Thread: Dobbins Fined $30k For Hit on Cutler................

Originally Posted by MPBears68

Exactly. It was technically legal but also a dirty attempt to use his size to injure Cutler's throwing arm/shoulder. Suh is an asshole and the whole league knows it. He's run out of "benefits of the doubt" in my mind.

BUT as long as his hits are "within the letter of the law" there is nothing the league can do but change the rules.

Tice should have called a running play because I lost last week in FF by .04 pts. Had Forte ran the ball for 5 more yards I would have won. Second Is anybody suprised that Hester actually caught the ball on that play.

Originally Posted by The Benjamin

BUT as long as his hits are "within the letter of the law" there is nothing the league can do but change the rules.

I know. Let's face it, the NFL is all bs when it comes to "safety" and eliminating "bad hits". Controversial and overtly illegal hits make the highlight reel and add to the gladiator-like spectacle for some fans. They are tolerated with slaps on the wrist like 15 yd penalties and piddly fines. I haven't followed the NHL in many years but I do remember way back when what it was like. The old joke used to be: "I went to a fight and a hockey game broke out". Fights were expected and despite penalties were basically tolerated because a subset of meatball hockey fans cared about seeing them as much or more than an actual athletic hockey contest. The "sport" became almost a joke...like pro "wrestling" on ice. It was a show rather than a regulated game. The NHL could have stopped fighting any time it wanted (just automatically suspend any player engaged in any fight and fine away his salary for any game he fights in). Would have ended within one season as teams dumped the useless figfhters from their rosters since they were constantly suspended and the owners' money was wasted on fined salaries. It was tolerated with stupid 10 minute penalties assessed against one player from each team which punished no one. It was a joke.

There's something similar going on to a lesser extent in the NFL. The league makes a big PR campaign about safety and protecting defenseless players but enforces it spottily and lightly. You could end "bad hits" very easily by creating a "flagrant PF" call with serious teeth behind it. There's a difference with an uninteded facemask while going for a tackle or a head blow that occurs when two players basically run into each other in a scrum diving for a fumble. Those are "simple PFs" and 15 yard penalties with auto 1st down.

A flagrant rule would be for when the official judges a play or hit was blatantly illegal, clearly avoidable or unnecessary, designed to injure, or at least was far more excessive than required to end the play (ie Suh on Cutty). It's like pornography..."hard to define specifically in words but you know it when you see it."

A player called for a flagrant PF would, in addition to the down and distance, be immediately ejected from the game, suspended from the following one, and fined his entire salary for 2 weeks. The HC would get an automatic warning. A 2nd flagrant PF call on that team would result in the above + immediate forfeiture of the game and all revenues shared for that week due to the franchise. Any player who accumulated a 3rd flagrant call against him in total for his career would be automatically banned for life. I guarantee you wouldn't need to call many flagrant fouls before the message was received.

Based on the above, I don't see any way Dobbins' hit couldn't be considered flagrant. It was a hard blow to the head after the ball was out 1 second and there was no attempt by him to go lower or pull up short or even slow down.