Patriots' Wilfork Fined, Colts' Reid Celebrated .. Go Figure

by tommasse on Jan 4, 2008 10:16 PM EST in New England Patriots News

Anatomy of a Helmet-to-Helmet Hit
Patriots Fined, Colts Not .. again

New England's Vince Wilfork was fined $15,000 for allegedly poking New York Giants running back Brandon Jacobs in the eye. Yet, there have been no fines for Indianapolis special teamer Darrell Reid's vicious helmet-to-helmet hit on Tennessee's Chris Henry.

During the Patriots-Giants game, there was constant pushing, shoving and yelling from play-to-play (wasn't there supposed to be some kind of new "in-your-face / taunting" penalty this season?). After one play, Patriots linebacker Junior Seau was penalized for delay of game for allegedly holding down a Giants player after the play (that never gets called either -- just this once on the Patriots). During the ensuing pushing and shoving, Wilfork stuck a finger inside Jacobs's facemask.

Wilfork fielded a question about the incident on his website, and said:

I have received a number of questions about it that just assume I was trying to poke him in the eye. It was nothing more than them doing trash talking and in the heat of the moment I pointed my finger in his face. I did not make contact with his eye or anything like that. After that it was over, on the field emotions are high there were several bumps amongst players and trash talking the whole game. It was one of the biggest games of the season and we all had a lot of emotion in the game. When things like that happen it is all heat of the moment and once the moment is gone it is over. There are no hard feelings and I really think the commentators did a great job of blowing it up. When the game was over we all said our byes and that was that.

Meanwhile, the league turned a blind eye to Reid's hit. Below is a 9-frame animation of the hit with each frame split out afterward. It is a clear helmet-to-helmet hit.

After the hit, Reid danced around like Shawne Merriman and pointed at his name on his back. Real classy team player.

Frame 1: Lining up the hit. -- Colts coverage tackler 6-foot, 2-inch, 288-pound Darrell Reid (95) lines up 5-11, 230-pound Titans kick returner Chris Henry (42). You can see Reid getting in position.

Frame 2: Getting low; bracing for impact. -- Reid gets his upper body low. Henry checks up, anticipating the hit.

Frame 3: Lowering the head. -- Reid lowers his helmet. Both arms are pinned back, not exactly going for the wrap tackle.

Frame 4: Before the hit. -- Reid leads with his helmet.

Frame 5: Initial impact. -- Reid's head is in the center of Henry's body. This is not a shoulder hit. This is clearly leading with the helmet, and if Reid is not purposely going helmet-to-helmet, he's beyond the shadow of a doubt spearing.

Frame 6: Getting the facemask. -- Note the back of Henry's helmet lifting, exposing his neck and hair. That's from Reid's helmet smashing into Henry's facemask.

Frame 7: Head snap. -- Henry's head starts to snap back from the impact of a helmet-to-helmet hit. If Reid hits Henry in the chest with either his head or his shoulder, Henry's head would snap forward.

Frame 8: Just a blur. -- Henry's head snaps back at such speed that his head is just a blur. Note: Reid lowered his helmet so low that you can see Reid's name on his jersey above his helmet. Neither shoulder touched Henry.

Frame 9: Before the hit. -- Both players are fully off the ground. Reid "launched" himself at Henry. That's illegal too.

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Comments

Look up...

...spearing in the dictionary and there will be a picture of that hit beside it. There can not be a more blatant example of leading with the helmet than that, but it's the Colts, so don't expect anything negative against the NFL's "model" franchise. And they call us "cheaters". HUH!

by Ironman63 on Jan 4, 2008 10:48 PM EST reply actions

guys...just a piece of friendly advice

I like you guys and this site very much and I often contribute to it. But you need to move on. Even if you are right about the nature of the hit, the bottom line is it didnt happen against your team. By continuing to harp on it, you look like total amateurs-provincial, self-absorbed, whiny and a little princess-y. If that werent bad enough, you invoke some sort of league vendetta against the pats and permissiveness with respect to the colts as the explanation. Shake yourself, man! The titans blogger on sbn didnt even mention the hit in his review of the game.

by mento on Jan 4, 2008 11:59 PM EST reply actions

Is it wrong to want fairness?

As MaPatsFan noted, the league said it was specifically targeting these incidents. Since then, I've seen repeated, blatant offenses that go unpunished.

Not only did Reid escape unscathed, he's appeared on ESPN's First Take to laugh with the dimwits about his "great hit," on which, fortunately, no one was seriously injured. (I didn't even mention Dallas Clark and Tony Dungy's sideline reaction.) But Wilfork gets fined $15,000 for sticking his finger in someone's face?

Princessy? How about just a little fairness?

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by tommasse on Jan 5, 2008 8:43 AM EST up reply actions

To wit:

"One play brings Reid immortality"

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by tommasse on Jan 5, 2008 8:50 AM EST up reply actions

I understand...

...the "not against your team, don't whine about it" mentality. It can get a little annoying. And if it appears us Pats fans are "targeting" the Colts, it's probably no surprise; we're not far from a possible AFC Championship matchup and the rivalry is intense (check out StampedeBlue and you'll see what I mean).

However, I speak from personal experience when I say helmet-to-helmet is dangerous. As a kid in Pop Warner, I once hit helmet-to-helmet with the top of my head and felt the shockwave travel down my spine; I've had a bad back ever since. Spearing and helmet-to-helmet deserves as much attention as face masking; it's that dangerous. If it's not enforced, someone's going to get seriously hurt before the NFL takes note and that'll be sad. No doubt it will be a career ending injury.

by MaPatsFan on Jan 5, 2008 9:54 AM EST up reply actions

Just a piece of friendly advice

Until such time as you've experienced a helmet-to-helmet hit, don't tell us not to harp on it when it happens and the NFL looks the other way. Kevin Everett nearly died this year from a hard hit, and that wasn't an intentional helmet-to-helmet hit. What this player did was intentional, and someone could very easily be killed by it.

You might think it's more important not to "look like total amateurs-provincial, self-absorbed, whiny and a little princess-y." We think it's more important that no one engage in an illegal practice with a high likelihood of causing severe injury and a chance of causing death.

by RSNexile on Jan 6, 2008 1:41 AM EST up reply actions

Harrison

did HGH. That is a very dangerous illegal practice that is more likely to injure those around him than himself. (Chris Benoit)

:-)

I watched the Jags-Steelers game tonight and saw so many "helmet-helmet" hits that it's ridiculous. There should have been 15 penalties on those type of fouls alone. You guys are just trumping up charges to talk down on the Colts. I understand, many do it to the Patriots as well, but does that make it ok? Aren't you guys above that? Just a thought.

Your everyday friendly arch nemesis

by bleedingblue @ Pats Pulpit on Jan 6, 2008 2:12 AM EST up reply actions

I don't recall seeing any blatant h-to-h hits

I'll need to see the game replay, but I don't recall anything obvious.

I do think the officials had a rough night for a playoff crew, and they completely missed that facemask on Hines Ward when they called Brian Williams for pass interference. Scott Green's crew is not one of my favorites.

Meanwhile, in the early game (Seattle-Washington -- hey, I didn't even notice that before .. "Seattle, Wash."), Walt Coleman's crew had one of those "arm is going forward" calls, and not even Collinsworth mentioned that Coleman made the "Tuck" call, and Collinsworth will usually take any opportunity to act like a buffoon.

It was the right call in both cases. This time, the officials changed the call on the field and it was never reviewed. I'm surprised more hasn't been made of it (yet).

I'm assuming the Harrison/HGH comment is supposed to be humor.

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by tommasse on Jan 6, 2008 9:51 AM EST up reply actions

sarcasm

the best officiating crew in the 'offs is the one working the Chargers-Titans game right now. I think those guys get it right in the right situations most of the time.

Your everyday friendly arch nemesis

by bleedingblue @ Pats Pulpit on Jan 6, 2008 5:50 PM EST up reply actions

Do your research...

...before you accuse us of anything.

We here agreed with the suspension of Harrison. We agreed that that was cheating and that he should be suspended. We even said Wilfork ought to be disciplined for putting his finger through Jacobs' facemask last week.

You, on the other hand, are effectively saying it's perfectly ok to engage in a very dangerous, illegal practice when a Colts player does it.

We're not "trumping up" anything. We use a pretty unusual method of arguing our points here that they don't use over on the Colts' blog -- we use something called "evidence." You see it in this post; you see it in the video. You don't see it any time one of you Colts fans comes here and accuses us of "trumping up" anything.

Just a thought for you to consider before you make yourself look even more ignorant.

by RSNexile on Jan 6, 2008 9:01 PM EST up reply actions

chill man chill

I was just poking fun, didn't mean anything by it.

I still don't believe that the Colts are doing the illegals that you all state. Since this debate started I've been watching every tackle in every game much closer. The verdict is that this stuff happens ALL THE TIME. Every 3 or 4 tackles there is some sort of h-h hit. You can't help it, it's a physical game. I went through a lot of Patriot games too and saw what you guys explain as illegal. Were they doing it on purpose? No. It just happens.

Your everyday friendly arch nemesis

by bleedingblue @ Pats Pulpit on Jan 7, 2008 1:06 PM EST up reply actions

There's a huge difference ..

.. between incidental hits (like Tomlinson got nailed at the goal-line on the play before his touchdowns) and those like this example of Reid, which is clear as day, and those of Bob Sanders, who calls himself (or his technique) "the missle." (Gee, not too transparent.) Double-speaking around it is just avoiding the issue .. but as long as your team, a "morally respectable" team, gets away with it, it appears to be OK.

Either call it all the time, or don't call it at all. But don't always penalize some times and never penalize others.

There were plenty of instances in this weekend's games where I saw players spiking the ball in the field of play, taunting, excessively celebrating, etc., that weren't called. Some teams have been penalized for such infractions (and some players fined) very selectively all season. Some got away with it all season.

Every time one incident is harshly criticized and another is completely ignored, the system loses credibility.

And, no, this blog isn't the only one that complains about it.

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by tommasse on Jan 7, 2008 2:46 PM EST up reply actions

Speaking of spiking

well nm... I'll start a new diary on this one. I think we can run with this topic a bit.

Your everyday friendly arch nemesis

by bleedingblue @ Pats Pulpit on Jan 7, 2008 3:33 PM EST up reply actions

I kinda agree with mento on this one

I know we at Stampede do it too, but you guys are just head hunting on this one. (pun intended) Not a single media outlet person, blog site (that I've seen), has brought this up. Many applaud it as a good hard hitting play. There were several of them. You show a not so good angle there and it really does look bad. The angle of the hit that I brought up in another post shows that it was as clean as it could be if he were to hit his upper body. Reid's shoulder hits across all of Henry's body and the helmet catches the shoulder pad and his facemask (after HENRY put himself in the position to take a shot in the helmet) I think you guys are making a mountain out of a mole hill, just like Moss' push off that he always does isn't as bad as we'd like it to be.

Your everyday friendly arch nemesis

by bleedingblue @ Pats Pulpit on Jan 5, 2008 1:14 PM EST reply actions

Week after week ..

.. there have been fines against New England, everything from this finger incident to multiple "chinstrap" fines, and the chinstrap fines on New England have been larger than for other teams' players.

Just because the rest of the jellyfish tacitly accept the disparity doesn't make them more correct or us less so.

As for the video link you provided, I disagree what you can deduce from what is blurry and half out-of-frame. Unless Reid has no neck, he hit Henry with his helmet first. And, again, intent (while I believe it is clear) has no bearing on whether it's a penalty or whether Reid should be fined. Wilfork was fined earlier this season after getting blocked into Buffalo's J.P. Losman. People from New York to Los Angeles whined about Wilfork being a dirty player for weeks.

It's bogus, plain and simple.

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by tommasse on Jan 5, 2008 2:26 PM EST up reply actions