Seems people forget this - he was defenseless

https://operations.nfl.com/the-rules...seless-player/

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I wait all week for 3 hours on a Sunday... if they make it 4 hours, I don't give a shit. Just get it right!

So what are you trying to say here: that any contact in that situation should draw a flag? Are we not playing professional football out there? In slo-mo replay, there's not that much to suggest the guy was trying to injure juju. It looked a lot more like it was incidental. He didn't launch himself, he didn't drive his helmet at JuJu, or a forearm.

At the end of the day, it's still football and football is a violent contact sport. Shit happens sometimes.

Yeah, I just don't know how you really avoid that collision, besides giving up on the play... the guy took a step or two and it was just as much JJSS "running into him" than it was destroying a defenseless receiver.

Avoiding a hit like that, IMO, is basically telling the defender to stop playing football and don't even react to the pass.

Unlike the one a couple plays later where dude launched himself at the receiver.

It's letter of the law vs spirit of the law, IMO.... letter of the law says the JJSS hit was a penalty and the other one wasn't, yet I have no idea what I'd tell the defender on the first one. Uh, don't get in the way? On the second one, it's hey numbnuts, you're going to kill someone.

There is no intent required in the rule. Doesn't matter what he was trying to do that's what he did. I'm actually pretty amazed at how many people here will defend what he did when the list of people in the Chiefs organization that feel it was unnecessary includes Big Reg himself. He was about as close to the line as he could get with his displeasure of the "pick up"

Then I guess the Jones sack was a good call then....

that collision was shoulder to shoulder then helmet to helmet. The rule states "forcibly hitting the defenseless player’s head or neck area with the helmet, facemask, forearm, or shoulder, even if the initial contact is lower than the player’s neck"

Period end of discussion it was a 15 yard penalty

And watching it from this angle... I dunno, shit happens so much faster than seeing it at the right angle afterwards in slomo. Yeah, he could have gone low or I guess tried to make an arm tackle. He definitely took at least a few steps to get right into his path, so I'd change what I said a little in terms of "there's nothing the defender could do".

It's just neutering the defense though if you can't come up and make that play, and the guy did clearly brace for impact as opposed to head-hunt. :shrug:

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr"><a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Chiefs?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Chiefs</a> WR JuJu Smith-Schuster knocked out of the game due to a scary hit by a <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Jaguars?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Jaguars</a> defender. Hope he&#39;s okay. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/ChiefsKingdom?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#ChiefsKingdom</a> <a href="https://t.co/uDPi4jGwi9">pic.twitter.com/uDPi4jGwi9</a></p>&mdash; Devon Clements (@DevclemNFL) <a href="https://twitter.com/DevclemNFL/status/1591872802118053888?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 13, 2022</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

More regulation isn't going to make for a better game. It's going to make for more flags, more wasted time, and most importantly it's going to make the game more unwatchable.

Not all that long ago we'd all be shocked that a flag would be thrown in that case. I mean seriously, what the hell is the defender supposed to do, just step out of the way to avoid colliding with the 'defenseless' receiver?

It's football. Players collide violently on crossing routes.

Nah, that was exactly my point on the 'letter of the law' versus spirit of the rule... the NFL even defended that one by saying "full body weight" and so forth when it was clearly just a guy making a sack.

This. The defender actually just stops and leans his head away from JuJu. I mean, what else can he do? Just say, "Ole!" and let him run by? Do we have to keep putting skirts on these players, or can we just play football?

What is unwatchable is when players careers are shortened for unnecessary hits. The flag was already thrown - all I'm advocating for is a requirement to actually video review a personal foul penalty. How is getting it right a problem?

HE DIDN'T FORCIBLY HIT JUJU, DIPTSTICK. HE LITERALLY RAN TO AN AREA IN FRONT OF JUJU AND STOPPED, TURNING HIS HEAD AWAY FROM JUJU.

IF THE RULE SAYS "FORCIBLY," THEN THAT PLAY DOESN'T MEET THE MINIMUM CRITERIA. IT'S ACTUALLY SAFER TO SAY THAT JUJU FORCIBLY HIT THE DEFENDER.

you can't argue for both. The spirit of the rule on defenseless receivers was to prevent concussions as they shorten careers dramatically. He could have gone low...

Put the drink down and walk away from the keyboard....you're drunk