49ers vs. Seahawks: Perfect Hit Mistaken as Illegal

Today we were graced by a terrible call by the officiating crews of the NFL, once again.  This one involves a referee who thinks that tackling qualifies as unnecessary roughness.  After watching this call, it is surprising to me why he did not call a penalty on every other tackle of the game.

Here’s how the play went down: Seattle receiver Anthony McCoy beat 49er defensive back Donte Whitner over the middle.  McCoy, at 6 foot 5 inches and 259 pounds, had no problem getting the ball in his hands past 5 foot 10 inch Whitner.  Whitner had no shot at the ball, and if it wasn’t for the safety help over the top, McCoy waltzes in for the score.  Madieu Williams comes in to the rescue from the side, prepared to make a touchdown saving tackle.  The hit Williams laid on McCoy was hard enough to jar the ball loose before McCoy ever had complete possession.

Madieu Williams, only 203 lbs by the way, executed his responsibility perfectly making a touchdown saving play that resulted in an incompletion.  However, at halftime the entire officiating crew ran over to Lenscrafters to drop off their glasses.  The result was a perfectly clean hit that was mistakenly penalized.

Check out the video:

Let’s analyze the replay. Notice how Madieu Williams avoids using his head as a weapon. Williams’ facemask is the only part of his helmet that ever touches McCoy, and the contact is made on McCoy’s shoulder.  Also notice how Williams never touched McCoy’s head with any part of his body on the hit.  Finally observe the position of Williams’ arms.  They are outspread like he is ready to tackle, not in a position to cause harm. Textbook.

            Fortunately the outcome of the game was not affected.  San Fransisco held on to win big, thanks to a pair of Ted Ginn returns for touchdowns late in the game.  As for Williams, this video is going to be shown in the film room of all 32 teams this week – demonstrating exactly how you are supposed to make a hit on a ball carrier.

            Will Williams get a fine? Probably, since the NFL has a habit of defending its referees by handing out fines even on terrible calls.  In a perfect world, the refs would admit the mistake after the game, but that would be an extreme rarity.

            For the sake of the NFL, let’s hope this does not become a pattern.  When a ref assumes what happens because he did not actually see it, it hurts the integrity of the NFL.  With NFL rules already making it a softer game, we don’t need more refs hurting labeling legitimate hits as illegal.