Referee Clete Blakeman explains controversial penalty on Titans S Mike Brown's hit against Vikings WR Jordan Addison
The Minnesota Vikings got the win 23-13 over the Tennessee Titans but it started out in controversial fashion. On the Viking touchdown in the second quarter, they went for it on fourth and goal to try and get a touchdown and quarterback Sam Darnold threw a pass to wide receiver Jordan Addison in the back of […]
The Minnesota Vikings got the win 23-13 over the Tennessee Titans but it started out in controversial fashion.
On the Viking touchdown in the second quarter, they went for it on fourth and goal to try and get a touchdown and quarterback Sam Darnold threw a pass to wide receiver Jordan Addison in the back of the end zone. On the way down, Addison got hit by safety Mike Brown and was called for a personal foul. It had many up in arms about the hit. The Vikings went up 13-3 and didn't look back.
Referee Clete Blakeman discusses controversial call
The call was controversial and became even more so the very next play when quarterback Sam Darnold ran it in the very next play for a touchdown. It's important to understand why it ended up being called.
Titans beat reporter Nick Suss spoke with head referee Clete Blakeman who cleared up why the penalty was called.
The really important element here: they didn't call it helmet to helmet but rather a hit on a defenseless receive. The contact being to the chest and neck area is just extra clarity.
According to the NFL rulebook, there are 11 elements to be a defenseless receiver and three ways contact is prohibited. Addison fits the second definition of the defenseless receiver rule.
A receiver attempting to catch a pass who has not had time to clearly become a runner. If the player is capable of avoiding or warding off the impending contact of an opponent, he is no longer a defenseless player
When it comes to prohibited contact, the referees decided that Brown launched into Addison. Here is the definition of launching in the same rule.
Illegally launching into a defenseless opponent. It is an illegal launch if a player (i) leaves both feet prior to contact to spring forward and upward into his opponent, and (ii) uses any part of his helmet to initiate forcible contact against any part of his opponent’s body. (This does not apply to contact against a runner, unless the runner is still considered to be a defenseless player, as defined in Article 7.)B
By the letter of the law, this is a good call. I see both feet clearly leave the ground at one point for a split second and he launches in an upward motion in the chest and neck area.
The rule does state that any part of the helmet needs to make contact on any part of the body. It doesn't have to be helmet-to-helmet contact and they made the right call here.
If you don't like the penalty, that's fine! It looks like it should be a legal hit, but the letter of the law says it's illegal. Every so often, you'll have that happen. It doesn't have to be popular to be correct and that's what happened on Sunday afternoon against the Titans.
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