It became official Wednesday: Trent Green is out for Sunday’s game.
Kansas City ruled the 13-year veteran out for the contest after he suffered a concussion Sunday — the aftermath of which continued to make news Wednesday as both the Chiefs and Broncos turned their collective focus away from Week 1 defeats and on to Sunday’s game at INVESCO Field at Mile High.
“(Green) is a great player, a great guy,” Broncos defensive coordinator Larry Coyer said. “I’m really sorry he got hurt, I really am, but this guy’s talented. They won’t miss a beat.”
NFL senior vice president of football operations Ray Anderson issued a statement Wednesday reminding clubs about the fact that a quarterback who slides feet-first is out of play, but at the same time exonerating Cincinnati’s Robert Geathers for his part in the collision that knocked Green out for Sunday’s game at Denver.
“It’s unfortunate, man. I thought it was a clean hit by (No.) 91 (Geathers),” Broncos defensive end Ebenezer Ekuban said. “Any time you have a guy like Trent Green who’s a good guy, a good spokesman for the NFL, it’s unfortunate. You only hope the best for him to recover as soon as possible.”
Anderson cited the timing of Green’s slide and a block to Geathers’ back by a Chiefs players as “mitigating factors” that caused the play to incur neither a penalty or disciplinary action.
“An extensive review of this play showed that Green began a late slide as Robert Geathers of the Bengals broke down to tackle him,” Anderson said in a statement. “Simultaneously, the defender was blocked in the back by a Kansas City player. As a result of the block in the back, Geathers was no longer in complete control of his body.
“Anticipating contact with the sliding quarterback, Geathers twisted his torso in order to avoid helmet-to-helmet contact or driving his helmet into Green’s body. Nonetheless, Geathers’ right shoulder contacted Green’s right shoulder, driving Green’s upper body and head into the ground.
“In other instances this contact might be illegal, since a defensive player has the responsibility to avoid unnecessary contact even when he is blocked by an opponent.”
Chiefs head coach Herm Edwards offered his comment on the hit Wednesday.
“The guy was pursuing and trying to avoid a block and he got himself in the air and Trent was sliding and he hit him,” Edwards said. “I don’t think the guy did it purposely, but there’s a rule that you’re trying to protect the unprotected player in our league. The league feels at this point it’s not a foul. We’ve got to move on.”
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Tags: Kansas City Chiefs
Correct call by the NFL. IMHO, if the multiple referees on the field don’t think something is a penalty it shouldn’t be a fine. With alot of these calls being so inconsistent(the Chuckwurah “Roughing the Kicker call, for instance) I think the League should fine the referee if they see something that should have been called.
Enough about week 1 in my mind. Let’s get ready to rock K.C.
TSG
http://www.milehighreport.com
I agree with thesportsguru on the fact that they should fine the referees when they make a mistake as well as the players. Everyone is responsible for their own actions in this game. (Realizing that Geathers was pushed by the blocker when putting the hit on Trent Green). But thats enough of that talk we have to go into this game vs. K.C. the same way no matter if its Trent Green or Huard under center. If we want to win this game though we are going to have to stop the run better than last week and start with the run on the offensive side of the ball. We all know that Plummer is not a pocket passer, but if you watch our opening drive Plummer is just dropping back and getting pressured. I think Gary Kubiak really worked last year at tryng to make decisions easier for Jake. What started this was our well known run game that can’t be stopped. We must start with the run then move to play action and after Jake gets settled in and comfortable with what he is seeing on defense is when he can throw out of the pocket and not have to try so hard to make something happen and force what isn’t there. In my opinion a lot of Jakes mistakes had to do with the play calling. Hopefully Mike Shanahan agrees and we go into this game and demolish the chiefs. I hate not watching Sportscenter until Wednesday, that game sickened me.