Vikings' Chad Greenway asks 'Why can't we be protected?' from shady hits

Tom Pelissero | USA TODAY Sports

EDEN PRAIRIE, Minn. — Watching a replay of the low block that injured Minnesota Vikings teammate Kevin Williams only made Jared Allen angrier.

Learning that the NFL won't fine San Francisco 49ers backup guard Joe Looney for cutting Williams at the knee — away from the play no less — had Allen downright apoplectic.

"My problem with this play is its intent," Allen said in a heated post-practice session with news reporters Tuesday. "He ducked down to hit him in the knee. It was intent to hit him in the knee, and if the league can't see that, they can fine me for this, because it's absurd."

Williams, a six-time Pro Bowl selection, avoided ligament damage but is questionable for the Sept. 8 regular-season opener after suffering a significant bone contusion and posterior capsular strain in his right knee on the low block by Looney in the third quarter of Sunday's preseason game.

The NFL banned peel-back blocks in the offseason. But the league won't discipline Looney because he wasn't moving toward his own goal line and hit Williams from the front, making it irrelevant that the block occurred 8 yards from the play.

"It is the type of play, however, that after the season the competition committee will look at with respect to player safety," league spokesman Greg Aiello wrote in an e-mail to USA TODAY Sports.

The ruling hit home for Allen because he was fined $21,000 last season for a blindside block that injured Chicago Bears guard Lance Louis, even though Allen blocked him up high.

"If a defensive player would hit an offensive lineman in the knee like that on an interception, they're going to call it, right?" Allen said. "Just because he wasn't going back toward his end zone, they say it's not the peel-back rule. But the intent was to take his knee out."

Looney said he wasn't trying to hurt Williams, who wasn't at Tuesday's practice, and merely was playing to the whistle. But Vikings veterans aren't buying that explanation.

Linebacker Chad Greenway, the team's representative to the players union, called Looney's block "uncalled for" and "really quite ridiculous" and pleaded for the NFL to improve equality in protection for all players.

"It's not even about downfield cut blocks," Greenway told USA TODAY Sports. "It's more about just being consistent with everybody. If you're going to call it one way, call it that way for everybody.

"We've implemented so many different rules that we have to abide by defensively that we get fined vastly more than the offensive side. We have so many sanctions against us, why can't we be protected?"

Vikings coach Leslie Frazier said he has spoken to league officials, who "concur it's not the type of play that we want in the game for player safety reasons."

Ray Anderson, the NFL's chief of football operations, told the Associated Press on Tuesday that the league will closely monitor hits to the knees on defenseless players this season and could extend its rules to protect those players if there's evidence that it's "becoming a problem."

That would be welcome news to Greenway, who said low blocks were specifically discussed with the league and officials before the preseason.

The fact that Looney's block was legal means little to the Vikings, who are holding out hope Williams will be ready for Week 1.

"It just gives (the league) a way to say, 'Well, look, see? His shoulders weren't turned back to his sideline. It wasn't a vicious block,' " Greenway said. "It's just creating an (excuse) for yourself."

Allen repeatedly said Looney's block was intended to hurt Williams, calling it "dirty" and asking the league to enforce its player safety rules consistently.

"How is (Williams) not a defenseless player?" Allen said. "You go back and look at that play and you tell me he's not a defenseless player. He has no idea that that guy's there, and that dude could have taken him up high. He could have hit him right in the chest, and he chose to duck down and hit him in his knee."

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