NFL tries to put 'horse collar' tackle back in the barn

[BlackLabelJetsFan]

By Jarrett Bell, USA TODAY

Tue May 24, 6:31 AM ET

Tyrone Calico vividly remembers what flashed in his mind last December when he saw replays of the injury that sidelined Philadelphia Eagles wide receiver Terrell Owens.

Calico, a Tennessee Titans receiver, was out of action, mending from season-ending knee surgery.

"I thought he tore his ACL," Calico recalled during a phone interview last week. "I thought, 'That's how I went down, the same way.' "

Owens didn't tear an anterior cruciate ligament, but he suffered a broken right leg and torn ankle ligaments that put him on the shelf for the final two regular-season games and two playoff games before a return for Super Bowl XXXIX - against the advice of his surgeon.

And like Calico, who was hurt in a preseason game and limited to one regular-season appearance in 2004, Owens was stopped in his tracks by Dallas Cowboys safety Roy Williams with a technique that has suddenly become taboo in the NFL: the "horse collar" tackle.

Williams snatched both receivers with a grip from inside the back of their shoulder pads and immediately yanked them to the turf. The technique, or lack thereof, has stirred debate amid concern within the league about rising injury rates.

NFL owners, beginning two days of meetings in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday, likely will support a recommendation from the competition committee to ban "horse collar" tackling in the open field.

The committee, mindful of a spike in lower-extremity injuries, noticed at least a half-dozen instances last season when players were hurt on "horse collar" tackles - their legs, knees and/or ankles buckling under the pressure of an immediate yanking down from behind. If the rule passes, violators will be subject to a 15-yard unsportsmanlike-conduct penalty and/or a fine.

"It might be good for the league to have a rule," Calico says, "but it's just football."

The directive, which requires 24 votes to pass, is dubbed the "Roy Williams Rule" in reference to the defender whose use of the technique seriously injured Calico, Owens and Musa Smith, who suffered a fractured right tibia and missed the Ravens' final six games.

Calico had arthroscopic surgery and returned for one game but aggravated the injury and had subsequent surgery.

According to an Associated Press report Monday, Calico was cited May 12 for public indecency, a misdemeanor, for having sex with an 18-year-old woman in his sport-utility vehicle.

Calico doubts Williams intentionally tried to hurt him.

"I don't even know him," he said. "I'm not going to be mad at him. He's a great player who made a great play. My foot got caught in the turf, and it happened so fast. But that's just football."

Williams, who declined interview requests from USA TODAY, told The Dallas Morning News at a charity event in April: "I've never tried to hurt anybody on the football field. I understand it's an offensive game. With all the helmet-to-helmet rules and now this, they might as well just let people score against us."

He labeled the potential rule as "crazy," claiming the technique he also used in high school and college is necessary to compete. Williams told the Fort Worth Star-Telegram that a "touchy-touchy" NFL is "taking instincts out of the game."

Competition committee members and non-committee coaches who have reviewed video of the "horse collar" injuries caused by Williams and other defenders, though, believe there were safer ways to make the tackles, such as wrapping up the ballcarrier.

'Detrimental to guys' livelihood'

As it is written, the rule wouldn't prohibit a defender from grabbing the shoulder pad and using leverage to propel into the back of the ballcarrier. The immediate yanking down, committee members say, increases the injury risk.

Titans coach Jeff Fisher, co-chairman of the committee, doesn't buy the argument that desperate defenders reach out as a last-gasp attempt to make a play.

"You'll also find desperate reaches on the face mask," said Fisher, referring to the penalty that costs 5 yards for an inadvertent foul and a 15-yard setback for flagrant cases when defenders twist opponents' heads after grabbing the face mask.

Urges Carolina Panthers receiver Steve Smith: "They need to get guys out of that easy way of tackling. Guys feel they can strong-arm you. These guys are so fast and strong, but rather than using technique, they try to find the easiest way. That's not a tackle in my book. It's dangerous, and it's detrimental to guys' livelihood."

Steve Smith also had his season end in a flash last year on a play that technically would not have been a penalty under the proposed rule but is certainly in the same frame of reference and was thoroughly reviewed as such.

In the Monday night opener, Green Bay Packers linebacker Hannibal Navies grabbed the back of Smith's shoulder pads and slowed his momentum. It would not have been a penalty because Navies let go and didn't immediately drop Smith. But the damaging result reflects the threat that suggests "horse collar" tackles might be as perilous as a crunching hit over the middle. Smith missed the rest of the season with torn ligaments in his left ankle.

Rule evolved quickly

Why is the "horse collar" poised to be banned now?

"We want the players to understand that it's a pretty dangerous technique," Fisher said. "We want to eliminate it from the game."

Unlike many proposed rules changes, a team didn't request a would-be ban in this case. The idea was hatched in March, when the competition committee met for nine days in Hawaii before the last owners meetings and made a connection when reviewing a video that contained every injury in 2004.

Usually, potential rules changes are first discussed during committee meetings at the scouting combine in February.

"This one wasn't on the radar screen (before the Hawaii meetings)," said Mike Pereira, the league's director of officiating. "But when we review the injuries, we start at the toes and work all the way up to the head."

An owners vote on the rule was tabled in March, after coaches expressed reservations about the language and scope of the rule. The wording has been changed to apply the rule only to plays in the open field, allowing a lineman to collar a running back near the line of scrimmage. And quarterbacks in the pocket still can be taken down from behind by the shoulder pads.

Key to the rule's language, as it was in the original draft, is for the yanking to be immediate. And officials also will have to make the distinction between a defender grabbing the shoulder pads or the top of the jersey. A takedown from behind with the defender grabbing a fistful of jersey is still legal.

"OK, we want to protect the players, but how's it going to be officiated?" Cowboys coach Bill Parcells said during a news conference last month. "Pass the rule, whatever you want, but make sure you know how you're going to officiate it and make sure the officials do it. The more objectivity you give to the officials, the more problems you're going to have.

"It's just like the baseball manager," Parcells added. "I don't care if the umpire is calling the strikes high as long as he's calling the strikes high all the time."

Pereira isn't concerned that his crews won't be consistent and likens the judgment to the rule of thumb on face masks.

"If it's not obvious, they won't call it," Pereira said.

"It's football," Calico said. "There will be some good calls and some bad ones."