Flowers not happy with ‘protection’ of receivers
CLEVELAND – If Jack Lambert were still playing, he’d suggest they put skirts on wide receivers, too. But Lambert, Pittsburgh’s Hall of Fame linebacker who grew up not far from the site of today’s Steelers at Browns game, has long since given up playing the game.
Greg Lloyd stepped into Lambert’s place for a while. Not his place on the field, but in notebooks across the country. Much like Lambert before him, Lloyd was not afraid to speak his mind, even if it riled the NFL higher-ups in their air-conditioned offices on New York City’s Park Avenue.
Lloyd’s biggest beef with the league was its hypocrisy. On one hand, the league would fine players for playing too aggressively, then it would market videos under titles like “Bone Crushing Hits.” Lloyd’s point was that the league was making money on plays for which it also fined the player delivering the hit.
Now, with Lloyd well into retirement, the mantel has fallen to current Steelers strong safety Lee Flowers. Anyone who knows flowers knows he has not met a notebook or microphone he didn’t like.
Like Lloyd and Lambert, Flowers shies away from nothing. In fact, he predicted he would be fined for leaving the bench last Sunday in Baltimore, when he saw Plaxico Burress being stepped on by the Ravens’ James Trapp. He was saved, he believes, because the skirmish occurred during a change of possession and the defense was supposed to be taking the field.
“If I had to do it all over again, I’d do it,” was Flowers’ way of putting the incident behind him.
Then, Flowers was asked about the $75,000 fine levied against Dallas safety Darren Woodson. And off he went.
“That’s bull-,” Flowers said. “Fining safeties for hitting is bull-.”
But this was far from one safety sticking up for his brethren. Nor was that the case when Flowers brought up a fine levied against San Diego safety Rodney Harrison for a hit he delivered to Oakland’s Jerry Rice.
“To me, that fine was just because it was Rodney Harrison and he hit Jerry Rice,” Flowers said. “Any other receiver in the league and he doesn’t get fined.”
More than sticking up for the people who play the position, Flowers was defending the safety position as it is played, or at least how it used to be played. Flowers is old school. He knows a missed tackle could mean unemployment for many players.
“Your job is to dislodge the man from the ball,” Flowers said. “There’s some political stuff going on in the league and it’s mostly safeties getting the fines. They are trying to save offensive players from getting hurt, but it’s going to be the defensive players getting hurt if we have to start thinking about how we tackle.”
There is a lot of truth in what Flowers says. In general terms, the league has instructed players not to lead with their helmet and to make sure they keep their heads up. “See what you tackle,” is the catch phrase the league loves to use.
But the film clips of the Woodson hit, which gave Seattle’s Darrell Jackson a concussion, and of the hit Harrison applied to Rice show what looks like proper tackling technique. There is probably a perception that a great player like Rice wouldn’t leave himself exposed for such a hit, so it must be illegal. Woodson’s hit on Jackson looked clean, but when Jackson suffered a seizure in the locker room, the league felt something needed to be done.
And Woodson had to pay.
“Maybe they ought to fine the quarterbacks for laying a guy out like that,” Flowers said. That’s a valid point. Or maybe the league should tell receivers not to go after passes that aren’t thrown right to them.
How to you think coaches would react to a receiver not going all out to catch a pass? They’d likely cut him in a heartbeat. Just like they’d cut a defensive back if he failed to hit a receiver when he had an opportunity to do so.
So, what’s the solution? Flowers doesn’t have all of the answers and doesn’t claim to. he does, however, have a suggestion.
“I want the league to make a video – here’s how you are supposed to tackle,” Flowers said. “I don’t know what they want anymore. I thought I did, but not after these fines were levied. Show us a video of what you want.”
Rest assured, the NFL Films has plenty of footage the league could choose from. Trouble is, the league is busy packaging that footage into a new big-hits-of-the-NFL video. It should be available soon … for about $20.
Sports editor Mike Ciarochi may be reached at mciarochi@heraldstandard.com.