The Pittsburgh Steelers have always played a smashmouth style of football. They won six Super Bowls on the backs of defenses that weren’t afraid to put their bodies in peril to make brutal hits. When guys like Jack Lambert played, the rules were much looser, and they got away with much more. However, with concerns for player safety, the league has changed.
Steelers who came later, such as James Harrison, Troy Polamalu, and Ryan Clark, played on the cusp of two worlds as the rules evolved. Some of those players had an easier time than others adapting. Current players have to be very careful; the league says it takes player safety seriously, and they are quick to throw a flag and assess a fine if a defender illegally hits a defenseless receiver — particularly with any kind of blow to the head.
Those hits to the head are often incidental contact, but they can still be dangerous and appear quite brutal. There were two vicious hits during the Week 9 games that drew the attention of football fans. In one, New Orleans Saints receiver Chris Olave had to be carted off the field after sustaining a concussion from Xavier Woods of the Carolina Panthers. The other was when the Detroit Lions’ Brian Branch was ejected for a helmet-to-helmet hit on Green Bay Packers receiver Bo Melton. Branch followed his ejection by giving the crowd the finger on his way out.
Former NFL official and Super Bowl referee, Gene Steratore, who now works as a rules analyst for CBS Sports, joined The Randy Baumann Morning Show on 102.5 WDVE. He was asked if he believes defenders are so convinced they will get penalized or fined, that they might as well take someone out with them. Steratore said that it takes time for players to find their rhythm and to be able to get consistent control over their body. He said all defenders are trying to do something that used to come naturally to Polamalu.
“We’ve reached that point where if you’re on, you’re on,” said Steratore. “It’s a well-oiled machine. With that, the intensity also increases, as does their ability to close, where they’re coming from, and where they’re going. Troy Polamalu used to do that a lot, not that they were ever dirty hits. But he would come from absolutely nowhere in the blink of an eye and be closing from the inside out to dislodge the ball.”
Steratore said that he thinks most defenders do what Polamalu did: they pick a spot on the receiver that is “legal” to hit and aim for it. He said the problem is that they can’t control what happens once they leave their feet and often fly 10+ feet through the air. At times, the defenseless receiver sees this human torpedo aimed at them, and they crouch to try to minimize impact, and what would have been a legal hit becomes a blow to the head.
Steelers’ Minkah Fitzpatrick Subject Of Officiating Error
Teams never want their losses to come down to a bad call by the officials, but that is definitely what happened in Week 4 against the Indianapolis Colts. While they should never have been in that position to begin with, a lousy call on Minkah Fitzpatrick cost the Steelers.
As the team tried to undo their errors during the first half of the game and stage a comeback, Colts quarterback Joe Flacco threw an incomplete pass to Adonai Mitchell. Fitzpatrick hustled to meet Mitchell and intended to prevent a catch that would’ve given them a first down. He hit Mitchell legally, but the refs threw a flag for unnecessary roughness that gave the Colts a first down.
The Colts used that momentum to score and win the game. After the game, Head Coach Mike Tomlin told the media that he had received a call from New York stating that they had made an error with that call. It is unfortunate to know they got it wrong and that it could have made a difference in the outcome.
