Quote:
Originally Posted by bababui
What???
An overzealous hit is one where the tackler mistimes the arrival of the punt by a fraction of a second. In this instance, the ball wasnt even in the tacklers eyesight. It was a viscous premeditated act of violence. It was also a hit that is far outside the rules of the game of football; so far outside of the rules that if I were the local prosecutor I might take it to a grand jury and try to get an aggravated assault indictment against the tackler.
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I do agree that he should be suspended for up to 5 games but im not so sure it was premeditated. I dont think he was thinking that he was going to level smith even if he signaled fair catch. As you said he was unaware of where the ball was. All he saw was the guy getting ready to catch it. I did not see smith signal for a fair catch or did he?
Seems to me that Wesley seemed to hesitate for a sec as he puts his arms down. As if he was unsure of whether he could hit the guy or not. Yes he should know but players dont know every rule you would think they should know. So maybe he figured if he let up the guy would break one.
Its hard to just turn off the aggressiveness. Like when Tatum hit Stingly with a clean hit in preseason and people wonder why he hit Stingly. But preseason or regular preseason i think players are taught to play aggressive.
Now having said that i am not saying Wesley was not at fault. Clearly he was and deserves to be suspended. I just dont agree that he did it on purpose in that he planned it or intended to hurt Smith.