In March, coaches supposedly supported the new rule prohibiting the lowering of the helmet to initiate contact. In August, coaches are singing a different song.
“It’s really gray right now,” Broncos coach Vance Joseph told reporters on Monday regarding the new rule. “I think they’re calling it conservatively because they want to get it right, I think. They want to change the behavior. The problem I’m having with the call right now is it’s been bang-bang plays, and it’s hard to tell if the head is hitting the body. That’s the rule, right? It’s not about if the hit is down. If it it’s the body, that’s the penalty. . . . The foul is when the head hits the body. That’s what we have to be careful of, but it’s hard to tell, because you tackle with your shoulder but it’s led by the head. It’s hard to officiate that really cleanly. We’ll see how it shakes out, but right now, it’s gray for us and the players.”
So why didn’t the coaches make a bigger stink about this in March or in May? They quite possibly were led to believe the rule would be narrowly applied, addressing situations that would otherwise be known as speaking.
“We have to use common sense,” Joseph said. “We know what spearing looks like, so call spearing, but don’t call good football tackles. Call it when it’s spearing, if it’s not spearing, don’t call it. That’s my opinion.”
That opinion would have been useful in March or in May, unless the truth is that these coaches were told something other than the truth about what the rule would address.
