Gene Washington on ESPN’s Pardon The Interruption
November 5, 2002

Tony Kornheiser: Gene, you are not that popular right now with a lot of players.  They accuse you of dramatically altering the way they learned to play the game.  How do you plead counselor?

GW: How about “not true?” We’ve been doing this since 1995 when the Competition Committee decided to try to really make sure that players don’t expose themselves to undo risks, like hitting with the helmet, when there’s an alternative way of making a tackle.

Michael Wilbon: Where does all this headhunting come from?  Why have we seen such an increase in guys not running through people, but leading with their helmet?

GW: I think it’s a copycat kind of action.  When you see one player do something, I think you tend to want to copy it.  There’s another factor that we’re becoming more aware of.  This began happening in the last year or so, and may be a result of free agency.  We’re seeing more zone defenses. 

Free agency players are not with their teams very long, so they don’t learn the schemes, so they’re playing simple defenses.  If you’re playing a two-deep zone and you throw the ball to the outside, that safety has a direct shot at the wide receiver.  So I think these zone defenses are putting receivers and safeties in positions where you can have this type of contact, more so than when you have man-to-man defense.

TK: I want to ask you a question about the games that the NFL endorses, about the highlight shows that the NFL endorses, in which the “big hit” is sort of the staple of these things.  I’m not against safety.  But you have on one hand the big hit being glorified, and now you’re in the position to say “uh uh uh, not that big a hit.”  Are those two things mutually exclusive?

GW: I think there’s a little misconception here.  When you say “big hits,” big hits are fine.  That’s a part of our game.  It’s the illegal hits we don’t want.  I know for a fact that the NFL and NFL Films, and anything that we’ve sent out over the last several years, we do not send out plays, knowingly, where there is an illegal hit involved.  We don’t do it. 

Now I think some of our players say, “The NFL is promoting illegal hits and we get fined for it.”  That’s not the case.  You may have an illegal hit out there that is shown on a network or local TV station that we don’t have any control over.  So I don’t buy that, that the NFL is selling one thing and on the other hand fining.

TK: Well, here is the crux of the problem.  You’ve got a lot of players and a lot of former players saying, “This is a physical game.  We are physical people.  These guys are looking at the game in slow motion.  We’re playing it on the field.  They’re taking away our physicality.”  You were a player, Gene.  How do you respond to that?”

GW: The same way I responded five years ago when helmet-to-helmet hits on quarterbacks was a big issue.  Players say, “How can I control myself?  I’m rushing the quarterback.  Everything is a split second.  If I hit him in the helmet, I don’t really have any control?” 

Well, guess what?  They figured out a way not to do it.  We have very few repeat offenders on helmet-to-helmet hits on quarterbacks.  The same is going to happen here.  When the defensive backs and their coaches get the message, they will find a way to make the plays without having helmet-to-helmet contact.

TK: The part about slow motion though, when you can analyze film and break it down like that.  Is there anything in what the players say that on the field it’s just different than when you see it in slow motion?  That it looks a lot different in slow motion?

GW: Maybe you should ask a player who is hit.  Maybe you should ask the Seattle player who got his bell rung and had some medical problems after the game.  There are two sides to this story.  Football is a tough game.  We all know that.  Players accept risk in football.  But undo risk, that’s what we’re trying to get rid of. 

You can make plays without leading with your helmet.  In most of these cases a player doesn’t see what he hits.  He lowers his head, has his eyes down, and is making contact with the top or crown of his helmet.  That’s not great football.  People say, “That’s the way I was taught to play.”  I don’t believe that.  You were taught to have your head up and see what you hit.  And in most cases that require disciplinary action players are not seeing what they hit.

MW: Gene, what kind of cooperation are you getting, if any, from the NFL Players Association?

GW: The Players Association represents both parties.  They represent the player who is suspended or fined.  They also represent the player who is knocked out.  So the Players Association doesn’t just represent the payer who has to appeal a suspension or fine.  They represent all players.

TK: I imagine it’s frustrating that you want to protect the players from themselves and some of them don’t want to be protected from themselves.

GW: It’s a tough game.  The desire to be competitive and to win is unbelievable.  You look at a player’s or a coach’s face on gameday.  Winning is everything.  But you’ve got to have somebody who is going to make the rules, stand by the rules, and enforce the rules.  That’s our responsibility and that’s our job.  And we’re going to make this game as safe as this tough game can be.