John Harbaugh blasts NFL for flag on Cam Skattebo for lowing his helmet: 'That's the way you're supposed to run'

During Sunday’s game against the Houston Texans, New York Giants running back Cam Skattebo did what so many hard NFL runners have done before.

He took a handoff, burst through a hole and lowered his helmet into an oncoming defender at the second level. The immediate result was a crunching collision, a 7-yard gain and Texans safety M.J. Stewart left reeling on his back.

It was an Oklahoma drill in real game action, and Skattebo got the best of it.

But the functional result of the play was not a 7-yard gain for New York. Instead of second-and-2 at the 30-yard line, the Giants were moved back half the distance to the goal for first-and-20 at their their own 13.

Skattebo got flagged for unnecessary roughness because he lowered the crown of his helmet directly into Stewart. Skattebo was incensed. As was Giants head coach John Harbaugh, who gave an official an earful on the sideline.

‘That’s how your’e supposed to run’

On Monday, Harbaugh expounded on his thoughts on the penalty, a day after New York’s 27-21 win.

“I understand the idea,” Harbaugh said of the penalty. “I also understand human physiology and anatomy and the way the body works. Skat runs low. You have to run low.

“You have to run low to protect the football. You have to run low to protect your body. You can’t run in there and give tacklers your chest. When you run low, your head’s down there too. You can’t move your head off your shoulders. It’s a physical impossibility.

“I’m quite sure Skat’s not trying to use his helmet as a weapon, as a bettering ram. That’s not the way he’s thinking. He’s leading with his shoulder, that what he’s trying to do. He’s trying to keep his head in a good, strong upright position.

“His pads are down there low. He runs low to the ground. He runs low to the ground. That’s a good thing. That’s football. That’s the way you’re supposed to run. That’s how you protect yourself and the football.”

Thus is the crux of the issue. Harbaugh’s right. That’s football. That’s the way Skattebo and other ball carriers have been taught to run since they started playing football at the youth level.

That punishing playing style has been celebrated through the history of the game with runners like Earl Campbell, Christian Okoye, Marshawn Lynch and Craig “Ironhead” Heyward the subject of countless highlight clips.

Does the NFL have a point?

With a flag like the one on Skattebo, the NFL is punishing a football player for playing football. The flip side of the coin is a legitimate concern for player safety and, by proxy, the health of the league.

Lowering the crown of one’s helmet like Skattebo did is a path to serious injury. Defensive players get thrown out of college games for doing the same thing. And we’ve all seen a defender get flagged for an injurious hit when it was the ball carrier who put his body in the position to cause the injury by lowering his head in the first place.

In flagging Skattebo, the NFL put the culpability of protecting his body from injury in his own hands.

Harbaugh acknowledged that point at the top of his comments Monday. But he concluded with the toughest question for the NFL to answer when it comes to player safety. What exactly is Skattebo supposed to do here?

“We haven’t heard from the league,” Harbaugh continued. “Maybe they’ll be able to enlighten us a little bit on it terms of what they want us to teach, and that would be great.”

Harabugh’s not likely to get an answer to that question anytime soon. In a game where violence is the point, the NFL has yet to come up with a satisfactory player safety measure that doesn’t legislate the football out of football.