The Pittsburgh Steelers had a bad day at the office yesterday, to say the least. Sometimes they literally couldn’t get out of their own way, like when CB Patrick Peterson fell on S Minkah Fitzpatrick and injured his knee, the severity of which is unknown.
Sometimes they couldn’t get out of the way of others, like just before that, when S Damontae Kazee launched himself into Indianapolis Colts WR Michael Pittman Jr. Both ended up out of the game, the latter due to a concussion. Kazee was ejected—though Chris Hoke doesn’t necessarily think he should have been.
“When you watched it in real time, it looked nasty. It really looked bad, it looked like he led with his helmet”, the former Steelers DL and current NFL commentator said on the KDKA Extra Point postgame show.
“But then when you go and you see the replay – it was a shoulder to the helmet – yeah it was bad. It was a very, very hard hit. But for them not to go back and review [it] before they just tossed him out of the game was tough”, he went on. “In that moment, I believe they should have taken a deep breath, go back and watch the film and see exactly how it played out. I don’t believe they would have thrown him [out] if they would have done that”.
The play in question came in the middle of the second quarter, at which point Kazee had already recorded five tackles in the game. Pittman laid out to attempt a diving catch that took him directly into the safety’s line of fire.
The defender lowered his head, perhaps aiming for the ball, but he did very clearly and very violently hit Pittman in the head, bending him backward in a rather awkward position. It does, however, appear that the contact is with Kazee’s shoulder—perhaps even his arm—and not with his helmet.
I don’t know that that makes a difference, however. Disqualifications are not regimented barring repeated unsportsmanlike conduct fouls. They are subject to interpretation. “The player may be disqualified if the action is judged by the official(s) to be flagrant”, the rulebook states for an unnecessary roughness penalty.
I agree that it looks worse in real time than it might in slow motion, especially in terms of attempting to ascertain intent. But I don’t imagine there will be too many people defending Kazee on this play. I don’t think for a second that he was head-hunting on this play, but he clearly didn’t do all he could do to avoid serious harm in this situation.
