Four former hard-hitting Broncos — each enshrined in the Ring of Fame — had choice words for the NFL’s competition committee Monday night before Denver hosted Kansas City.
Former Denver linebacker Karl Mecklenburg, defensive ends Simon Fletcher and Rich Jackson and safety Dennis Smith are among the Broncos’ all-time greatest defensive players. But they each said they wouldn’t have been the same player in today’s game, where falling on the quarterback after making a sack now draws a 15-yard penalty.
“If I was playing today, they’d lock me up,” said Jackson, who went by “Tombstone” during his playing days. “Only one way to play football, and that’s search and destroy.”
Said Fletcher: “I guess the people on the rules committee figure it’s better to pretend to protect guys than give fans their dollar’s worth.”
Smith added that he’d like to see former players set the rules rather than a group of people who’ve never played football.
Mecklenburg played 180 regular-season games for the Broncos from 1983-1994. He and Smith (184 games from 1981-1994) and Fletcher (172 from 1985-1995) each said the controversial roughing the quarterback rule led to a season-ending injury to Miami defensive William Hayes in Week 3 against Oakland. Hayes sacked quarterback Derek Carr but tore his ACL while trying to avoid landing on Carr.
“Are you supposed to pull the quarterback on top of you? Basically, that’s the option if you’re running through somebody, you’re running full speed and he’s standing there; how do you not (land on him)? It’s tackle football,” Mecklenburg said. “I think it’s going to have to change. I really don’t think you can have a rule saying you can’t land on a quarterback. Everybody lands on everybody else. If you’re running full speed and you have a collision, and you’re trying to twist so you don’t land on the guy, you’re going to hurt yourself.”
Mecklenburg has other issues with today’s game, but it all stems from taking the toughness out of the game from Day 1 of training camp — which he says has become “flag football.”
“My game was physical. I probably would have ended up owning money at the end of many games (due to fines). And I don’t know if I would have made the team,” he said. “During training camp, if you don’t have full contract drills very often — I don’t look good in shorts. I was a 12th rounder, I was the 310th pick of the draft and I had to prove something on the practice field. It was not running around playing flag football.”
Jackson, who played for Denver from 1967-1972 (69 games), said he doesn’t frequently watch NFL games. He and the other Ring of Famers were in town Monday to participate in the Broncos’ alumni weekend.
“I think when the fans catch on to what’s going on, I think the attendance will diminish,” Jackson said. “Football isn’t what it’s designed to be. It’s a contact sport. You need to address some things to protect the ballplayers but right now they are over-protecting and taking away from the game.”
