Danny Amendola destroyed Frankie Hammond on a punt return, but was it really a dirty hit?
One of the most controversial plays in the first half of the Chiefs-Patriots AFC Divisional game was when Danny Amendola absolutely laid Frankie Hammond the hell out on a punt return. Hammond didn’t even touch the ball and Amendola destroyed him with about as hard a hit you’ll see a wide receiver lay out.
It was flagged, and now some people are upset that it was penalized. So was it a dirty hit and did it deserve a penalty?
Here’s the hit, from three different angles:
The live shot of the hit made it look like it was dirty, as Amendola levels Hammond — who is defenseless. But the first angle of the hit is one that people defending the hit are pointing to. From that view, it looks like Amendola is simply making a hit with his shoulder just above the numbers on Hammond.
But the other angles are a little more incriminating. A wider shot appears as though Amendola is leading with his helmet and not his shoulder, which NFL rules state is not cool.
A third angle, though, makes it look like Amendola’s shoulder is doing the leading and not his helmet. But his shoulder is leading into the head and neck area of Hammond — which is a rulebook no-no. You can’t do that and this is the angle that is the strongest evidence that it was a penalty.
It was still a wildly questionable hit that is arguable either way. But there’s one major reason this was flagged and it has nothing to do with leading with the head or the targeting nature of the hit.
The officials had to throw the flag on this one or risk fraying their control of the game. We saw last weekend what happens when officials let some things go and don’t flag things that will lead to chippiness. That’s not to say the Bengals game wouldn’t have gotten out of control anyways, but you can’t be too cautious.
If that hit had gone unflagged, there’s almost no doubt that it would have led to retaliation from the Chiefs. It still saw retaliation for the hit when the Chiefs circled Amendola in the end zone and then a drive later got pushy in a pile following a Tom Brady QB sneak.
You can question whether the hit itself was dirty or not but you can’t question the smart move it was for officials to throw the flag for the sake of the game’s integrity.