John Madden Quotes

Back in the '80s and '90s, you could hit the quarterback low, you could hit the quarterback high. You could hit him pretty much late.

Quarterbacks are untouchable nowadays. If you hit a quarterback too hard, or if you fall on him with too much weight - which is a judgment thing from a professional standpoint - you're going to get flagged.

The league has to be sensitive about what crosses the line and what doesn't. It's tough to determine what is a legal hit and what isn't a legal hit, and if someone was deliberately trying to hurt someone or not. A certain integrity, though, has to be maintained.

It is relatively easy... to determine whether or not a blow to a quarterback was deemed excessive or incidental. So I'm discouraged that there have been a number of games that are influenced - not that the outcomes are in question - but a number of games influenced based on the protection of the quarterback.

It's a tough situation as a defender to be put in. I understand what they're doing trying to protect quarterbacks. I've been on the receiving end of a few of those where you appreciate them trying to take care of you a little bit, but I do see the conflict that it puts a defender in.

Sometimes officials should look at English football and let us play more. I like their system because, in Europe, their referees are more lenient.

No one's saying anything against healthy, fair hardness. That's a part of football. But referees must look more closely and make sure limits are not exceeded.

When you go out on a football field, you are responsible for taking care of yourself. The more rules you get, the less players truly take care of themselves.

I don't like the rules about you can't hit the quarterback.

It's been made clear to all of us that a player should never leave the playing field and go into the stands.

The referee will now keep track of the time on the field and the shootouts have finally been banned.

We penalize and suspend players for making contact with the head while checking, in an effort to reduce head injuries, yet we still allow fighting. We're stuck in the middle and need to decide what kind of sport do we want to be. Either anything goes and we accept the consequences, or take the next step and eliminate fighting.

I don't know that the referee can be watching holding on the offensive line and get back to the quarterback. I think watching the quarterback is a full-time job.

The game overall has gotten so much better, stronger, more physical parts to the game.

I just think more precaution should be taken when I'm inside the pocket. Look at all the replays - I'm on the ground every time. It's unfortunate for myself, it's unfortunate for my team and I'd be lying if I sat here and said I wasn't frustrated right now.

My job is to protect the integrity of the NFL and to make sure the game is as safe as possible.

Fortunately for a quarterback, you can play for a long time because you don't get hit very often.

As all of us with any involvement in sports knows, no two umpires or no two referees have the same strike zone or call the same kind of a basketball game.

Sometimes English football takes pride in having the lowest yellow-card count in Europe, but of course it will have if you can take someone's leg off and still not be booked.

There's obviously a push to protect the quarterback, but you have to give the defensive players a chance. All of the quarterback has to do is pull the ball, and he's a runner. How's the defender going to know if the ball is pulled or not?

We have rules in the rule book that are very specific. If the quarterback is in a throwing position, he gets protection. But in the event that the ball is handed off, at that instant, there's no telling whether or not he is a runner or not, so he loses that protection.

I couldn't identify just one, but there's numerous rule changes and points of emphasis that have reflected a change on the field almost immediately. It's hard to avoid the horse-collar tackle, for example, but the players understand why the rule is in there - because of the injury rate prior to us making that a personal foul.

There are a couple people who have complained on other teams about some of the things that Pittsburgh players have done. Some of that goes in the category of gamesmanship. Some of that goes to the fact that we need to be vigilant as a league to make sure that players aren't unnecessarily and inappropriately hurt.

There is less fighting in the game than we had years ago. I mean, we penalize it.

You can't put a running back in there and have him not know who to pick up. You can't get your quarterback hit.