With world-class athletes hitting each other every play, pro football is already a game that is dangerous enough. The last thing any NFL player should do is start using their equipment as a weapon with the intent to hurt someone.
Evidently, someone did not pass along this memo to Tampa Bay Buccaneers punter Jake Camarda.
Around halfway through the second quarter of Tampa Bay’s matchup with the Buffalo Bills on Thursday night, Bills and Buccaneers players got into what seemed like a harmless scuffle that happens all the time. Except in the heat of the moment, Camarda had his helmet ripped off and then used it to swing at the Bills’ Gregory Rousseau. Uh, you’re not allowed to do that.
Rather than penalize Camarda, the officiating team actually picked up a flag they threw and just moved on. All I can ask is: Why?
Jake Camarda looked like he swung his helmet at a Bills player but it also looks like he was getting his helmet ripped off: pic.twitter.com/6V01G71uv3
— The Pewter Plank (@ThePewterPlank) October 27, 2023
If you want to risk the penalty, you can certainly defend yourself and do the standard huffing and puffing and pushing. No one’s saying you don’t have that right. But the moment you start doing things like swinging helmets is when we’re veering into way-too-harmful territory.
This was a huge miss by the referees, and the Buccaneers and Camarda got lucky.