FOXBOROUGH, Mass. (AP) -Tully Banta-Cain charged downfield, heading for a collision with four bigger, tightly bunched blockers, and hoping to tackle the kickoff returner.
The 250-pound linebacker for the New England Patriots has done that many times and knows the pain of taking on the wedge.
“I’ve had my bell rung,” Banta-Cain said. “I’ve gotten up after a big collision and been like, “ `Wooo, shake it off.’ “
This season, he and others in his dangerous position are getting help. The NFL is limiting the width of the wedge to help avoid such high-speed contact that can lead to concussions, broken bones and other injuries.
No longer can huge players form three- or four-man wedges, sometimes linking hands or arms, then head upfield and knock down potential tacklers like so many bowling pins. Now wedges can consist of no more than two men together, with the next closest player beside them at least 2 yards away.
ng, but “you’re still going to have collisions.”
Those are likely to involve smaller people in the two-man groups because mobility will be more important as it becomes easier for opponents covering the kick to go around the wedge. Several returners and coaches said they don’t know yet if the length of returns will be affected.
The NFL made other changes to protect players:
– Defenders knocked down by a blocker can’t lunge at a quarterback and drive a head or shoulder into the quarterback’s lower leg. They still can swipe at or wrap up a quarterback’s legs while on the ground.
“The league understands that the quarterbacks are very vulnerable and you need to make rules that are conducive to protecting them,” said New England’s Tom Brady, who suffered a season-ending knee injury in last year’s opener when Kansas City’s Bernard Pollard hit him from the ground. “I certainly didn’t think whatever happened last year was a cheap shot.”
Pereira said there were similar hits last year that didn’t result in injury and “we don’t make rules for one person,” but New Orleans defensive end Jeff Charleston disagreed: “It’s basically a Tom Brady rule, but no one’s really going to listen to it.”
– The kicking team can’t have more than five players bunched together pursuing an onside kick.
of the ball on special teams, well, you coach the other side as well so it balances out.”
– A defensive player can’t hit a defenseless receiver in the head with a forearm or shoulder. It already was illegal to make helmet-to-helmet contact
“I guess the NFL’s just trying to make us go for the knees now, which seem to me more dangerous,” New Orleans strong safety Roman Harper said. “It’s not like I’m aiming for (the head) or trying to hurt anybody.”
– An offensive player can’t make a blindside block with his helmet, shoulder or forearm to a defensive player’s head.
The wedge rule, though, requires the biggest adjustment. Formations are different. So are the players in them. Returners could have a more wide-open field to run in.
Of the 32 NFL teams, 31 used wedges of more than two players last year, Pereira said.
But teams seem to have adapted well. No penalties were called under the new rule during the exhibition season, Pereira said. Most are using a pair of two-man wedges at least 2 yards apart or a two-man wedge with one player behind it.
And a 15-yard penalty will be called only when the wedge is formed intentionally by players dropping back before heading upfield. More than two players can be together at the point of contact with opponents.
Not everyone is thrilled with the change.
way,” New York Jets special teams coordinator Mike Westhoff said. “I am concerned with player safety, though, so if it is an issue, then I’m in favor of it.”
April said the rule makes a big difference in how he deploys his players, but doesn’t think it will affect the length of kickoff returns.
“But,” he said, “if I would have thought a two-man wedge was better I would have been running that for the last 10 years.”
Miami coach Tony Sparano supports the change.
“Safety is first and that has been made very clear by the commissioner,” he said. “You see some of the things on tape that have gone on and you see some of the collisions that these guys have had to take, there is no gray area there.”
The change won’t stop serious injuries on kickoffs.
In Buffalo’s 2007 opener, Kevin Everett didn’t hit the wedge, instead going around it without being blocked. Then he hit Denver returner Domenik Hixon high on the left shoulder and side of the helmet with his own helmet, and fell face-first to the ground. Everett was paralyzed temporarily from the neck down.
Sam Aiken, now New England’s special teams captain, had run downfield with Everett and ended up near him on the ground.
“That’s the only thing I really got shaken up by,” Aiken said. “We always had a competition who the first one downfield would be.”
led the league in average kickoff returns last season. He’s doing it again now with the focus shifting to making good man-on-man blocks.
“With the wedge, it’s all pushed to one side and the runner can cut accordingly,” he said. “It’s definitely harder now.”
But if those man-on-man blocks are successful, “it just leaves you and the kicker,” Chicago kickoff returner Danieal Manning said.
In the end, it all comes down to blocking whether it’s being done by four huge men in the wedge or one smaller player taking on the man he’s assigned to.
“The old adage of having a ‘wedge-buster,’ I never used anyway,” Westhoff said. “I never asked anyone to run down in front of a pickup truck.”
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AP Sports Writers Joe Kay in Cincinnati, Brett Martel in New Orleans, Andrew Seligman in Chicago, Arnie Stapleton in Denver, Teresa Walker in Nashville, Dennis Waszak Jr. in New York, John Wawrow in Buffalo and Steven Wine in Miami contributed to this report.
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