N.F.L. May Suspend Players for Harsh Hits

Anderson also said the competition committee could consider rules changes in the off-season to ban all hits using the helmet.

On Sunday, violent helmet hits sent linebacker Zack Follett to the hospital on a backboard (he was released Monday) and caused receiver DeSean Jackson to forget the play on which he was injured. linebacker James Harrison knocked two players out of the game with head injuries.

More egregious was the hit by New England safety Brandon Meriweather on Baltimore tight end Todd Heap. Meriweather launched himself into Heap, a clear violation of the rules (Meriweather was penalized). Anderson called that hit “agitating” to him.

“The way football is played, it’s going to be difficult, but it may be necessary,” Anderson said of banning all hits involving the helmet. “All things will be on the table as we evaluate and look at this. It’s critically important. It’s not just a career-threatening situation for a guy like DeSean Jackson. But maybe life-altering.

“Very frankly, we don’t want to see another Darryl Stingley on our watch,” Anderson continued, referring to the wide receiver who was paralyzed by a Jack Tatum hit in a 1978 preseason game and .

The N.F.L. has focused on player safety with increasing urgency in recent years, as study after study has indicated the long-term effects of head injuries. But with so many scary hits in such a short time, opinion seemed to coalesce quickly for the first time Sunday that while the N.F.L.’s intent with the rules change clamping down on such hits was good, its follow-through needed to be stronger than fines to enact a sea change in a generation of players raised on highlight reels glorifying big hits.

Anderson, who sounded agitated Monday morning, said he was struck by comments made Sunday night on ’s pregame show by the former coach and the former safety Rodney Harrison, who called for suspensions for helmet-to-helmet hits. Harrison had a reputation as one of the hardest hitters in the game, and some opponents considered him a dirty player. On Sunday, Harrison said that when he played, fines did not get his attention, but suspensions did.

“They underscored what folks have surmised, and that is, fines don’t do it,” Anderson said. “Fines, in some people’s situations, are just the cost of doing business.”

George Atallah, a spokesman for the players union, said that although the union supported any rules changes that would improve player safety, it was equally concerned about having a fair and transparent process for suspensions and appeals.

John Mara, the Giants’ president and a member of the competition committee, said Monday that an attempt to write rules to eliminate all hits with the helmet might be extreme. Games are played with remarkable speed and ferocity, and each rules change demands that players and coaches modify the way they play.

Running backs like the ’ Adrian Peterson lower their heads to deliver a blow as they are being tackled, and defensive players are taught from Pop Warner days to “explode” into their target. When members of the competition committee meet with current players at the scouting combine each February, players, most of them defenders, say that rules changes are making it impossible for them to do their jobs.

Mara said, “Our response is, we don’t think it’s impossible, and No. 2, if we have a choice between making it impossible to do your job and protecting somebody from a concussion or a serious neck injury, we’ll choose the latter.”

Mara said he, too, was troubled by the series of plays Sunday. He said that a few years ago, it seemed to him that leading with the head was becoming the preferred tackling technique, but that rules against launching at a player seem to have reduced the number. He also cautioned against overreacting, citing predictions that the injuries would increase this season after a spate of injuries in Week 1.

“These are bang-bang plays,” Mara said. “They have a fraction of a second to make a decision. I’m not sure I want to go crazy over what happened yesterday. I want to see at the end of the year. We look at tape of every single one of those hits. Then you have a good understanding of if there is a trend here.

“To me, it would be almost impossible to legislate it completely out of the game.”

Bookmark and Share

Falcons Score in Final Minute to Outlast Ravens

The Falcons were up, 20-7, after Ryan went to White on a 4-yard touchdown pass with 11 minutes 34 seconds remaining. Baltimore rallied behind Joe Flacco’s two touchdown passes, the second a 9-yarder to Todd Heap with 1:05 left.

Back came the Falcons, who improved to 18-1 at home with Ryan as the starter. He needed less than a minute to pull off an 80-yard drive, hooking up with Michael Jenkins on a third-down pass along the sideline before going back to White for the winner.

White appeared to push off on Josh Wilson, but there was no flag, and he cruised into the end zone.

MEETING TO DISCUSS FAVRE Jenn Sterger, the woman to whom is accused of sending lewd photos and inappropriate text messages, met with investigators from the , her manager said.

The manager, Phil Reese, said in an e-mail that Sterger met with league officials and that “we cooperated fully by providing them with substantial materials in our possession. We now await the N.F.L.’s decision.”

The N.F.L. is examining whether Favre, now the quarterback of the , sent Sterger messages and photos while he was with in 2008 and she was a game hostess for the team.

The N.F.L. spokesman Greg Aiello said the league had no comment.

Favre could face disciplinary action under the league’s personal-conduct policy.

The accusations arose last month in a report on the Web site Deadspin.

The site said Sterger would not agree to an interview and acknowledged that it paid a third party for the texts, voicemails and explicit photos, said to be of Favre, that it posted online.

Favre, a three-time most valuable player, is dealing with two ankle fractures and elbow tendinitis, and took 10 stitches in his chin after getting hit against the on Oct. 31.

PLAYER COLLAPSES Cleveland Browns linebacker Marcus Benard collapsed in the locker room and was taken to a hospital, where he is undergoing tests, a team spokesman said.

Benard was sitting in a chair in front of his locker when he fell to the carpeted floor. Some of his teammates, who were getting dressed for practice, thought he may have been joking before linebacker Matt Roth yelled for a trainer.

Benard did not appear to lose consciousness and his eyes were open as three members of Cleveland’s training staff checked on him.

Benard, who leads the Browns with 4.5 sacks this season, was sitting up and appeared alert when he was wheeled out of the team’s facility and placed in an ambulance. He collapsed just as the 45-minute news media interview period was ending.

The Browns host the Jets on Sunday.

MERRIMAN OUT FOR SUNDAY A nagging injury is preventing linebacker Shawne Merriman from getting off on the right foot with his new team, the .

Coach Chan Gailey said that Merriman would not play against the this weekend, and would be out indefinitely after aggravating an injury to his right Achilles’ tendon a day earlier.

The injury, which occurred in Merriman’s first practice with the team and only a week after he was claimed off waivers from San Diego, is to the same tendon that bothered him for much of the past year.

MIGRAINE SIDELINES HARVIN Minnesota’s Percy Harvin missed practice for the second straight day because of a migraine headache.

Coach Brad Childress said Harvin, a wide receiver and kickoff returner, was visiting a doctor again after his absence on Wednesday. Harvin, who has a history of migraines, is also dealing with a sprained left ankle he sustained in the Oct. 31 game at New England.

Bookmark and Share

Smith Has Falcons Primed for a Long Playoff Run

FLOWERY BRANCH, Ga.. The Atlanta Falcons are sitting atop the NFC standings at 7-2 and they’ve won three straight games.

Mike Smith thinks they deserve a break.

The coach gave his players the weekend off so they can recuperate from winning two close games in five days.

The Falcons feel their 26-21 victory Thursday over Baltimore proves they are as competitive as any team in the NFL.

“You can sense it when they walk into the locker room from practice, when they’re out there on the field, and this is a very close-knit group,” Smith said Friday. “These are men who know what their jobs are.”

The win against Baltimore is the kind of collective team performance that could give Atlanta confidence it can advance deep into the playoffs.

The defense held Baltimore scoreless on its first five possessions, and despite allowing touchdowns on three of the ‘ last five, played well overall.

Defensive ends , Kroy Biermann and Chauncey Davis combined for five solo tackles, one pass breakup, two sacks and two additional quarterback hits. Brent Grimes was beaten on two touchdown passes, but the left-side cornerback had the game’s only interception, and it led to a third-quarter field goal.

The offense built a 10-point lead as quarterback Matt Ryan ran a no-huddle offense exclusively throughout the first half. On the winning drive, the Falcons returned to the no-huddle, and Ryan completed three passes, including Roddy White’s second touchdown catch of the game.

Atlanta’s power running game was held to 60 yards rushing on 23 carries. Reserve Jason Snelling, who caught a 28-yard TD pass, played a bigger role than starter Michael Turner.

“We have definable roles for guys, but those roles can change,” Smith said. “They’re an unselfish group, and they know they have to be accountable to one another if we’re going to be successful.”

Smith, whose three-year stay in Atlanta includes a 22-1 record when his team begins the fourth quarter with a lead, was pleased with how well Ryan ran the no-huddle offense.

In his rookie season as the NFL’s No. 3 overall draft pick of 2008, Ryan called between 10-12 plays from the no-huddle. Now he calls 30-32 plays.

Atlanta’s no-huddle formations aren’t so much designed to speed up the pace of the offense as they are used to keep a defense from disguising coverages.

Before the snap, when his receivers take their place at the line of scrimmage, Ryan instructs each with a different route based on defensive alignment.

Ryan used the no-huddle throughout the first half to build a 10-point lead, and the Falcons brought it back on the winning drive.

“I thought he did a good job of getting us into the right plays based on the looks,” Smith said. “And the attack at the end of the game, you can’t operate any better than that.”

Though the Falcons’ offensive identity is based on a power running game, they changed their approach against Baltimore. In the first half, Ryan handed the ball to his running backs 14 times for 34 meager yards, but he completed 20 of 28 passes for 160 yards and one touchdown.

“We feel confident we know the system really well and we felt that it would keep some of what Baltimore did (defensively) vanilla,” Ryan said. “The plan wasn’t necessarily to come out and throw it on every snap, but that’s just kind of the looks we were getting.”

Smith loved the outcome for a team that’s 27-14 in his tenure and pushing for its second playoff berth in three years. He never doubted the outcome Thursday after Baltimore took a one-point lead with 1:05 remaining.

“There was an air of confidence about what needed to be done and what we were going to get done,” Smith said. “It was a heck of a drive in the last 65 seconds for us to win the game.”

Bookmark and Share