Fans Still Arguing Kindle's Shot Heard 'Round the World
The opinions expressed in this column do not necessarily reflect those of the Austinist or anyone else in the Ist network.
Five days later, the reverberations of Sergio Kindle's crushing tackle of quarterback Taylor Potts in the Longhorns' 34-24 win over Texas Tech are still being felt.
In a four-second burst of speed and power, the 255-pound Kindle blasted past Marlon Winn in 10 steps and crashed into Potts, knocking the quarterback's helmet off, the ball from his hand, and dislodging his contact lens. Watching the play again and again (as Texas fans have done all week), you wonder how Potts was able to recover.
The visceral impact of the sack was clear, but in scientific terms, how big a hit was it? Timothy Gay, a physics professor at the University of Nebraska and author of The Physics of Football, estimates that a player with Kindle's speed and strength can exert between 1,200 and 1,500 pounds of force in a tackle, equal to the weight of Kodiak bear.
Moreover, it's been estimated in Popular Mechanics that an extreme football impact can create a g-force of 150, 15 times that associated with forces exerted on fighter pilots or astronauts.
As the highlight films rolled this week, fans continue to argue over whether the hit was legal, and Fort Worth columnist and radio show host Randy Galloway even called for Kindle to be suspended.
At the center of the debate is whether the tackle violated the rule against hitting another player with the top of your helmet (sometimes called spearing), or whether Big 12 officials, who have been instructed to watch players more closely on hits above the shoulders, should have thrown a flag.
By now, the play has been dissected from nearly every angle. Searching for "sergio kindle taylor potts" on the Web brings page after page of results with photos and videos. Your opinion of the play most likely lines up with whom you root for and which photo you look at.
The NCAA rule in question states, "No player shall initiate contact and target an opponent with the crown (top) of his helmet. When in question, it is a foul."
Breaking that down, it's clear that even though Kindle hit Potts in the chest with his facemask, he didn't initiate contact with the crown of his helmet nor target an opponent with the crown of his helmet. Even though the hit goes through the football and hits Potts' facemask, knocking his helmet off, you can clearly see the top of Kindle's helmet the entire play. By the letter of the rule, he does not initiate contact with his helmet, but rather with his facemask and shoulder pads. In fact, Kindle's tackling form is solid. You never want to put your head down while making a tackle; that's a good way to break your neck.
Kindle said this week that he didn't intentionally try to hit Potts in the helmet, while Texas defensive coordinator Will Muschamp said called it a "great hit". Texas Tech coach Mike Leach praised Potts for his toughness while offering a backhand jab at the play: "I thought he was extremely tough because he came back without missing a beat despite being the victim of really obvious helmet-to-helmet contact and didn't allow that to faze him much." And Potts, to his credit, shrugged the whole thing off after the game.
“I got hit, turned the ball over and the game wasn’t over,” Potts said. “And we had to try and get another score. I didn’t want to let my teammates down. I was voted captain. If I’m lying on the ground hurt, that’s not a good captain.”
The play will almost certainly have implications later in the season, as officials eye big hits even more closely as a means of protecting players. That's little consolation to Tech fans, however, who saw the play as the turning point in a game they thought they could win.
