The Hit on Michael Pittman

[Colts And Orioles]

Originally Posted by apballin

Try and hit the ball, or put your hands on the guy if he makes the catch it’s a hell of a play but he’s down. That could’ve ended his career, they we’re trying to take guys out because that horse collar on moss was ridiculous he didn’t even try and let up.

o


I'm not talking about the horse-collar play, I'm talking about the hit on Pittman.

If you watch the play with any objectivity, you'll see that the defender doesn't have the multiple choices that you suggest ...... he could either turn and hit the receiver with his shoulder (which he did), or he could have stepped back and hoped that Pittman dropped the ball.

Regarding defenseless receivers, the receivers themselves have a choice in the matter of becoming defenseless in the first place. They are choosing to dive across their bodies and lay out for a pass ...... the choice on the part of the receiver to do that should not therefore inhibit the ability of the defender to prevent him from catching the pass by hitting him. Just like a quarterback who chooses not to slide, lowers his shoulder, and takes on a defender in order to get the yardage needed for a first down ...... if the quarterback doesn't want to risk injury, he can slide and avoid contact. If he wants the first down badly enough, he can lower his shoulder and take on the defender to get the yardage ...... but either way, it's his choice. And in the extremely fast and violent game of tackle football, the same is true of the receiver who dives head-first and horizontally for a ball that he wants to catch ...... it's a very risky maneuver because he's leaving himself defenseless in doing so. And if the NFL were to be forthright and honest about it, they would stop pretending and just put it in the rulebook that a "defenseless" airborne receiver is not to be touched, under any circumstances.

o