Belichick On Kam Chancellor's Low Hit On Tom Brady: 'Hard To Judge Intent'
BOSTON (CBS) -- Seattle Seahawks safety Kam Chancellor made everyone in New England hold their breath on Sunday night when he hit Tom Brady in the knee with his helmet. The hit, which happened early in the third quarter, drew a roughing the passer penalty on Chancellor and left Brady limping and flexing his knee after the play.
It would be fair to argue that Chancellor made a dirty play, as his helmet drove straight into Brady's kneecap. Low hits on the quarterback have been penalized more heavily ever since Brady tore his ACL on a hit to his left knee in 2008. But was the hit actually dirty?
Patriots head coach Bill Belichick was asked what he saw on Chancellor's hit during his Monday conference call. He responded, "I saw the same thing everybody else saw." When asked if he thought whether the play was dirty or Chancellor lost his balance, Belichick implied that he understood the difficulties for the referees and wouldn't have had a problem with it if they didn't throw a flag on the play.
"Yeah, you know on a football field it's hard to judge intent. I don't think the officials can judge intent. I think that's too difficult. They're taught to judge what they see and call what they see so that's their job. They made a lot of calls last night. We had some that favored us. We had some that didn't but that's their job and really I'm focused on our job which is to prepare to play better than we played last night."
Chancellor was also involved in the controversial final play of the game from the Patriots, in which he may have committed pass interference on Rob Gronkowski. Belichick said after the game that he thought it was officiated well, and his comments on Monday echo those sentiments.
The hit appears closer to accidental than dirty, so Chancellor probably doesn't have to worry about further discipline from the league. It doesn't sound like Belichick is expecting it.
