Shaziers hit was legal, should have been a TD

[bengals67]

(01-18-2016, 07:35 PM)BengalChris Wrote: The league is wrong by their own rules. Leading with the helmet outside the tackle box like that is a penalty and Burfict has been penalized for a play with much less impact, which I've linked below. In this link, you will see that the Stephen Hill, Jets' receiver, was well established as runner, more so that Gio was and the hit wasn't nearly as bad as what Gio got.

http://cdn1.sbnation.com/assets/3496249/burfict.gif?_ga=1.104010560.1799217387.1453155850



Here's the article covering the fine and penalty:

http://www.cincyjungle.com/fines-suspensions/2013/11/1/5056070/bengals-linebacker-vontaze-burfict-fined-21000-by-the-nfl

Now here's the hit on Gio, which was not flagged or fined:

http://www.si.com/nfl/2016/01/09/giovani-bernard-hard-hit-steelers-bengals-video



How is Burfict's hit spearing when Shazier's isn't? Makes no sense. The NFL is talking out of both sides of it's mouth.

Shaizer's hit was "legal" because they screwed up on the TD catch and no flags thrown on DeCastro and Porter and the flag thrown on Williams. If they admit that Shazier's hit was illegal ( as it plainly was under the rule on hitting someone with your helmet outside the box) they are pretty much admitting that the officials were completely incompetent and threw the game to the Steelers.

The NFL better get a handle on this because if it happens again in Cincinnati there will be a riot. They have not seen debris thrown on the field like they will get if anything similar happens at the next Steeler game in Cincinnati.

They need to get the leaders of both teams in the same room and document instructions that pre game smack talk and celebrations of vicious hits will result in disqualification and then the rules need to be applied equally. Flags should include efforts by Steeler coaches to goad Bengal players and Steeler players trying to goad Bengal players with dirty plays like DeCastro tackling Burfict and poking Gillberry in the eye.

Most importantly, the most profitable professional league needs to hire full-time officials who study game films full-time with supervisors to get consistency in rules applications and personal fouls and interference calls need to be subject to review by reply.