Fining Dallas Cowboys Left Tackle Tyron Smith For Horse-Collar Might Be Overdoing It For NFL

Tyron Smith's Horsecollar Tackle

Leave it to the NFL front-office to throw a bucket of cold water on a hero.  And just why did they have to pick on this guy?  Surely, out of fifteen other games over the weekend there was some other available offender to soak.

Perhaps you heard the news that came over the wire earlier this week.  Tyron Smith, the Dallas Cowboys’ No. 1 pick from last year’s draft and latest experiment at left tackle, was docked $15,000 by the league for his horse collar tackle of Giants linebacker Michael Boley.

Now, let’s give the NFL at least a smidgen of credit here.  When they set out to make a point about rules and regulations, they do just that.  Ask the New Orleans Saints. But isn’t it going way past the point of fairness to apply the sponge to a player’s pocketbook who was just doing his job?

It must be admitted that Smith was doing anything but blocking on this play, to acknowledge the technical fine print in Smith’s contract, so he was obviously out of his comfort zone.  Smith was, instead, running downfield with all the speed that one could expect out of a 300+ lb NFL lineman, trying to cut off the streaking Boley before the Giants linebacker reached the end zone.

Tyron Smith in hot pursuit!

Unlike the rest of his teammates, Smith caught up to the ballcarrier inside the five-yard line and took Boley out of bounds with a semi-flying, half-lunging tackle that drew a flag because he took the defender to the ground by the back of his shoulder pads.  For a  psychologically fragile team like the Cowboys have proven to be at MetLife Stadium in recent visits, Smith’s flag-inducing takedown could be considered a game-saver.

Were Boley to have scored then, all chaos ensues.  Romo goes pick-happy again, the defense caves-in and the Cowboys lose by two-dozen or more.  But he didn’t, and the Dallas defense walks off the field three plays later strutting and chest-bumping after an unlikely goal-line stand.  

It’s not often a team finds inspiration in giving up three points, but this was one of those times.

Which brings us back to Smith.  So he committed a horse-collar.  And what does that mean these days?  Every horse-collar is a personal-foul in the game, and a fifteen-yard walk-off, yes, but not every one is subject to a monetary fine by Park Avenue constituents.