The NFL realizes the bright-line connection between having the best quarterbacks in the sport available to play football and having as many people as possible fully engaged in following the sport. Remove a franchise quarterback from a franchise, and the franchise’s fans will be inclined to check out for the rest of the year. Moreover, any nationally-televised games involving the franchise without a franchise quarterback will lose in the ratings to Maury Povich reruns.
But at a time when the NFL has decided to go overboard to protect quarterbacks, particularly with a roughing-the-passer rule that some believe has become virtually impossible to comply with, quarterback need to protect themselves. Whether it’s Bills quarterback Josh Allen exposing the McNuggets while hurdling over Vikings linebacker Anthony Barr (Allen got lucky) or 49ers quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo deciding to not to run out of bounds but to plant his left leg, cut back at the left sideline, and drop a shoulder into a defender (Garoppolo didn’t get lucky), quarterbacks continue to take unnecessary risk with their own bodies -- and with the multi-million-dollar investments teams have made in them.
While it may be a tad insensitive to call out Garoppolo as he waits for confirmation that he has a torn ACL, Garoppolo has only himself to blame for deciding to do something other than the smart thing and step away from contact, not try to embrace it. Why do quarterbacks continue to insist on doing this? What does it prove, other than the quarterback is more brawn than brain?
And yawn will now be the operative word for the 49ers when they participate in four prime-time games in a five-week span: Week Six at Packers on Sunday night, Week Seven vs. Rams on Monday night, Week Nine vs. Raiders on Thursday night, and Week 10 vs. Giants on Monday night. With three of those four evening games at home, look for a lot of traffic problems in Santa Clara.
So that’s why the league is protecting quarterbacks. And that’s why quarterbacks need to protect themselves.
