Radio host Rush Limbaugh led off his program Friday by ripping a proposed NFL rule change that would effectively ban running backs, or any ball carrier, from leading with the crown of their helmet to initiate contact outside the immediate tackle box.
"The instinct when you are carrying the ball is to lower your head and plow through," Limbaugh said. "People that have never been taught to play the game do it automatically. That's how instinctive it is. They're going to make that a penalty now if this actually comes to pass. It would be the first rule in American football history limiting a runner's contact with a defender ... outside of egregious acts such as punching a tackler or grabbing the face mask."
Violating the rule would carry a 15-yard penalty.
Hall-of-Fame running back Emmitt Smith agreed, stating, "It sounds like it's been made up by people that never played the game of football ... I don't know how you're going to be able to enforce the rule without really jeopardizing the integrity of the game itself."
Limbaugh drew a parallel between Smith's remark about the rule's inventors having no football experience and how "health care has been taken over in this country by people who have never had any experience in that business at all. It's the same thing, folks."