Mark Schlereth is Wrong

Former NFL offensive lineman Mark Schlereth was just on ESPN discussing the Justin Tuck-Flozell Adams incident that took place in the Giants-Cowboys game Sunday night.

Schlereth is angry, and I mean angry, that Adams was fined $12,500 for his trip of Tuck that resulted in a shoulder injury to the Giants defensive lineman. (Adams was also fined that much because of another attempted trip later in the game, but Schelereth didn't bring that up.)

Schlereth contends that you have to stop the defender from getting to the QB no matter what. That if he had been fined every time he tried to trip a player, he'd have "played for free". Schlereth actually wants the union to step in to do something about these type of fines.

Has he lost his mind? Or more precisely is Schlereth biased as a former o-lineman, which in turn clouds his judgement? I'll go with the latter, though maybe a little bit of the former is correct too.

I agree, you have to stop the defender from killing your QB. But you do it within the rules, which means you do NOT make a play with intent to injure and that's exactly what Adams did. Tackle the player, hold them, whatever, but you do not perform just a blatantly dirty act to get the job done.

Adams isn't a first time offender. He is the most penalized offensive lineman in the league. Therefore, I stand by my original thought which is that Adams should have been suspended for one game.

You are very wrong Mark Schelereth.