Hits below the knee

Having seen this picture I had to wonder, how was a flag not thrown on this? Plain and simple, it is illegal to hit a QB below the knee


Why is it illegal? Let's go back to 2005 for the reason.
''QUARTERBACK HITS ... The hit that resulted in Carson Palmer tearing his anterior cruciate and medial collateral ligaments is also coming under scrutiny, and there is some feeling among competition committee members that all hits below the knee on quarterbacks should be penalized.''
The rule that came to pass in 2006;
''A rushing defensive player won't be allowed to forcibly hit a quarterback below the knees. He has to make every effort to avoid such a low hit.''

It would appear a rushing defensive player completely got off the hook yesterday.



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Comments

Anonymous said…
It's kind of an open interpretation. Forcibly hit is the key phrase. It is debatable about what the defender was trying to do. It kind of looked like he was trying to get up, but with the offensive lineman on top of him, he kind of was forced to dive instead of getting up and hitting Brady. I would say it wasn't ruled illegal because "forcibly" and "intentional" are similar in the eyes of the refs.
4:47 PM
Cormac said…
I guess it's open to interpretation, sure, however from most angles, it looked dirty to me.
4:50 PM
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