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NFL says Jarvis Landry's dangerous hit on Bills safety didn't warrant ejection
One play that slipped between the cracks a bit from Week 7 was the hit from Miami Dolphins wide receiver Jarvis Landry to the head of Buffalo Bills safety Aaron Williams, which put him in the hospital.
Hard to believe such a play wouldn’t get more attention in this era of safety-conscious football, but we were curious to hear what the league’s explanation would be on the play after the fact. Now we have it. Landry was assessed a 15-yard penalty, but was not kicked out of the game. Bills head coach Rex Ryan thought the hit was dirty enough to warrant Landry being automatically ejected.
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Here’s what NFL head of officials Dean Blandino said about the play:
“For an automatic ejection … we have very few automatic ejections in the game today,” Blandino said. “If you get two unsportsmanlike conduct fouls in the same game, if you put your hands on a game official in an aggressive way, those are automatic ejections … punching an opponent.”
Landry was blocking on the play, working back against the grain toward Williams. Watch as Landry launches himself into Williams, leaving his feet and initiating a brutally dangerous hit that seriously injured the safety and knocked him out. Watch the hit play out from the original broadcast on Sunday:
Although Blandino agreed with the call that was made on the field, he argued on NFL Network that it was not flagrant enough and that it didn’t appear that it was Landry’s intention (loaded word) to injure Williams.
“It’s certainly a foul,” Blandino said. “It’s certainly something that we’ll review for potential discipline, but it’s still a football play, and it’s tough to read intent there. That’s why the officials kept him in the game.
“It’s not an automatic ejection. It’s up to the discretion of the crew, and they didn’t feel like it was flagrant enough to throw [Landry] out of the game.”
Ryan clearly felt otherwise. He called the hit “totally unnecessary” and wondered aloud whether the college football guidelines for targeting might need to make their way into the NFL game.
“Did [Landry] target? Did he launch? Yeah, he did all those. You can check every box you want,” Ryan said. “Was it a dirty hit? Yeah. It was unnecessary. And as I see it, it was unsportsmanlike.”
And while targeting has at times been a sore spot for the college sport — essentially asking referees and replay officials to do their own intent judgment during a game — it appears to have the right aim in terms of protecting the players and making things more safe. The good news for Williams is that he was attending team meetings this week, but doctors are still evaluating Williams for precaution.
Landry said he apologized to Williams for the hit and wished he could take it back but added: “Call it what you want … it’s football.”
Apparently, Blandino agreed, which was why Landry was penalized in the game but allowed to keep playing after it.
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Eric Edholm is a writer for Shutdown Corner on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at edholm@yahoo-inc.com or follow him on Twitter!
