Proposal to Restrict Chop Blocks

Proposal to Restrict Chop Block in NFL is Reason to Celebrate

http://www.101sports.com/2015/03/20/proposal-to-restrict-chop-block-in-nfl-is-reason-to-celebrate/

NFL player safety advocates have cause for celebration. The Competition Committee’s recent plea to the owners to approve a rule to further restrict chop blocks is a much needed move towards protecting players.

The new rule would make it illegal for a running back to chop a defender below the waist when engaged with another blocker outside the tackle box.

Its’s about time!

Lets call it the Calais Campbell rule. The Arizona defensive end suffered a sprained MCL on a dirty chop block by Denver tight end Julius Thomas in early October.

Coach Bruce Arians called it “the dirtiest play (he’s) seen in the National Football League”.

You can always tell someone is serious when they don’t abbreviate.

Chop blocking, a block below the belt line into the thigh/knee area of a defensive player, is about the most career-threatening offensive technique in sports. Is there any other play that encourages forceful full body contact to the knee area of an opponent? No. Not the the extreme of the NFL, at least.

An overwhelming majority of the chop blocks that happened to me during my playing days I couldn’t see coming. My eyes were fixed on a target during pursuit and then a flash of opposite-colored jersey, a feeling of weightlessness, and the ground suddenly crashed into my face.

If you’re lucky, you escape the tsunami of bodies, blockers, and pursuers trailing the play. If not, a wave of momentum smashes you into the jagged rocks of padded humanity.

Agony.

And then you have to get up and play the next play. If you can get up.

Chop blocks end people. For the day. For the season. Forever.