In fact, in one case this weekend, the lineman had the sack in the opponent's endzone - a certain safety imminent. But he released the quarterback, who ended up making a play for positive yardage. I am almost 100% sure that in both of these situations, the defensive lineman released because he was afraid of getting a personal foul for roughing the passer.
This is football we're talking about here. Last I heard, it was a contact sport. People get blocked, hit, and tackled. It's a rough sport for tough guys. This whole protecting the quarterback thing has gotten way out of hand.
Even Troy Aikman agrees with me. He expressed this opinion recently during a game broadcast - that the rules to protect the quarterback are being too strictly enforced. Now I like Troy Aikman, but that dude was a pretty-boy quarterback if there ever was one. If he thinks the rule is too strict, then it is really too strict.
When it is having an affect on the game, like in the cases I mentioned this past weekend, it is way too much. I know that pretty much all the decision-makers in both the NFL and in NCAA football read this blog all the time, looking for advice. So here it is: Let's set the expectation that quarterbacks have to be football players. They have to be able to take a hit. Let's keep protecting them, like other players, from unnecessary roughness, but let's stop taking special extremes to protect these guys, for the sake of a decent game.
