Pittsburgh Steelers veteran safety Ryan Clark has said he’s grown “disgusted with the NFL” and the way he thinks the Competition Committee handicaps defensive players.
Long one of the league’s more outspoken players, Clark told the Pittsbugh Post-Gazette on Tuesday “if an offensive player makes enough of a stink, they’ll change.”
Clark was alluding to the season-ending hit recently suffered by Miami Dolphins tight end Dustin Keller and the subsequent clamor raised by some offensive players that the tackle that cost him his season constituted a low hit. The rules committee is now formally reviewing the tackle delivered by the Houston Texans D.J. Swearinger.
“I know Tony Gonzalez was extremely upset by it,” Clark told The Gazetteof the Atlanta Falcons perennial Pro Bowler.
Clark later told the newspaper he felt he gave up a touchdown to the New York Giants Victor Cruz last season simply because he couldn’t take the angle he wanted to for fear of being fined and penalized.
“I hurt my team by doing something I deemed legal and something the NFL also deemed legal by not fining me,” he told The Gazette. “So you go to the other extreme. The guys know there is no way possible to get fined if they go low. It will be one or the other. Guys will hit up high and maybe risk getting a concussion or hurting a shoulder…If they decide to change this rule, they might as well put flags on.”