It isn't easy for defenders when it comes to hitting an offensive NFL player. If you go for anything from the shoulders up, you run the risk of getting slapped with a huge fine and suspended. If you go low, you could potentially damage a person's legs. What is a player to do? Recently, ESPN's Outside the Lines interviewed the league's current notoriously hard-hitters, Ryan Clark, Brandon Meriweather, Donte Whitner and Michael Griffin, and the overwhelming response was "hit high and worry about fines and suspensions, go low and worry about ending a guy's career."
"I've had a lot of guys say, 'Just hit me high, just knock me out. I don't care, as long as I'd be able to play next week, I'm perfectly fine, but don't go low,'" said Griffin. Meanwhile, Meriweather and Clark revealed they have spoken to offensive players who have offered to pay their fine in exchange for hitting them high rather than low. This is a scenario that Meriweather says happens "all the time."
The Dolphins' Dustin Keller, who suffered a season-ending injury after tearing his ACL, MCL and PCL in addition to dislocating his knee after getting hit low by the Texans' D.J Swearinger in a preseason contest last year, confirms the four players' comments, saying:
“Absolutely, 100 percent I’d rather be hit high . . . just like anybody else . . . you get hit high, say you get a concussion: That’s tough to deal with, you may miss a game or two or something like that. But you still get to go home, walk home to your family.”
To make matter worse, Griffin says that his coaches are even focusing on making their defenders hit opponents low. “We’re taught even now to go for the legs, to shoot for the legs,” the Titans safety said. “We’re taking practice dummies and a mat and we’re hitting a dummy low and trying to hit and roll and different things on how to go for the legs.” It's a difficult situation and Whitner believes that with how tight the referees are calling games these days, it's "really affecting wins and losses and the outcomes of football games."
[via ESPN]
