For 14 years, John Runyan made his name for being one of the best, and dirtiest players in the game. His work for the Philadelphia Eagles was impressive. Nine years in Philadelphia, a pro-bowl to his credit and a member of some of the best offensive lines in Eagle history. Yet while his career was one of gathering fines for malicious plays, Runyan now has a very different job as Vice President of policy and rules administration. His job- to enforce and fine players who made malicious and illegal acts on the field. While the NFL and Runyan have dished out fines week after week, there was one particular play that they did NOT fine that has NFL fans talking.
Clowney’s hit wasn’t the first time the player had been accused of an illegal hit. Last year Clowney was fined $40,000 on a late hit on Nick Foles in a do-or-die game that gave the Eagles a chance to get into the postseason. This season, Clowney’s hit on Wentz not only knocked out Carson Wentz in his first playoff start, but he was not fined for said hit.
Yesterday, John Runyan went on 94.1 WIP Sports Radio in Philadelphia to defend his ruling that Clowney’s hit on Wentz was in fact perfectly legal.
“He’s (Wentz) not a defenseless player because he’s not catching a pass,” Runyan had said to host Angelo Cataldi. “He’s a runner so he doesn’t have the roughing the passer protection. So you go down the list of stuff in unnecessary roughness—it’s not out of bounds, he was not blocking someone out of bounds. His forward progress had not been stopped, and he had slid feet first. He was not on the ground.”
Runyan talks about the fact that Wentz is reaching for extra yards. The question that many Eagle fans bring up is from a similar play in Week 2 against Atlanta.
Carson Wentz was ruled short of the goal-line because he had given himself up on a head-first dive. Curious that one play was considered the player giving himself up but on a similar play he wasn’t.
Another question to Runyan from Cataldi was simple- could this be considered spearing. From the photo above, Clowney clearly leaves his feet to make contact with the back of Wentz’s head. According to the “Use of Helmet” – Rule 12, Section 2, Article 8, a personal foul penalty is called when a player:
- Player lowers his helmet to establish a linear body posture prior to initiating and making
contact with the helmet - Unobstructed path to his opponent
- Contact clearly avoidable and player delivering the blow had other options
Runyan’s response to this was simple:
“The first thing to contact Wentz is Clowney’s arm to his hip and back area. This was helmet to helmet contact. There was incidental helmet contact after there was already a tackle being initiated to another part of his body.” said Runyan.
In Runyan’s opinion, the shoulder made contact with Wentz BEFORE the helmet did. Now, Runyan gave his overall for his ruling on not fining Clowney for this hit. Vice President of Officiating, Mike Pereira, was quoted during the interview saying the hit was clearly illegal and dirty.
Yet Runyan has remained steadfast in his decision.
So what does this mean for the future of the QB position when it comes to mobile QB’s. Theoretically, under the guidelines that NFL has now deemed fair and unfair, any QB diving headfirst is no longer considered giving himself up. Wentz’s week two against the Falcons was apparently the outlier and an incorrect call.
Any QB falling forward, must now be considered a runner and it must now be deemed worthy to let all contact go once a QB is in the process of going down. Forget keeping the QB’s safe. Any mobile QB outside the pocket is now fair game for full body weight to be distributed on them as they hit the ground.
The careers of some of our favorite signal-callers: Wentz, Wilson, Murray. Jackson, Rodgers must now prepare for NFL rules to change based on which direction they slide from.
While Runyan may think he answered some of the questions surrounding Clowney’s hit: the response and precedent the NFL has set for mobile QB’s will be far worse than just simple concussions.
And with a year full of officiating gaffes and questions: for the NFL to respond in defense of their refs may alter the way the game is coached and played in the long run.
Mandatory Credit: Bill Streicher-USA TODAY Sports
