NFL Needs to Protect Its Assets

This football season has been defined, in large part, by late hitters who have taken out two of the game’s great quarterbacks, Donovan McNabb and Carson Palmer.

Last September, the hit that felled McNabb led to season-ending surgery.

Last week, in the first quarter of the first round of the playoffs, Palmer went down and out.

The carnage is happening despite NFL efforts to prevent just that. League policy, in all cases of doubt, is to punish late hitters. Game officials have repeatedly been so advised.

What these two incidents demonstrate, among other things, is how hard it is to control the hitters in a sport that is as intrinsically ferocious as football.

In a happier scene, Palmer and McNabb could have been opposing quarterbacks in the Super Bowl on Feb. 5

For, in last year’s game, McNabb led Philadelphia, which in preseason forecasts remained a favorite in this year’s.

Palmer, when cut down, was battling Pittsburgh quarterback Ben Roethlisberger for his first playoff victory.

Injured on the play when he delivered the great pass of the day -- a 66-yard bomb setting up the game’s first touchdown -- Palmer was hurt after letting the ball go.

The man who got him, 299-pound defensive end Kimo von Oelhoffen, came in not only late but low, striking Palmer’s knees. The referee, Larry Semmers, whose primary responsibility is keeping an eye on the quarterback, apparently didn’t see it.

The TV report, as relayed from the officials, was that von Oelhoffen was blocked into Palmer. It didn’t happen that way. As the side-view replay clearly shows, von Oelhoffen drove both his hands into the blocker’s chest, then cut hard and dived inward toward Palmer.

Von Oelhoffen wasn’t pushed or otherwise aided. He was diving on his own initiative.

A Steeler veteran, Von Oelhoffen didn’t have to hit him -- the ball was gone -- and didn’t have to hit him low.

Why?

Why would a Steeler do such a thing? The worst answer might be the right one: It could have been a blood-feud payback.

A month ago in Pittsburgh, Bengal middle linebacker Odell Thurman attacked Steeler quarterback Roethlisberger knee-high.

Afterward, Roethlisberger, in a publicized complaint, took exception to the hit.

At absolutely the first opportunity for payback, von Oelhoffen ruined Palmer and the Bengals, whose new coach, Marvin Lewis, had in three years led them from 2-14 to 12-5 and the division title.

Palmer, unlike Roethlisberger, has declined to whine about the attack, but Lewis has pointedly and publicly identified von Oelhoffen’s blow as a late hit. And in the circumstances, that demands the NFL’s largest fine if a widely based defensive crusade against quarterbacks is to be headed off.

Lewis rose to prominence as the 1996-2001 defensive coordinator in Baltimore, where the 2000 Ravens became the only team in a 14-year passing era to win the Super Bowl with defense and a run-based offense.

Basically a defensive team, those Ravens won their last three games, including the Super Bowl, only after all three of their opponents had in those games lost their quarterbacks in contact.

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Two Double Fouls

Curiously, in the Bengals’ first playoff start after their biggest regular-season run in many years, the season has ended the way it began for Philadelphia -- which had also been a dominating team.

For the Eagles and Bengals, it all ended with a double foul.

The von Oelhoffen hit on Palmer was both late and low. On opening day in Atlanta, Falcon nose tackle Chad Lavalais not only hit McNabb late, he lowered his head to hit him with the crown of his helmet.

Although it’s hard to see what else the league could do to shut down its lawless minority, the obvious truth is that if the illegal hitters can’t be kept from going after quarterbacks, NFL teams will in time have to get along without most of their most talented and creative artists.

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Young, Bush, Leinart?

The three candidates for first choice in the NFL draft -- Vince Young of Texas, and Reggie Bush and Matt Leinart of USC -- are so closely matched in pro football capability that the difference will only be seen in the drafting team’s notion of where it wants to go in the next several years.

If the team that gets him -- either in the draft or after a trade with the drafting team -- wants to be led by a big, fast quarterback with a passer’s accuracy and a running back’s ability, it will invest in Young.

If it already has a great quarterback, it will go for Bush.

If it wants a new player who already has characteristic NFL skills as a quarterback and passer, it will take Leinart.

Young is perhaps the most unusual young player to move into pro ball. He isn’t just a shotgun quarterback who scrambles like a tailback. He is the centerpiece in a novel system that could be transported intact into the NFL.

It is a shotgun-crossbuck-option system in which, after the play is underway, Young often decides who is going to run the ball.

As the play begins, Young, standing in shotgun-quarterback position with a running back by his side, takes every snap and heads left or right as, at the same time, the running back crosses past him going the other way.

There are always three options for the defense to consider. Either the running back will have the ball as he bucks into the defense or, on the other side of the play, Young will carry or throw it.

Young reads the defense from the instant he takes the snap.

He appears to read the defensive end first. If the end is charging for the running back, Young keeps the ball and races around him. If the end is waiting for Young, he usually hands off.

He’s an amazing talent. Having Young is like having 12 men on the field, an extra tailback as well as a good passer. And 12 against 11 are hard to beat, college or pro.

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Leinart Better

The difference between Young and Leinart is that Leinart is ready now for the NFL, whereas Young will have to be coached a bit.

For one thing, Young throws sidearm, like a second baseman throwing to first, nullifying his height. He will have to be taught to throw over the top and otherwise polished as a passer.

Leinart led USC to 38 points in the Rose Bowl game, driving the offense to five touchdowns and a field goal. The scoring assault on Texas included four long second-half touchdown moves.

In the early going, Leinart stayed on pace to produce the Trojans’ usual 50 points -- had they gone for that first quarter field goal and a quick 10-0 lead over what was then the second best team in the land -- and if Bush hadn’t tried that downfield lateral.

An impromptu lateral is always a mistake for an offensive player who has already gained first-down yardage or more.

In this instance, Bush, before flinging that lateral, had on that play set up what should have been another USC touchdown.

With a slightly less predictable Trojan offense, Bush could also have been on the field, as a threat to either run or catch, on LenDale White’s fourth-quarter, fourth-down play that just missed, setting up Young to be the star.

The running play was the right call with the wrong personnel.

It’s quite impossible to think of any other team, past or present, that could have beaten the 2005 Trojans.

In any case, USC had the better team -- and in NFL terms, the better quarterback -- but was beaten by a one-man band.

What a band.

As for Bush, he earned and deserved the Heisman, and with the right team he’ll be an NFL standout.

His Rose Bowl production was down only because the Texas defense committed to taking him out of the game.

Any good defense can do that to any running back or receiver but not to a quarterback.

Which is one reason Leinart is my first draft choice, particularly if he strengthens his upper body with dedicated weightlifting, as Bush does.

Leinart not only plays the most important position, he’s ready now to play it in the NFL.

Of all the passers in the country, college or pro, none excels Leinart in the mechanics or the art of passing.

On a pass play, he drops, reads, selects the right target, and throws the ball with the best of the pros.

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Manning’s Problem

The Indianapolis Colts can beat Pittsburgh if they play their best game today. In a rare matchup of top-caliber NFL teams that can run and pass, much depends on which scores first.

If Colt quarterback Peyton Manning jumps away to a lead of 10-0 or 14-0, he can control the game with his stretch-play offense, featuring running back Edgerrin James.

If, however, Manning has to fight from behind all day, quarterback Roethlisberger wins the game for Pittsburgh.

Under pressure, Roethlisberger, who isn’t as flashy as Manning, is unflappable whether ahead or behind, and that’s Pittsburgh’s edge.

It is a game that will come down to character and toughness. The Steelers have that. The Colts still have to prove they have it.

The second game today, granting a few assumptions, will be won by the Chicago Bears over Carolina.

The Bears win it, assuming their quarterback, Rex Grossman, plays a full game injury-free; assuming their coach, Lovie Smith, plays aggressive football the way he played it last summer before Grossman was lost to another of his many injuries, and assuming the Bear running game and defense are as sound as ever.

The great danger for the Panthers is that they’ll perform like a typical Southern team in Chicago’s winter weather.

Their quarterback, Jake Delhomme, is a big-play passer who is capable of winning only if he doesn’t have to connect consistently on a long series of passes.

He isn’t as reliable or technically sound as Grossman at his best. And Panther Coach John Fox is too conservative to do much damage to any opponent playing lively offense.