Jones made the mistake of bumping an official while arguing his case. Something you're forbidden to do during a game because tempers flare, players are big guys who work out and the officials could be seriously injured in an altercation. It's a protective thing.
He was arguing with the official about the personal foul call made against team mate Vontaze Burfict when he bumped the guy and got the second fifteen yard penalty in about ten seconds. That put the Steelers in field goal range, they kicked the field goal and won. A great ending for Pittsburgh, a really lousy ending for Cincinnati.
After the game there was a shot of Jones sitting on the sideline, hunched over, heels of his hands against his eyes, his shoulders jerking. Sad, right? Not really. After the hit Burfict laid on Antonio Brown of the Steelers, they didn't deserve to win. It was a cheap shot, one that could have seriously injured or paralyzed Brown.
Here's the video of it. Watch the impact, watch Brown's head and neck, and watch what happens when Brown hits the ground. It's ugly.
This shows the entire series, from the start of the play through the end, including slow motion video of the effect of Burfict's hit on Brown.
Football is a violent sport. Guys are running at full speed and banging into one another. It's a part of the game. They know it, we know it, the league knows it. However, when one player with a history of questionable hits continues his behavior, someone has got to step up and step in and put a stop to it.
You can clearly see in this video that Burfict led with his helmet, an absolute NFL no-no. Part of the problem is that the head and shoulders are so close together that in something like this, leading with the shoulder is almost impossible, yet that is the rule. It's to protect "defenseless receivers", like Brown who was coming down just after catching the ball.
Brown was in no position to protect himself when he was hit, and the collision was violent - watch Brown's head whip around. How his neck wasn't broken in that collision is beyond me. How he was able to get up and walk under his own power to the sideline is a miracle.
Let’s be clear. I enjoy watching football. I don’t enjoy watching
demolition derbies. I do not like to see people getting hurt. That is not
pleasurable to me and what Burfict did against Brown qualifies as demolition.
What if Brown had been seriously injured? Watch the video again, watch how his head and neck whip around. Players have been paralyzed by
hits like that. Had that injury been more severe, more than a concussion, there goes the man’s career and, in many ways, his entire life.
Paraplegics don’t live into their eighties or nineties. If they’re injured in
their twenties, assuming all goes well for them, the average life expectancy is
another 45.5 years – or into their sixties, maybe their seventies. They have
too many health issues. Quadriplegics fare even worse, so is it worth that? And there have been some players who have been paralyzed from the neck down by collisions. Fortunately, it doesn't happen often, but it does happen and in that split second, that player's life and his family's life irrevocably change for the worse.
As it is, the NFL suspended Burfict for three games. That means he won’t
get paid because salary is dependent upon playing but still, three lousy games? He has a history of questionable hits. Try Googling "Vontaze Burfict hits..." and watch the videos. Even in college, he persistently led with his helmet. In one video of a game against Stanford, he hits the opposing player so hard at such an angle that the other player's helmet popped off and flew out of bounds.
Given that he's got a history of stuff like this, how about he's benched for the season? How about he’s barred? Now, given last Saturday and this one incident, that might seem extreme, but let's look farther afield.
Ndamukong Suh is another player with a long-standing reputation of being vicious. He is an ugly character, prone to
kicking and stomping on down players. Here's a partial lesson in his history from the Detroit Free Press (I've removed the "minor" offenses of facemasks, unnecessary roughness and the standard in-game penalties):
Week 12, regular season vs. Green Bay Packers: Suspended two games (and lost $165,294 in game checks) for stomping on the arm of Evan Dietrich-Smith
2012
Week 12, regular season vs. Houston Texans: Fined $30,000 for kicking Matt Schaub in the groin
2013
Week 1, regular season vs. Minnesota Vikings: Fined $100,000 for low block on John Sullivan
Week 6, regular season vs. Cleveland Browns: Fined $31,500 for helmet to Brandon Weeden's chest
Week 12, regular season vs. Tampa Bay: Fined $7,875 for throat slash
2014
Week 17, regular season vs. Green Bay Packers: Suspended one game (and lost $22,000 in playoff wages) for intentionally stepping on Aaron Rodgers' leg
A really nice guy, huh? The low block could have blown out John Sullivan's knee. The helmet to the chest, even with the chest protectors and pads, could separate another player's ribs. These are potentially serious, perhaps career ending injuries inflicted by one play on another.
Yet they happen again and again and again, and the coaches, team owners and the league seem not to care. And that, to me, is disgusting.
Some spectators enjoy seeing that stuff, I don’t. I also don’t want the game sissified to the point where it becomes touch, flag or powderpuff ball. But the kind of behavior exhibited by Burfict and Jones on Saturday and by Suh as listed above is inexcusable.
At this point, the league will slap Burfict on the wrist with that three-game
suspension and a sofa-change fine. When someone makes multi-millions of dollars
every year, a $100,000 fine is meaningless. To Joe Average Six-Pack it sounds
like a lot. To the players, it’s right next door to nothing because of the salary, the endorsements and deal ads and the rest of it, so neither of those
“punishments” will have any effect whatsoever on future behavior.
What needs to happen is the league needs to man up and grow a pair. Yes
the teams invest a lot of time and money in their players. Yes the owners
invest a lot of time and money in their stadiums, and business operations. But
do those monetary considerations really supersede the human factor?
That’s pretty sick if it does.
By the time your average professional football player retires in this
early to mid-thirties, his body is destroyed. Ankles, knees, hips, lower back,
shoulders, everything has been battered and beaten until these
thirty-somethings have a hard time just getting out of bed in the morning.
Concussions take a toll, too. Until the past couple of years there wasn’t
a hard-and-fast concussion protocol that required a player to “heal” before
re-taking the field. Brain lesions and cognitive problems are common among
ex-football players, and that is one injury that will never heal.
Technology has come a long way in helping with some of these things.
Better helmets, better cushions, ‘air bags’ inside the crown, and so on, but
that does not solve the problem of the brain sloshing around inside the hard
skull, bashing itself against bone. There is research into ways to help alleviate
some of that, including increased carbon dioxide in the blood and other methods
that might help.
However, that doesn’t change the massive toll taken on the bodies of these
guys.
So, how do “we” fix it?
The league, owners, coaches, officials and training
staff have got to work together to make it clear to the players that
slobber-knocking the other player is not acceptable. Clean hits – shoulder pad
to shoulder pad, fine. Using your body as a weapon, launching it – “spearing”
as the league calls it – is a serious offense. This is an offense that that
should result in immediate ejection, a fine of at least $100k and at least a one
game suspension for the first occurrence. If it happens a second time, there’s
the ejection, a $500k fine and a three game suspension. Third time you’re out for good, ineligible to play in the league,
done, game over.
If players and teams see that happen a time or two, they would start to
take it seriously. They would find ways not to do that and the rate of serious
injury would decrease. Perhaps it would decrease dramatically.
To give the league credit, they have taken some good steps. Targeting, in
which a player leads with the crown of his helmet, is an ejectable offense, as
it should be. But more needs to be done. The hit Burfict laid on Brown should
be ejectable. It was close enough to leading with the helmet that it should have been reviewed and the resulting call should have erred on the side of caution. An ejection or two might just make the player and his coaches wake up and try to find another way for this player to be effective, without putting at risk other players or the success of his team.
If nothing else, I'd like to see it seriously discussed in the public forum so that players, fans and family members of people like Brown and Schaub and Rodgers can all weigh in.
There's my take on it.
Best~
Philippa
Follow me on Twitter: https://twitter.com/PhilippaStories
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