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Playing It Safe
Josh Ellis
DallasCowboys.com Staff Writer
IRVING, Texas - While Tuesday's announcements from the NFL owners meeting in Indianapolis created the stir that rule changes often do, the Cowboys and their coaching staff should be comfortable in the fact that their team was not a heavy violator of safety precautions in 2010.
In the middle of last season, the NFL announced increased fines and possible suspensions for athletes committing helmet-to-helmet hits on defenseless players, usually receivers. Not once in 2010 were the Cowboys flagged for such a foul, however. The Cowboys defense was penalized for unnecessary roughness only twice all season.
Three changes were announced after Tuesday's unanimous vote. The definition of the term "defenseless player" was expanded to include a receiver who "has not clearly become a runner," as well as kickers and punters during return plays, quarterbacks following possession changes and players taking blindside blocks from an opponent "moving toward his own endline" and approaching from the back or side.
Also altered was the scope of the rule against "launching," which will now include players who leave both "prior to contact to spring forward and upward" and a player who "uses any part of his helmet." The penalty for launching primarily affects defensive players in the middle of the field, particularly safeties and middle linebackers.
Because avoiding such penalties is part-and-parcel to those positions, teams may consider a player's ability to play within the rules when building a roster. For the Cowboys, free agent safety Gerald Sensabaugh was one of the least penalized players last season, drawing only one flag all year for a benign illegal contact. Starting free safety Alan Ball only committed one defensive penalty, a pass interference.
Cornerback Terence Newman and linebacker Keith Brooking each received unnecessary roughness calls last season for late hits. Cornerback Mike Jenkins led the Cowboys in defensive penalties - six times for pass interference, twice for holding and once more for illegal contact.
The other rule change announced by the league made accidentally grazing the head of a quarterback a judgment call for officials rather than an automatic penalty for roughing the passer. The Cowboys were flagged four times for that in 2010, two by defensive end Igor Olshansky and one apiece for nose tackle Jay Ratliff and outside linebacker Anthony Spencer.
The league has also said it will punish teams whose players commit multiple helmet-to-helmet and launching fouls with monetary fines and possibly the stripping of draft choices.
Josh Ellis
DallasCowboys.com Staff Writer
IRVING, Texas - While Tuesday's announcements from the NFL owners meeting in Indianapolis created the stir that rule changes often do, the Cowboys and their coaching staff should be comfortable in the fact that their team was not a heavy violator of safety precautions in 2010.
In the middle of last season, the NFL announced increased fines and possible suspensions for athletes committing helmet-to-helmet hits on defenseless players, usually receivers. Not once in 2010 were the Cowboys flagged for such a foul, however. The Cowboys defense was penalized for unnecessary roughness only twice all season.
Three changes were announced after Tuesday's unanimous vote. The definition of the term "defenseless player" was expanded to include a receiver who "has not clearly become a runner," as well as kickers and punters during return plays, quarterbacks following possession changes and players taking blindside blocks from an opponent "moving toward his own endline" and approaching from the back or side.
Also altered was the scope of the rule against "launching," which will now include players who leave both "prior to contact to spring forward and upward" and a player who "uses any part of his helmet." The penalty for launching primarily affects defensive players in the middle of the field, particularly safeties and middle linebackers.
Because avoiding such penalties is part-and-parcel to those positions, teams may consider a player's ability to play within the rules when building a roster. For the Cowboys, free agent safety Gerald Sensabaugh was one of the least penalized players last season, drawing only one flag all year for a benign illegal contact. Starting free safety Alan Ball only committed one defensive penalty, a pass interference.
Cornerback Terence Newman and linebacker Keith Brooking each received unnecessary roughness calls last season for late hits. Cornerback Mike Jenkins led the Cowboys in defensive penalties - six times for pass interference, twice for holding and once more for illegal contact.
The other rule change announced by the league made accidentally grazing the head of a quarterback a judgment call for officials rather than an automatic penalty for roughing the passer. The Cowboys were flagged four times for that in 2010, two by defensive end Igor Olshansky and one apiece for nose tackle Jay Ratliff and outside linebacker Anthony Spencer.
The league has also said it will punish teams whose players commit multiple helmet-to-helmet and launching fouls with monetary fines and possibly the stripping of draft choices.
