The NFL has officially made it illegal to sack the quarterback

[BrendanP]

https://twitter.com/NFLFootballOps/status/1043948315040264192

[goodgrr]

Nope, that's in line with the rules as were written previously too.

It's possible to sack them and not commit a foul, watch the first few here https://nflcommunications.com/search/pages/results.aspx?k=%22Officiating%20Video%20-%20Preseason%20Week%204%22

[BrendanP]

First of all, this was the first time in my entire life that I've ever seen a roughing the passer call on a quarterback who hadn't thrown the ball. Not even the NCAA has gone this far (knock on wood). The body weight rule combined with the helmet rule are easily the two worst rule changes in the history of professional football. The owners need to arrange a mid-season meeting and clean up this mess.

[scrounge]

It's outrageous what's being called the last few weeks. Normal tackles are now bizarrely illegal, the rules are telling players to disobey the laws of physics, it's ridiculous. It puts the officials in an impossible position when they rightly call the nonsensical fouls that they have been directed to call. And this will cause more cynicism and fan turnoff than kneeling ever did if it keeps up. It's not football.

[Kalle]

It's kinda funny that Packers are complaining about the rule change made due to the Rodgers injury last season... Matthews could have controlled his body so that his body weight was to the side of the QB but he decided not to. It is kinda expensive to have more than one good QB (plus the backup ends up being not so good by not having games), so I can understand protecting them.

[TampaSteve]

For what it's worth, season-to-date, including MNF last night, these calls are at 34 (vs 16 last season)
It's interesting that everyone was up in arms about the new helmet rule for pre-season, but that went away and now the new sack rule is now the talk of the town.
Personally of the sack rule calls I've seen a few have me scratching my head.

Goodness, for PIT @ TB last night, during Q1 the TB QB went to a slide, PIT dfender was called for a roughing - which was a good call but i seemed it should have been an ejection.

[BrendanP]

It's outrageous what's being called the last few weeks. Normal tackles are now bizarrely illegal, the rules are telling players to disobey the laws of physics, it's ridiculous. It puts the officials in an impossible position when they rightly call the nonsensical fouls that they have been directed to call. And this will cause more cynicism and fan turnoff than kneeling ever did if it keeps up. It's not football.

I'm glad somebody in the community agrees with me on that last point about cynicism. I've said this about the NCAA since 2013 and I'm not sure why these anti-physics rules have only affected the NFL when the NCAA has been doing a lot worse for a lot longer (targeting, touchbacks outside the end zone). As for the NFL, I think there needs to be some truth-in-advertising. The name needs to be changed from Football to BubbleWrapBall, as that's what the whole game is truly becoming.

[GA Umpire]

This is from the NFL web site.

http://www.nfl.com/news/story/0ap3000000966516/article/competition-committee-uncomfortable-with-roughing-calls

[scrounge]

I'm glad somebody in the community agrees with me on that last point about cynicism. I've said this about the NCAA since 2013 and I'm not sure why these anti-physics rules have only affected the NFL when the NCAA has been doing a lot worse for a lot longer (targeting, touchbacks outside the end zone). As for the NFL, I think there needs to be some truth-in-advertising. The name needs to be changed from Football to BubbleWrapBall, as that's what the whole game is truly becoming.

I do not agree with your position on targeting in the slightest and, in my opinion, you are conflating two very different things. Targeting involves an active choice, a style of play to punish and inflict pain in a way that has absolutely no place in the game. That rule is designed to change behavior - and has succeeded in doing so. The blowup across the middle is almost gone from the game...and good riddance. Even the targeting rule recognizes that inadvertent contact, even if severe, with two players making a bona fide effort to go for the ball isn't a foul. That's the better analogy to this. If they limited the flags to where there was some extra, separate effort to drive the QB to the ground or threw him down or anything, I'd have no beef. But you can't hit low, and you can't hit high, and now you can't hit in the middle and simply fall down? How do you play tackle football under those conditions???

Targeting is a severe act, with conscious decisions and overt actions. Gravity is not.

[JasonTX]

First of all, this was the first time in my entire life that I've ever seen a roughing the passer call on a quarterback who hadn't thrown the ball. Not even the NCAA has gone this far (knock on wood). The body weight rule combined with the helmet rule are easily the two worst rule changes in the history of professional football. The owners need to arrange a mid-season meeting and clean up this mess.

NCAA has got protection before a pass.  9-1-9-b: 
b. When an offensive player is in a passing posture with one or both feet on
the ground, no defensive player rushing unabated shall hit him forcibly
at the knee area or below. The defensive player also may not initiate a
roll or lunge and forcibly hit this opponent in the knee area or below.

[BrendanP]

I do not agree with your position on targeting in the slightest and, in my opinion, you are conflating two very different things. Targeting involves an active choice, a style of play to punish and inflict pain in a way that has absolutely no place in the game. That rule is designed to change behavior - and has succeeded in doing so. The blowup across the middle is almost gone from the game...and good riddance. Even the targeting rule recognizes that inadvertent contact, even if severe, with two players making a bona fide effort to go for the ball isn't a foul. That's the better analogy to this. If they limited the flags to where there was some extra, separate effort to drive the QB to the ground or threw him down or anything, I'd have no beef. But you can't hit low, and you can't hit high, and now you can't hit in the middle and simply fall down? How do you play tackle football under those conditions???

Targeting is a severe act, with conscious decisions and overt actions. Gravity is not.

No it's not a choice or a severe act. Look at the Ohio State one just now: the tackler was falling and their helmets grazed. Blowup hits are what got a lot of people into the game to start with. From what I've seen in all the sports I follow, whenever you make these kinds of drastic changes in the name of "player safety," you inevitably ruin it altogether. From the removal of fighting in hockey, to similar red card rules in rugby, to banning heading of the ball in soccer, we have two choices. You can either make it into a bubblewrap game that's completely safe and blander than saltine crackers, or you can have the fun, tough game we all grew up watching and not worry about this stuff. I, like most people, people want the latter.

[JasonTX]

No it's not a choice or a severe act. Look at the Ohio State one just now: the tackler was falling and their helmets grazed. Blowup hits are what got a lot of people into the game to start with. From what I've seen in all the sports I follow, whenever you make these kinds of drastic changes in the name of "player safety," you inevitably ruin it altogether. From the removal of fighting in hockey, to similar red card rules in rugby, to banning heading of the ball in soccer, we have two choices. You can either make it into a bubblewrap game that's completely safe and blander than saltine crackers, or you can have the fun, tough game we all grew up watching and not worry about this stuff. I, like most people, people want the latter.

It's not the rulemakers who are making the changes.  It is the players themselves.  Take a look at all the families of dead NFL players and even retired NFL players who, after being in retirement for 20 years are coming back to sue the NFL for their supposed brain trauma.  When you get all these lawsuits then the powers that be must make changes to eliminate the actions that have caused all these brain trauma.  Blame all these families that got the lawsuits.