The Josh Innes Show - NFL Hard Hit Pearl Clutching

Episode Date: December 2, 2024

Azeez Al-Shaair is being destroyed for his crushing hit on Trevor Lawrence. It's football. Football is a dangerous sport. Players will get hurt. I don't know what defensive players are supposed to do. I have a reaction to a pretty solid idea from Rex Ryan. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

So I've mentioned that I'm getting tired of watching the Texans do dumb shit. And I tweeted a lot about this yesterday. It's difficult to watch them because they're dumb and they do undisciplined stuff. Undisciplined stuff that has to fall back on the coach. And look, I like D'Amico. And I think D'Amico's probably a really good coach. And I think D'Amico's got a great vibe about him. And I love watching the guy smile. I love when they do something well and he's high five and dudes, he still has that feeling of a player. Right. And like, I get when people will

argue, you gotta be more of a, you know, the CEO and you gotta stop with the, the trying to be buddy, buddy with the players. Let me tell you, look at Dan Campbell in Detroit. That dude has a player's mentality all the time. He's clearly a player's coach, but they clearly respect him. It can be done. You can be a successful coach in the NFL being rah-rah, jumping into the guys. Pete Carroll was like that.

You could be that kind of guy. So this idea that D'Amico Ryans can't be successful because he's an excitable guy and has a lot of energy and kind of acts like a player still because he's a younger guy, I think that's bullshit. But the difference between Dan Campbell, and granted Dan Campbell's been at it a little bit longer than D'Amico, the difference in those types is that when I watch the Lions, I feel like I'm watching a well-oiled machine. I feel like I'm watching a team that's not doing dumb shit. I'm watching a team that's got arguably the two hottest coordinators in the NFL right now who are going to be head coaches in Ben Johnson and Aaron Glenn.

I watch the Texans and I don't get that same feeling. Most notably, I watch the Texans and I watch a team that is so undisciplined and they do so many dumb things and they wipe away so many big plays on offense by doing stuff that's stupid. Like, you can live with penalties when they're penalties of aggression or penalties of trying hard, right? You can live with that. Like, you don't like the fact that the Alzeez Alsheer hit happened, but it's a guy trying to make a play,

and you can debate dirty, not dirty, whatever, and we'll get into that in a second. But what you can't debate is that it's an effort play. Then you watch plays where dudes are just lined up incorrectly that negate big plays, or you watch guys continually get false start penalties or procedure penalties, and it's not young dudes. I mean, Joe Mixon wiped a touchdown off the board last week with an illegal

shift penalty. How does that happen? That stuff slipping through the cracks, that's the stuff where I think the head coach is responsible. And I tweeted this yesterday, like Kubiak had his flaws, and I look at Kubiak is still the best coach this organization's ever had. Maybe that's not fair. Maybe technically the best coach should be O'Brien, whatever, do what you want. But Kubiak was there when I was there and Kubiak took him to the playoffs for the first time. Kubiak had a successful time there. Didn't end well. It didn't have a ton of playoff success, but I think Kubiak had a successful time there didn't end well it didn't have a ton of playoff success but I think Kubiak overall was a good coach I think he was a very good offensive mind we know

he's a very good offensive mind but when I watched Kubiak's teams play yeah they'd fall behind early in games and yes they'd have to battle back and make the games interesting like they're very rarely from start to finish was it a wow wow, they're playing a great game. But when I watched them, I didn't feel like they were dumb or undisciplined. I didn't feel like I was watching a team that was poorly coached. And maybe that's a contradiction. It might be. Because I don't think he was a great coach when he was with the Texans.

I think he was a fine coach. And then he got Peyton Manning, won a Super Bowl. Fine. But I think he clearly knew football. He clearly was a the Texans. I think he was a fine coach. And then he got Peyton Manning, won a Super Bowl. Fine. But I think he clearly knew football. He clearly was a great offensive mind. And his teams weren't dumb, especially those teams in 11, 12, and early in 13 before the wheels fell off.

I think those were well-coached teams that didn't do dumb things and get penalized in huge numbers doing dumb things, right? Now, granted, the 2010 Texan season was that disaster where anything bad that could happen did happen, and they found amazing ways to go 6-10. I get that. But when I watch D'Amico Ryan's Houston Texans, there's a level of discipline or really undisciplined play that we see from them that is so bad that it has to reflect upon the head coach. So I'm not saying fire the guy. The guy's got eight wins. He's an

eight and five coach right now. So it's not like he's a terrible coach. They went to the playoffs last year. They won a playoff game last year. He's not bad at his job from the standpoint of being a coach. But the way things are run and the dumb things they do have to reflect poorly on him and he's got to fix it. Because it gets to a point where they are unwatchable. You watch these games and it's stop, start, stop, start with penalties that can be avoided. That's the most difficult part about watching the Texans. Now with that said, we go back to the hit on Trevor Lawrence. Let's talk about that. I'll play a couple of commercials for you here. If you want to fast forward through them, fast forward through them. I don't care what you do. But let's talk about the

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in 14 days. Limited time offer. See terms at terms at pick six dot draft kings.com slash promos all right so this is a bigger picture football thing was the hit on lawrence dirty probably right and you're going to get two different camps of people maybe three different camps of people talking about this you're going to get defensive players who are going to say well what the hell is he supposed to do you're going to get offensive players who are going to say, well, what the hell is he supposed to do? You're going to get offensive players saying, holy shit, that's a dirty hit. And you're going to get media people. Actually, there's four camps. Media people, for the most part, are all going to tell you it's the worst thing they've ever seen. And it's got to stop and throw the guy out of the league. And then you're going to get fans around the league. The Texans fans are going to tell you

what's he supposed to do. And the fans everywhere else are going to tell you it's a dirty piece of shit play. I'm looking at a story here from Frank Schwab at Yahoo Sports. NFL winners and losers. If NFL cares about player safety, Aziz Alshayer will face a long suspension. I'll read you a little bit of this story. Aziz Alshayer made a decision. He wanted to decimate Trevor Lawrence, his forearm to the head of the Jacksonville Jaguars quarterback when he was well into a slide. Now the NFL needs to make a decision on whether it's player safety and blatantly dirty hits

if it takes its player safety and blatantly dirty hits seriously. A suspension for the rest of the season would send the appropriate message. You won't find a much dirtier hit than Al Shaheer put on Lawrence. He was probably lucky that he got ejected because the Jaguars seemed ready to turn into a brawl with him after that hit. The Texans linebacker dove at Lawrence's head as Lawrence was sliding. He connected, leaving Lawrence in the fencing position with an obvious concussion. Between going after Lawrence's head and going so after the slide, it was dirty on multiple levels. Lawrence was carted off the field, and a fight started between the Texans and Jaguars.

Al Shaheer, it's not his first dirty move in Week 2. He punched Bears running back Roshon Johnson on the sideline. The NFL let him off easy, fining him $12 thousand dollars for the punch uh the league can't be so soft on him this time perhaps the best comparison uh might be what miles garrett uh the miles garrett helmet suspension in 2019 garrett took mason rudolph's helmet off and swung it at him blah blah blah blah all right here's the. When people clutch their pearls over player safety, it's fucking dangerous game and shit's going to happen. And let's be fair to defensive players. They've been essentially neutered, right? And in that spot, you've got a quarterback who has every advantage in the world. If you're going after the quarterback

and your hand just grazes his face mask, you don't grab it. If it just grazes his face mask while you're attempting to sack the quarterback, they will call a 15-yard penalty. If you tackle the quarterback too hard, it will be a 15-yard penalty. Yet, if you go too low on the quarterback, it'll be a 15-yard penalty. If you go too high on the quarterback, it'll be a 15-yard penalty. If you hit him just perfectly, but it's too hard and you fall on him wrong, it's going to be a 15-yard penalty.. Yet the quarterback, when he's outside of the pocket running, can stiff arm a defender in the face mask, put his hand right in his face mask, and that's a stiff arm. That's what that's called. That's a stiff arm. That's not a face mask.

It's a stiff arm. Then a quarterback can get out of the pocket and slide to give himself up, despite the fact that you are still in a position of trying to make a play. And I understand why it's called a penalty. Like, I get it. You're trying to protect quarterbacks, whatever. But people are talking about this like this guy's a monster on this play. And I don't buy that. Now, does he have a history? Sure. Is that the kind of player he is? Sure. Does history matter in these kind of things? Sure.

Go to the NBA and look at Draymond Green. He doesn't get the benefit of the doubt from most people because Draymond Green is an asshole who has a history of kicking dudes in the balls and being a dirty player. So if you have a history of being a dirty player, they're going to judge you based on your past as much as they're going to judge you on your present. But a bigger picture issue I have is when you get pearl-clutching media member people that act like they care about player safety. If you want to care about player safety, you know what you would do? You'd not play football at all

because football is a dangerous game and dudes are going 100 miles an hour trying to make a play and their livelihood depends on it. And you're trying to tell them to stop on a dime because the quarterback decided to slide. Rex Ryan actually had a really good point about this. And I don't know if his idea of how to fix it would make a difference, but his point was that they spend too much time teaching these dudes to slide when they're in a situation like that, that just makes them vulnerable to that. What they should be doing is teaching players that are quarterbacks to dive forward at the legs of a player a defender the defender will then probably just jump over him now maybe he will maybe he won't rex rhino's a shit ton about defensive

players maybe he's right probably he's right one thing we know about nfl players is they'll take 900 hits to the head over a shot to the knees i I mean, just to give you an example, Taysom Hill's season is over. Taysom Hill took a shot that by the letter of the law wasn't illegal, but because guys are trying to take down big players, you got a defensive back coming up trying to stop Taysom Hill on a third and short or a fourth and short and basically takes his knees out by basically takes his knees out. I mean, destroyed his fucking knee and he's out for the rest of the year. And I've talked to players in the time I've been in sports media, uh, guys to a man will tell you, take out my head all you fucking want. But if I lose my legs, I lose my livelihood. If I'm a running back, if I'm a kick return, if you take out my legs, I can't come back. I'm out for the year. You take up my head. I might be out a week. So you look at, um, Trevor Lawrence, maybe he's

out a week. Maybe he's out two weeks. Who knows? But you look at taste mill. He's out for the year. You take up my head, I might be out a week. So you look at Trevor Lawrence, maybe he's out a week, maybe he's out two weeks, who knows. But you look at Taysom Hill, he's out for the rest of the year. So you tell players they can't go low, you tell players they can't go high, but most importantly, you can't go high. So if you don't go high, you're going to go low. What happens when you go low? You're injuring dudes anyway. And I think also the result of this play alters the way people feel about it, too.

If he doesn't get concussed, which he did, obviously, but if he didn't, how are we looking at this? It'd be a dirty hit, but Trevor Lawrence bounces back up and he's fine. There are a ton of big, hard hits where you think dudes are going to be dead when they get hit. And then they pop back up. Like, you know, I was watching the LSU game. Garrett Nussmeier was writhing in pain on the field after a sack. I think almost everyone to a man felt this dude had broken his clavicle, broken his collarbone, separated his shoulder.

They thought he was fucked to the point that he goes to the sideline, they take off his pads, he goes back to the locker room, and then magically comes back out and plays the second half and plays better than he played before, which means he probably got some wonder juice in the back and good for him. Some Dr. Feelgood, good for him. But back to the point about this. People love to talk about how player safety matters. It is impossible to keep players 100% safe. And what you have done is you have put bubble wrap on the quarterback, to a degree I get it.

They're the moneymakers. They're the guys that carry the team. Every defender wants to complain about how they've been neutered, yet the second your quarterback gets taken out, it changes your viewpoint pretty fast because your season's over. If you're a defensive player on another team and your quarterback gets taken out, it's over for you. So you want to be able to hit guys and you want to be able to hurt guys and inflict pain, but you don't want it to happen to your guys. So there's a bit of a hypocrisy there.

But when I look at the league, defensive players have basically been told they can't do a fucking thing. Everything they do is the wrong thing and everything offensive players do is okay. Stiff arms, etc. They can do whatever the fuck they want to you, but you have to keep trying to find new creative ways to take down these extremely skilled ballplayers. So when I see these kind of stories and I see these whiners and these people talking about how the guy needs to get thrown out for a year. It is a violent game. And there are a lot of big, violent, hard, dangerous hits every week that don't result in a concussion. But because this one results in a concussion and then it results in a fight afterwards, everyone's going at it and it becomes this big federal case. There's no way to make football 100% safe. And nine times out of 10, when those kinds of plays happen, and this one seemed dirtier than

others, but those kinds of plays happen every game. Here's what quarterbacks should start doing. Quarterbacks, instead of giving yourself up and putting yourself in a spot where you're dependent upon a defensive player to not deliver a dirty hit to knock you out, lower your fucking shoulder and run over a guy. Like you got a defensive back coming at you. In this case, it's a linebacker, but if you got a defensive back coming at you and you want to be bad, lower your shoulder. Like running backs do it every play. Wide receivers do it every play. And most of the time, receivers and running backs live to tell. They survive these things. So who's to say you're not going to survive lowering your shoulder and just taking a tackle like a football player does. But instead, you give yourself up and slide. There's a dude already committed to try to take

you out. And he's already, that's the thing's the thing about the science of this type of play, the angles in this play. What you're going to run into is you've already got a defender that's going low because he knows he can't go high on you. Because if he goes high, that's going to be helmet to helmet. So he has to go low. So his body is already adjusting to go low to try to take you out. Then you go from being high to low so your head ends up right on the same level as this dude's shoulders and arms and head is you're putting yourself in harm's way by sliding the very thing that they tell you to do to protect yourself is what is putting you in harm's way do something different i'm surprised there's not a concussion

on those plays every fucking day. But no, I don't think the guy should be thrown out for the year. That's stupid. Now, might he be because the league is afraid of the response? Sure. They might have to. They're going to have to levy a giant punishment on this guy. I don't know what it's going to be, but it's going to be a big punishment because they have to. Now, especially because it's made noise, it's made news, it's made headlines. You got people talking talking about it everywhere it's not some innocuous play that just exists off in space that two people saw this is front and center people saw it he had a big name quarterback he ended up in that pose where his arm is straight in the air kind of like when we saw that happen to Tom Savage early that brought Deshaun Watson in his first game when Savage like was left for dead in

the end zone I mean that was a dead motherfucker so that's what they're gonna have to do they're gonna have to do that so but I just when I watch football I'm like guys I understand you're trying to protect people but the only way to fully protect people playing football is to not play football Josh Allen who I get is a guy that's a runner, he's a bigger, thicker dude, but Josh Allen lowers his shoulder. Like how often do you see Josh Allen slide? Probably want to see him slide more, but you see Josh Allen lowers his shoulder because he's out there and his mindset is to go get big yards. And again, look at Taysom Hill. Taysom Hill's out there getting hard yards. That dude doesn't slide.

His job is when he runs the football, and I know that he's a different animal because he's a quarterback, tight end, kick returner, receiver, punt blocker. He does it all. But Taysom Hill goes out there and lowers his shoulder and tries to get extra yards. And it's not like Trevor Lawrence is running on every play.

But like Baker Mayfield, he'll slide sometimes. Baker Mayfield, he'll lower the shoulder to get a couple extra yards too part of it is being a tough dude I'm not asking you to do it 20 times a game I'm asking you to not slide because you're literally putting yourself in more harm especially in that kind of setting on

the outside like that you're putting yourself in more harm there than you would be if you just lowered the shoulder and said let's go but yeah I don't know how much money he's going to lose in how many games but I'm sure the suspension is coming