Bill Barnwelll, Grantland.com
"Forgot About Brady
Let's go back to the final play of that Jets-Patriots game, because it shouldn't have been the final play at all. Mark Sanchez is sacked on his dropback and certainly fumbles the ball backward, a decision that was reviewed by the notably incompetent Jeff Triplette and confirmed before the game was officially brought to a halt.
What the referees didn't call at the time, though (and couldn't overturn on review), was a personal-foul penalty that should have kept the game going. The initial contact with Sanchez is made by Jermaine Cunningham (no. 96), who falls down at the line of scrimmage in front of Sanchez and crawls at Sanchez before diving at his ankles and knocking him down. Patriots fans will undoubtedly remember what I'm referring to: the Brady Rule.
After Brady's infamous injury at the hands of Bernard Pollard ended his 2008 season, the league protected quarterbacks from shots below the knees by players who were downed at their feet. The rule provides an exception for players who were blocked into the quarterback, but Cunningham is clearly no longer blocked when he crawls after Sanchez for several steps. The rule also notes that defenders are allowed to "swipe" at the quarterback, but Cunningham forcibly tries to take down Sanchez (somewhat successfully) by his ankles. That's a 15-yard penalty, one that should have extended the Jets' drive and the overtime session.
A missed call is one thing, but the league seems to be unofficially abandoning any enforcement of the Brady Rule. Only an hour earlier, I saw the Raiders take down Chad Henne with an even clearer Brady Rule hit. And several weeks ago, during the reign of replacement-referee terror, a Raiders player hit Ben Roethlisberger from the side with a diving shot into his ankle that left Roethlisberger visibly limping for the rest of the series. Neither of those plays was called, and neither of the hits today even merited as much as a mention from the announcers in its respective game.
We all know how this ends. If the Brady Rule isn't enforced, the league is going to see defenders diving at the ankles of quarterbacks for sacks until somebody gets seriously hurt. Then there's going to be an outcry to protect the league's quarterbacks, James Harrison will say something outlandish, and we'll be having this whole debate all over again. Let's not require somebody to undergo reconstructive surgery before that happens. The Brady Rule is on the books. It might have cost the Jets a win on Sunday, but even that is less important than keeping the league's stars healthy. It's a rule that needs to be enforced."
ha ha
