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This past weekend in the Steelers-Ravens AFC Championship game, Ryan Clark (safety for the Steelers) laid out a hit on Baltimore running back Willis McGahee that sent him to the hospital with head and neck injuries. The blow was a helmet-to-helmet hit after McGahee made the catch in the fourth quarter. The hit jarred McGahee's head backwards, snapping his neck violently. Here is the hit below:



Well while watching ESPN this afternoon, I noticed on the bottom line where they list the stats and news of the day, that Clark was not going to be fined for the hit on McGahee. Now in a statement issued by a league spokesman, they said that, "[McGahee] had completed the catch and was a runner. Helmet-to-helmet contact is legal in that situation as it is for any ball carrier (running back, quarterback, or receiver). Helmet-to-helmet contact is prohibited against defenseless players (defined as a receiver in the process of making a catch or a quarterback in the act of passing)." I confirmed it by reading this article.

This all makes perfect sense to me, except for the question of, when the hell did ANY helmet-to-helmet contact become legal? Now, I played my fair share of contact football during high school and I played defensive tackle. We were taught that the proper way to tackle was to lower your shoulder and drive your head across their body, driving your shoulder through them, not lowering your head and leading forward with it. In the video, it is difficult to see whether he makes shoulder or helmet contact first, but the fourth replay or so gives a definitive view that the helmet contact happens first, snapping McGahee's head back. Now, I want to compare this to a hit on Arizona Cardinal's Anquan Boldin earlier in the year against the New York Jets, video below.



Now, this helmet-to-helmet hit falls under the defenseless player rule and probably should have resulted in a fine, which it did. The safety, Eric Smith, was fined $50,000 and the hit broke Boldin's jaw and several face bones. But take a closer look at the video. As Boldin goes up for the catch, he is contacted in the back by the corner back on the left, pushing his entire body downward towards Smith, who then contacts him helmet-to-helmet. Nowhere during the discussion of this hit was it viewed as incidental and it still has me mad 3 months later.

I know the NFL must crack down on helmet-to-helmet hits to prevent major injury, but when they decide to not fine a player for a hit that has much the same effect as another that did get fined, leaves me upset and scratching my head. Commissioner Roger Goodell has set his stance as a hardball commissioner, but this one leaves me baffled. Whether or not the hit can deemed "dirty", it still falls under the realms of helmet-to-helmet. I know football is a contact sport and I love big hits, but when you set a precedent by fining or suspending a player in some form and then let it slide for another, it seems unfair and/or playing favorites. Let the debate begin if Clark's hit warranted a fine, but according to me, his hit left me wanting more in the form of a fine coming from the league office.