Rules for the NFL. Rules for the Steelers
By dave buzard
The NFL is having their yearly committee meetings in God’s Waiting Room (Florida). Muckedy mucks from around the league have made the trek with the league’s best interests in mind. I’m kidding of course; they’re all just hanging out at Hooters with Mike and Dan. The Steelers arrived with their own agenda too: They want the current playoff version of the overtime rules to extend backward into the regular season, and they have seen enough of Ben Roethlisberger getting hauled down from behind via the horse collar tackle. The Shield seems to like the idea of conformity in the case of the overtime format being the same in the regular season and the playoffs. But that’s where the NFL’s logic seems to have ended, at least in regard to any rule tweaking the Steelers brought to the table. It’s true that Roger Goodell is all about the player safety right now (multimillion dollar lawsuits will change a fella’s thinking) but it appears that it will still be fine and dandy to pull a quarterback down by the inside of the shoulder pads. Wait. What? You cannot hit them in the helmet with your helmet or hands. You cannot go low on the QB’s delicate knee type area. James Harrison cannot hit a signal caller who really, really looks like he is going to run the ball but you can still drag a franchises’ biggest investment down by the shoulder pads. Maybe it is just a case of Roger Goodell thinking that the Steelers specifically want to protect Ben Roethlisberger. Large Ben has been on the receiving end of one of Rogers sort of made up, yet strictly enforceable rules. You know the kind; like getting fined for overspending during an uncapped year. Roethlisberger got his badself suspended for a little ‘she said, he did’, in Georgia (Hell, I thought that was their state motto). The NFL has suspended James Harrison for hits legal and otherwise, changed the angle that receivers are allowed to block from down field on account of Hines breaking a jaw, made defensive backs keep their paws off of wide outs after five yards because Mel Blount was so damn good, and made the head coaching interview process include a minority candidate; ALL BECAUSE OF THE STEELERS. The Steelers have NFL clout. But Pittsburgh wants to introduce something that will benefit each and every quarterback in the NFL, no thank you. This will be the law of the land until week two, when Peyton Manning is drug down from behind by the shoulder pads. Yes, a Bronco gettin’ Horse Collared. I bet that will put the kibosh to the maneuver. You go, Roger. Make ‘em up as you go along