On Saturday, the NFL announced that Arizona Cardinals safety Adrian Wilson had been fined $10,000 for a horse-collar tackle on Detroit running back Kevin Jones in the second quarter of Arizona's 31-21 win over the Lions. Wilson wasn't penalized at the time of the infraction, and this is true of many horse-collar tackles. On October 12, Dallas safety Roy Williams (for whom the recent supposed enforcement of the 15-yard unsportsmanlike conduct penalty is named) was fined $15,000 for his second horse-collar of the season.
When Williams brought Buffalo rookie running back Marshawn Lynch down by the back of his jersey, the officiating crew (led by Peter Morelli) originally called the 15-yard unnecessary roughness penalty, but changed the call to a five-yard incidental face mask. Only after the game tapes were reviewed by the league was Williams penalized in line with his offense, though Ron Winter's crew did give Williams the 15-yard call when he brought down Chicago tight end Desmond Clark on September 23. Williams was fined $12,500 for that one.
The horse-collar tackle was originally emphasized during the 2005 Competition Committee meetings. The "Roy Williams Rule" was put into effect in reaction to the fact that the maneuver in general, and specifically as it was used by Williams, was a danger to other players. The highest-profile case, of course, was the Williams tackle that broke Terrell Owens' right fibula in December of 2004. But in that first year, the penalty was only called once - on Green Bay tight end David Martin as he tackled Carolina cornerback Ken Lucas on an interception return.
The Competition Committee broadened the scope of how the penalty could be called before the 2006 season, but it took a while to catch on. Two different Arizona players, cornerback Antrel Rolle and defensive tackle Darnell Dockett, were fined for horse-collars on Seattle's Shaun Alexander in a week 2 game, but neither infraction was flagged at the time. Eventually, 14 of the penalties were called in 2006, which would lead one to believe that the NFL's officiating crews had caught up to the new game plan.
Because of the unspecific language in penalty data, we don't know which unnecessary roughness penalties are directly related to horse-collar calls (the league office was kind enough to give us data for a chapter in Pro Football Prospectus 2007 on the Competition Committee), but what we do know is that there's still a fundamental disconnect between the officials and the rulebook on this penalty. Several players who were fined after the fact weren't flagged at the time - not Wilson, nor Williams on one of two occasions, nor Chargers linebacker Shawne Merriman on Joseph Addai last Sunday ($7,500 fine), nor Bears linebacker Brian Urlacher on Vikings running back Chester Taylor in October ($7,500 fine). Obviously, this doesn't count the horse-collars that neither the crews nor the league catch.
Then-Cowboys coach Bill Parcells seemed to have his finger on the pulse of the problem when asked about it in April of 2005. "OK, we want to protect the players, but how's it going to be officiated?" he said. "Pass the rule, whatever you want, but make sure you know how you're going to officiate it and make sure the officials do it. The more (sub)jectivity you give to the officials, the more problems you're going to have."
Judgment calls are always tricky with officials, but this horse-collar business seems to be especially egregious in that the Competition Committee has set the parameters to make it enforceable, but the NFL appears to be laboring under the impression that if a player is fined after the fact, justice is somehow served. It isn't -- not for the players who are flagged and fined, and certainly not for the players who are in line for an increased chance of injury when they're brought down.