Denver Broncos safety Justin Simmons is displeased with the inconsistency the NFL has shown in calling, enforcing, and punishing hits.
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00:00 I made a post on X, and I wasn't trying to single out the Bills player.
00:08 I don't even know his name, but I was just trying to prove that there's no
00:13 consistency in what's being asked of us as defensive players.
00:19 And it's costing guys in some aspects.
00:23 You're talking about Kareem, a little bit of his reputation.
00:26 I mean, the fact that he's gonna miss the next four games in a crucial part of our
00:30 season is unbelievable.
00:31 And for a play that, if that's routinely gonna be called,
00:36 then why was it not called on that one play?
00:38 Sure, they threw the flag, but we're gonna throw the flag against the Bills and
00:42 not find them.
00:43 And we're gonna not throw the flag against Kareem, but find them and
00:46 then also give another four game suspension.
00:48 Like, there's no, and then I quoted, I literally copy and
00:53 pasted the quote from Kareem's suspension, rule 12, section 10, whatever it was.
00:59 It says, keep your head off the head or neck, shoulder area of a,
01:05 this is literally by definition what that player did in Buffalo to Cortland.
01:09 By definition, head down, hit the bottom of the base of his face mask.
01:14 You saw Cort's head pop back a little bit.
01:17 And the flag was thrown, but there was no discipline afterwards.
01:20 And then all we get told is, stay off the head or neck area.
01:24 And I'm not attacking the NFL, I'm not attacking the officiating,
01:29 I'm not trying to sit up here and, that's not the intent.
01:33 The intent is if you're actually trying to help us get better,
01:36 what are the coaching points?
01:37 How are we gonna get better?
01:38 What are the ways that you're gonna help us to apply that?
01:41 Because if we're just gonna slap fines on guys and slap suspensions, and
01:46 then when they come back four games later and nothing's changed,
01:48 that's not our fault.
01:49 We're trying our best to adapt to the rules while we're in the game.
01:52 And it's just hard to unlearn something you've done for 14,
01:56 13 years in the league, specifically talking about Kareem.
01:59 And so, I mean, we got guys that have banners hanging up here.
02:03 We have guys that have banners hanging up in the Hall of Fame
02:06 that have played tremendous ball in this league.
02:09 And we praise them every single year.
02:11 Now during the Super Bowl, we have the top 100 of all time.
02:16 And there's guys that are literally praised for
02:18 those types of hits in our game.
02:20 And it hurts my heart, man, because anything that I am as a player,
02:25 I said this last time, is because of Kareem.
02:27 And that's another thing I'm upset about is because we preach that
02:30 players' mental health is important.
02:34 And we preach how important that is to us.
02:38 But then we're telling a guy who's been nothing but great to this organization
02:42 since he's been here and has helped so many people, hey, stay away.
02:46 Not only are you suspended, but you can't help the young guys.
02:49 You can't help prep a younger guy coming up that might have to get extra snaps
02:53 because now you're down.
02:55 You can't be around the facility.
02:56 I mean, thank God Kareem has a family and people that can love on him.
02:59 Because if this was a younger guy, you're basically sending him back home and
03:03 who knows what trouble he could get into.
03:04 And then we're saying we're helping him, though.
03:06 That to me makes absolutely no sense.
03:09 And I could keep going on a tangent.
03:12 I wanna be, like every other time I'm up here, I wanna be respectful to
03:18 the Cleveland Browns and the fact that we're getting ready to go play a tough
03:22 AFC opponent at home.
03:24 So those are just my frustrating thoughts on it.
03:29 And like I said, consistency and clarity is really all we're asking for.