11-28-2019, 08:08 AM
Jordan Richards does something useful Drew Bledsoe Jersey , shows absurdity of new NFL helmet rule “They’re just calling this new helmet rule a lot because it’s the preseason, it’ll probably be back to normal once the real season starts”-People who see snow falling in New England and think “It’ll probably just be a couple inches, I don’t need to stock up on pizza and beer, it’ll be fine”(For those of you who stock up on bread and milk and eggs before a snowstorm, we’ll trade off - French toast at your house for breakfast, then dinner at the pizza and beer lodge. People helping people!)As the Jordan Richards era in New England enters its fourth season, the second-round pick from Stanford just might have made his greatest non-special-teams contribution to the game of football besides chipping in to bring a Super Bowl title to one of the other most obnoxious cities in the NFL.And it’s because he made a tackle! On a big old tight end, at that!Look, even if we can’t agree on deep dish or New York style, french toast or pancakes, or IPAs or stouts, my scientific assessment of everyone I’ve ever watched football with for more than 15 seconds is we all want the same thing - everybody loves the big hits, and nobody wants to see guys getting blasted in the head like the hit on Jerry Rice that made Rodney Harrison the NFL’s most hated player back in the day. Right? Right. That said, surely you all saw this excellent enforcer move from Cardinals safety Travell Dixon last week that wasn’t anywhere near a headshot and...well, let’s roll the video.When the refs throwing flags make you do the shrug emoji in real life:That brings us to Jordan Richards on Thursday night against Philly’s rookie tight end Dallas Goedert, and thanks to Richards taking a couple seconds to square up and take his shot, we can see him get set, lower his shoulder Womens David Andrews Jersey , go for the body shot, and, well....Aaaaaaaand that’s a flag. It’s clearly intended to be a shoulder hit, only, you know, Richards’ Stanford-educated head is attached to his shoulders.Fortunately, since I’m an ideas guy, I think I can help.This’ll be a direct spinoff of my idea to fix touchdown reviews, which is this: if there’s any doubt on whether a player scored a touchdown or not, the play gets presented to a class of third-graders. If they say it’s a touchdown, it’s a touchdown. And then they get a pizza party for their hard work.So instead of this janky-ass helmet rule, our new benchmark for helmet hits is the Vontaze Burfict rule. If it looks like Vontaze headhunting out there, flag it. If it looks like a good old-fashioned Bam-Bam Kam Chancellor shot, unless someone’s hurt, play on. Feel free to substitute James Harrison, Bernard Pollard, Rodney Harrison, or your cheapshot artist of choice.See http://www.patriotslockerroom.com/authen...gan-jersey , we don’t even need elementary schoolers for that one!All the heads-up tackling, all the instructional videos, and all the Dean Blandino sorry-not-sorry Monday morning “explanations” of penalties aren’t going to make one percent of difference if they’re going to insist on throwing flags over a player’s body moving in unison with...itself.And speaking of which, what happens when the first player tries to twist his neck away from a hit to avoid a penalty, and then god knows what happens to their neck when a bang-bang play hits the wrong way in real time?For what it’s worth, Bill Belichick all but says point-blank here that nobody really knows what we’re doing anymore:Ironically, that might end up being one of Bill’s more insightful answers. FOXBOROUGH, Mass. (AP) — Jamie Collins was a Super Bowl champion in 2014 who found himself banished to pro football’s purgatory two years later as his New England Patriots marched toward another appearance in the championship game.Now Collins is back with the Patriots, looking to reassert himself amid a talented group of linebackers following two-plus seasons with the Cleveland Browns, with whom he failed to live up to the expectations borne of a multi-million dollar contract.After the first day of training camp on the practice fields behind Gillette Stadium, Collins said he sees his return as the start of a new chapter in his career.“I’m very excited,” said Collins, 29. “It’s another day. It’s our job, it’s my job, so what it is here, whatever my job is, I have a great opportunity to be back in a position to do your job and what you’re really good at. I’m very happy to be back.”Collins was the Patriots’ second-round draft choice in 2013 out of Southern Mississippi, the 52nd overall selection Youth Sony Michel Jerseys , and he quickly established himself as an impact player. In 2014 he had a career-high 138 tackles, including 91 solo hits, as the Patriots advanced to a 28-24 victory over Seattle in the Super Bowl.Collins earned a Pro Bowl berth in 2015, but amid concerns about his undisciplined play and speculation he would leave through free agency, the Patriots traded him to the Browns at the 2016 trade deadline for a third-round draft choice.“That’s just the league,” Collins said. “That’s the business. You just keep doing what you’re doing, keep working and keep moving forward.”The Browns gave him a four-year, $50 million contract entering the 2017 season, but injuries sidelined him after six games. Collins started all 16 games in 2018, with 104 tackles and four sacks, but the Browns shed his huge salary when they released him this March.Two months later, the Patriots brought Collins back to the fold. But on Thursday, Bill Belichick made it clear the veteran has to earn his keep.“I’m hoping the same thing for every player, that they’ll go out and compete, and earn whatever role they earn with the team. I can’t control that for anybody,” Belichick said.To that end, Collins has not yet been given a number that’s part of the convention for his position group. He wore 91 in his first tenure with the Patriots, currently worn by defensive lineman Deatrich Wise Sony Michel Jerseys Stitched , and his Cleveland number (51) is worn by linebacker Ja’Whaun Bentley. Like many rookies and free agents that temporarily have been assigned unusual numbers, Collins has been issued No. 8.Collins has figured out that hard work will be his path back into Belichick’s good graces.“We just come out here and work and do what we’ve got to do,” the linebacker said. “It’s Day 1. We don’t know who’s going to be where and what’s going to be what. I came out here, I put my head down and I’m working. I look up at the finish line.”Collins understands there are high expectations for the Patriots’ defensive unit, particularly the linebackers, and he wants to be a part of their success.“You’ve got to have very high expectations,” he said. “You don’t want to have low expectations. If you don’t have anything to work for, then what are you working for? I would say that’s a very good thing to have.”Veteran linebacker Dont’a Hightower, who joined the Patriots a year before Collins, said he sees a player working to pick up where he left off.“I like to think so,” Hightower said. “He’s out here, he’s doing his thing, he’s communicating and he’s making the calls. It feels good to have him back.”