff arm almost took Roy's head off. Surprised they haven't banned that since it's a blow to the head and facemask by and offensive player. It's a clean tackle just freak instances as far as i can tell. I wouldn't want to be on the receiving end of one but out of all the tackles he has made using it since high school what is the injury to tackle ratio? And i have to agree with scotty as well. If the players weren't high profile we wouldn't hear of it.

Musa Smith and Tyrone Calico are high profile? TO is, but Smith and Calico? Huh? From the video, it appeared to me TO's leg got caught after Roy decided to leave his feet and drag him down. That's what should be illegal. Bring forced to carry the weight of a full grown man who has you by the collar and is pulling in the opposite direction seems like a very easy way for athletes at this level of competition to get hurt. But, it's all good. They will prob ban it today or tomorrow, and it will be behind us.

RBs and WRs are generally more high profile than are d-lineman. That's all I mean by that.

True dat Scotty, you meant like as far as the chop blocking being banned for D-linemen right? I still agree with you 1000% on that. That has to go.