ESPN Broadcasters Call Out Soft Nature Of Football: 'It's Absurd'

Football is the most physically violent sport, a game meant for guys to display some old-fashioned physicality, toughness, and the ability to play through pain.

At least, that’s what it used to be. Football in its modern form is softer than a mountain of My Pillows.

The No. 12 Notre Dame Fighting Irish and the No. 24 Navy Midshipmen were playing a game at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, NJ. With just more than four minutes in the third quarter, Notre Dame was piling it on, winning by a score of 44-14. To rub salt in an open wound, Fighting Irish linebacker Kyngstonn Viliamu-Asa sacked Navy quarterback Blake Horvath, forcing a turnover that one of his teammates recovered.

However, the play was nullified by a penalty on Viliamu-Asa. What was his crime, you may ask? Simply put, his devious offense was landing on the quarterback that he sacked. In other words, he completed his tackle.

Take a look.

ESPN’s Sean McDonough and Greg McElroy had the perfect reaction to this call.

"What's he supposed to do? What is he supposed to do there?" McDonough said. "I really don't know. I think it's ridiculous," McElroy replied. 

"It is ridiculous. It's football. It's absurd," McDonough concluded.

He’s darn right it's absurd. If pro or college football leagues are going to penalize defenders for finishing tackles on quarterbacks in this way, then you have to do one of two things: give defenders the inhuman ability to levitate away from quarterbacks, or, tell them to not sack the passer.

The first one, you can’t do, unless we’ve figured out a way to use The Force. And the second completely takes away the point of playing defense. The third option is actually allowing defenders to play physically and keeping football a manly sport.

But it seems like you’d have a better time learning how to use The Force than that happening.