Looking at the amount of spearing and head to head contact we saw last weekend (including Weddle’s shot on Evans), maybe the NFL needs to adopt a targeting foul with an ejection escalator. If the league is serious about player safety, and as this is where most players end up with concussions and neck injuries, it might be time for the rule. It seems to be working in college.
I would have thought that the NFL already had something in place. Guess I was wrong. FWIW I do think Weddle should have gotten more than a 15yd personal foul. Perhaps the League will look into it further.
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It really surprised me that he was allowed to stay in the game.
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You’re not alone. I thought he would have been ejected too.
I thought that his hit was close enough to a bang-bang play that it maybe shouldn’t have been a penalty. The hit looked really violent from behind, but from the side (end zone camera) it didn’t look as bad. There was some helmet-to-helmet contact, but most of the force was into the receiver’s chest.
Weddle would have only had the time it took for the ball in the receivers hand to fall to the ground to let up. If the receiver had made the catch and Weddle knocked the ball loose or pushed the receiver out of bounds, would it have been a good tackle? I don’t know the NFL rules around unnecessary roughness or defenseless receivers.
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I don’t remember seeing the endzone view. So your perspective helps.