@badnewsbrowns said:

When you are taught to do something the proper way and do as you are taught there's no need to "calculate".

You keep your head up and put your facemask on the numbers by instinct, it becomes second nature.

Exactly, and that must be his second nature.

@brownskidd said:

I've been saying this for a long time. These, blow to the heads calls, a lot of the time, the guy being tackled is lowering his head as the d-back is coming in for the tackle. How can a D-back, who is coming in chest high on the ball carrier, be responsible for head to head when the offensive player lowers his head? Yet the call always goes against the d-back.

All football leagues, starting from pee-wee to the NFL have to examine tackling and try and make is safer for both players. This is easier said than done, but something should be done and it probably starts at the grass roots level.

You're right, it starts with the coaching. My high school program, which has had a few players make it to the NFL, had really good coaching. I remember my first year playing football, I made a tackle, 1-on-1, with someone a lot bigger than me, but I led with my head. One of the line coaches saw it, called me over, and I'll never forget how he chewed me out for it. He basically said that if I kept doing that I'd end up paralyzed. It really stuck with me (RIP Coach Garisek). It's definitely possible to take people down hard without using your head as a battering ram.

You keep your head up and put your facemask on the numbers by instinct, it becomes second nature.

@brownskidd said:

I've been saying this for a long time. These, blow to the heads calls, a lot of the time, the guy being tackled is lowering his head as the d-back is coming in for the tackle. How can a D-back, who is coming in chest high on the ball carrier, be responsible for head to head when the offensive player lowers his head? Yet the call always goes against the d-back.

All football leagues, starting from pee-wee to the NFL have to examine tackling and try and make is safer for both players. This is easier said than done, but something should be done and it probably starts at the grass roots level.

That's a great point.

A perfect example of that was yesterday when Lewis got flagged for h2h against Hernandez.

Hernandez made the catch and dropped his head, Lewis was coming in to make the hit at chest level but since Hernandez dropped his head it was h2h on defenseless receiver. Bullshit.

When I learned to tackle we were taught to always see what you hit, you might take a stinger but you won't break your neck. I guess since no one has suffered any neck injuries that have been well publicized in the past 20 years it's not a big concern.

All football leagues, starting from pee-wee to the NFL have to examine tackling and try and make is safer for both players. This is easier said than done, but something should be done and it probably starts at the grass roots level.

guess they'll never be able to stop these hits. there's just too many variables. one guy bends down not to take the brunt of the hit, the defender bends down at the same time so as not to hit the guy high...........

but phil simms is the worse announcer in the game today.