Oh come on now. I love the Steelers as much as anyone. That was helmet to helmet,intended or not,and we were lucky to get away with it. If that was a Packer player hitting Big Ben,there would be 5 pages on here about how we get screwed again by no call!
Sask is absolutely right.
https://scout.com/nfl/packers/Artic...-Key-Blow-Against-Green-Bay-Packers-111217065
Oddly, the helmet-to-helmet hit by Pittsburgh Steelers linebacker T.J. Watt on Green Bay Packers quarterback Brett Hundley does not appear to be one of them.
With the game tied 28-28, the Packers got one last shot with the ball with 1:20 remaining. On first down from the 18, Hundley dropped back to pass. Watt, the Steelers’ first-round pick from Wisconsin, started the play in coverage before sprinting forward about 15 yards and knocking down Hundley with a helmet-to-helmet hit at the 12.
“There was a hit on the first play. We all recognized it,” coach Mike McCarthy said.
Here, in Article 8, is what the NFL rulebook labels unnecessary roughness in terms of “initiating contact with the crown of the helmet.”
It is a foul if a runner or tackler initiates forcible contact by delivering a blow with the top/crown of his helmet against an opponent when both players are clearly outside the tackle box (an area extending from tackle to tackle and from three yards beyond the line of scrimmage to the offensive team’s end line). Incidental contact by the helmet of a runner or tackler against an opponent shall not be a foul.
Hundley was in the tackle box when he was hit by Watt.
The key is “passers,” not “quarterbacks,” are provided special protection. As Hundley was moving in the pocket and not in a “passing posture,” he was not a “passer.” Here’s the key part of Article 9:
In covering the passer position, Referees will be particularly alert to fouls in which defenders impermissibly use the helmet and/or facemask to hit the passer, or use hands, arms, or other parts of the body to hit the passer forcibly in the head or neck area (see also the other unnecessary roughness rules covering these subjects). A defensive player must not use his helmet against a passer who is in a defenseless posture—for example, (1) forcibly hitting the passer’s head or neck area with the helmet or facemask, even if the initial contact of the defender’s helmet or facemask is lower than the passer’s neck, and regardless of whether the defensive player also uses his arms to tackle the passer by encircling or grasping him; or (2) lowering the head and making forcible contact with the top/crown or “hairline” parts of the helmet against any part of the passer’s body. This rule does not prohibit incidental contact by the mask or non-crown parts of the helmet in the course of a conventional tackle on a passer.