Horsecollars

[NWebster]

We're all familiar with the Horsecollar rule, I'm wondering if it was an overreaction. Obviously, everything is now in the name of player safety, but in watching films from the 50s and 60s I see at least one horse collar per game and have yet to see an injury. If next year Patrick Mahomes and Josh Allen were both lost for significant time for something that's today deemed legal - would we see a new rule next year????

[sheajets]

It was an overreaction. Like a lot of this stuff has been of late

I remember guys started growing out these huge dreadlocks too, defensive players started to reach there to pull them down. Sometimes they got hair, sometimes the collar of the jersey. But it was far FAR from a league epidemic with guys getting hurt left and right.

Basically uniforms got too tight and pads too small. There was so much less loose fabric and anything for defensive players to grab onto. In the past they didn't really got to the horsecollar often because there were other things you could grab onto to pull a guy down. Now you have these Larry Fitzgerald types running around like they're in spandex tights...so for a while that was something you could grab to assist in making the tackle

[Jay Z]

No, it wasn't an overreaction. It was the Roy Williams rule.

Wikipedia:
The horse-collar tackle rose to infamy during the 2004 NFL season, in which it was implicated in six major injuries, four of which were caused by Williams, including two in one game. The injuries that season included broken legs for Philadelphia Eagles wide receiver Terrell Owens, Carolina Panthers wide receiver Steve Smith Sr., Baltimore Ravens running back Musa Smith, and Tennessee Titans wide out Tyrone Calico.

Williams was hurting people. What he did had to go.

[Citizen]

How often would films from the 1950s and '60s show the aftermath of such a tackle?

[Jay Z]

How often would films from the 1950s and '60s show the aftermath of such a tackle?

I never saw anyone in that era do anything close to what Roy Williams did.

Let's face it. The game evolves, athletes evolve. Players from 1950s and 1960s did headslaps and forearms and eventually that got taken out. They didn't do the horsecollar because they weren't as skilled or they just never thought of it. What Williams was doing was hurting other players, and unless you want the game to be a parade of injuries, it had to go. Players come up with new ideas and techniques and if they make the game worse, they need to leave.

[RRMarshall]

Anyone familiar with Dick "NIght Train" Lane's necktie tackles? I'll take a horse collar over that any day!

[Citizen]

How often would films from the 1950s and '60s show the aftermath of such a tackle?

I never saw anyone in that era do anything close to what Roy Williams did.

Let's face it. The game evolves, athletes evolve. Players from 1950s and 1960s did headslaps and forearms and eventually that got taken out. They didn't do the horsecollar because they weren't as skilled or they just never thought of it. What Williams was doing was hurting other players, and unless you want the game to be a parade of injuries, it had to go. Players come up with new ideas and techniques and if they make the game worse, they need to leave.

I get that. I just don't buy the notion that guys weren't getting hurt back then by this kind of tackle. It wasn't invented in the last 20 years. It's inherently dangerous, 60 years ago or now. It just took a while for the league to notice the damage. And of course, whether it's a clothesline, diving at someone's knees, or a forearm to the chops, eventually a tactic that's putting players out of the game is bound to be outlawed.

[Brian wolf]

I agree with Nick ... An overreaction. The tackle had been legal for many years and only gained notoriety due to Williams, whose strength and size could have made him susceptible to injury himself like other players but was very effective timing the force of his grab. Players are taught to have a forward lean when they run but the horse collar could take down anyone running too high. Unfortunately, injuries happened to those players taken down by Williams but it was not something that happened alot to other players and shouldnt have been banned/penalized.

Had Eric Wright not made the same tackle against Drew Pearson in the NFC Championship game, Pearson might have scored and the Cowboys would have been in their sixth SB. Pearson also would have made the HOF sooner ...

[Brian wolf]

Due to bad coverage skills, Roy Williams will never make the HOF or HOVG but was a major enforcer like Rodney Harrison and Cam Chancellor that have been outlawed from the game that's getting more Arena or flag football style every year. I understand the outcry for a safer game but many older fans like myself, who see player salaries skyrocketting, miss a more violent, desperate game.

[JohnH19]

I don’t like when the horse collar penalty is called on a play where the ball carrier was in no danger of being injured by the tackle. I think there should be some judgment on the official’s part involved with making the call but I feel that way about a lot of ticky tacky safety rules.