Ray Lewis Upset With Treatment of QBs
October 4, 2009 by David Kindervater
Filed under Baltimore Ravens
Baltimore Ravens linebacker Ray Lewis is upset with the National Football League’s rules regarding the preferential treatment of its quarterbacks. During today’s 27-21 loss to the New England Patriots, the Ravens’ defense was flagged twice for roughing-the-passer penalties, resulting in the continuation of two drives and then two scores for the Patriots.
Ray Lewis, Baltimore Ravens / Image: Zuma Press
On one play, it appeared that Ravens linebacker Terrell Suggs just swiped at and maybe brushed Patriots quarterback Tom Brady’s legs, but didn’t really even “touch” him (UPDATE: After re-watching this, Terrell Suggs did bump Tom, but it wasn’t anything more than that). I would have to agree with Ray—that kind of preferential treatment is taking the issue of safety too far. I can understand protecting the quarterback to a certain extent, but when the game becomes touch football—or in this case not even touch football—it’s pretty ridiculous.
Ray expressed his displeasure in no uncertain terms after the game:
“Without totally going off the wall here, it’s embarrassing to the game. You can’t do that. Brady’s good enough to make a play. Let him make his own play. You can’t end the play like that, and then throw the flag. No, man. The embarrassing part is when he understands that, and he walks up to one of us and says, ‘Oh, that was a cheap one.’ That’s not football. And that’s the embarrassing part about it. Two great teams going at it, let them go at it. But you can’t stop drives like that, you can’t throw flags and say, ‘Oh, you touched the quarterback.’ Put flags on them. Put a red buzzer on them, so if we touch them, they’re down. But you can’t do that, when a guy’s on the ground, it’s over. Both of the drives they got touchdowns on—personal fouls that kept the drives going. That’s embarrassing to our game. Fine me, do whatever you please. I’m not speaking against anybody. It’s embarrassing, for them to treat one person on the football field different than everybody else. That’s what’s embarrassing about this game. You can NOT do that. You gotta let the game take care of itself like it just did. But when you call penalties like that, it takes away from the love of the game, because you can get a Tom Brady to walk by you and say, ‘Oh, that’s a cheap one.’ Wow.”
Source: SportingNews.com
How are quarterbacks anymore open that a receiver going across the middle. What about the hitting that goes on during a kickoff, football is a contact sport. If quarterbacks can’t be tackled then you might as well protect the receivers, you know, you can’t tackle them until they actually catch and control the ball. As a fan I am getting disgusted on how rules like this have made many games a farce. This is I think still tackle football. Should a running back who takes a handoff and finds a linebacker about to pummel him be protected so he won’t get hurt. While many rules have made the game more enjoyable, this rule stinks, and like pro basketball the game being played today is nothing like what the inventors wanted.