Posted by Chris Brown on October 3, 2012 – 12:37 pm

Kyle Williams got an unwanted mailing from the NFL for his attempted tackle of Tom Brady last Sunday. He was fined $15K by the league for his attempted sack of Brady in the third quarter.

It was a 2nd-and-6 play at the Bills 32 with 4:49 left in the third quarter. Williams on his pass rush disengages from his blocker Donald Thomas as Brady steps up in the pocket. He lunges toward Brady in an effort to tackle him around the ankles and makes contact with Brady’s calf with his forearm and shoulder pad. Brady was throwing the ball when contact was made. Williams was flagged for unnecessary roughness on the play, but isn’t sure what else he’s supposed to do on that play.

“I don’t know,” he said. “Other than let him throw the ball I don’t know. I could understand if I dove at him head first and hit him, or hit him behind the legs and dove at him with my shoulder. But I hit him with my arm and I get a $15 thousand-dollar fine for hitting him with the ball. I don’t get it.”

Having drawn the flag in the game, Williams surmised a league fine might soon follow.

“I figured it was (coming), but I mean at the same time I asked the official during the game, ‘What do you want me to do?’ He didn’t say anything. Of course I wasn’t exactly calm when I asked him. But I’m trying to figure out, you get blocked down, you’re going down and the guy still has the ball. I didn’t dive into the side of his leg. I didn’t spear him in the side of the leg. I hit him with my forearm in his calf and he went down. You’ve got guys up there hitting Fitz in the chest with their helmet when he’s going to down. I don’t know what you’re supposed to do.”

What likely drew the flag was the way Brady’s left knee bent awkwardly inward on the play. Knowing Brady’s status in the league and the fact that he tore his ACL on a similar play a few years ago when then Kansas City DB Bernard Pollard hit him as he was throwing, a fine was likely whether the hit was legal or not.

Posted in Inside the Bills