Green Bay The Green Bay Packers have one of the best defenses in the NFL.
But nearly all of their defensive players, including 2009 defensive player of the year Charles Woodson, are questioning how to play the game right now.
The rules used to be pretty clear. No spearing, no clotheslines or horse collars, no late kill shots on the quarterback just to make him ache.
But now the NFL is handing out fines, even if there's not a flag, for helmet-to-helmet collisions or anything that looks like launching or looks violent.
A tally of the most publicized fines this season shows the league has fined players approximately $500,000 for illegal hits.
That has caught the attention of everyone who plays defense for a living, especially someone like Woodson, who barely recognizes the game and the rules after 13 years in the league.
"It's changing right before your eyes," said Woodson. "When do you remember every hit being questioned? When you hear the commentators, they say, 'Oh, that was a good clean hit.' You never heard that before."
Pro Bowl safety Nick Collins is appealing the $50,000 fine for his hit on Dallas wide receiver Roy Williams on Nov. 7. Williams started to trip right before the tackle, and Collins said he had no time to drop his center of gravity so their helmets collided.
"It was a bang, bang play," said Collins. "I led with my shoulder but by me hitting him in his back, his head came back so it looked like we had helmet to helmet.
"I don't know how else I could have played that play different."
After the game, Williams said the NFL should not fine Collins, that it wasn't a dirty play, that it was just football.
But Collins got the letter from the NFL anyway.
"It seems like they're going off the outcome of the play," said Woodson. "If a guy ends up hurt or seems a little out of it, woozy or whatever, they say it is a personal foul and a fine. It's not the intent of every player to knock a guy out. They're just going to throw the flag. I don't think that's fair to the defensive guys.
"Your job is to go get the ball. And I think they're taking that way from guys."
Pulling up
Because of the crackdown, the Packers admit there have been instances when they pulled back or pulled up to avoid an illegal hit.
Collins had a shot at Atlanta running back Michael Turner last Sunday, but as Turner started to go down, Collins had to follow.
"I had to lower my target to go lower, just to avoid hitting him in the head," said Collins.
Safety Charlie Peprah also could have made a big hit on Falcons tight end Tony Gonzalez, but Peprah held up because he didn't want a fine. That resulted in a few extra yards for the tight end.
"You don't know how you're supposed to hit a guy anymore," said Woodson. "I don't think it's clearly defined. Your helmets are going to touch sometimes. That doesn't mean you tried to hit a guy's head. I don't agree with the way it is going at all."
The NFL distributed an instructional video a few weeks ago illustrating what it considered a good hit and one that was illegal. It was narrated by Ray Anderson, NFL executive vice president of football operations. He said last week that the league wasn't singling out Pittsburgh linebacker James Harrison, even though Harrison has been fined four times this year. Harrison briefly considered retirement because of the fines.
"Illegal hits to the head of an opponent will not be tolerated. A player is accountable for what he hits," Anderson said on the video. "We all accept that football is a physical and tough game. But players must play under control. If a player launching into an opponent misses his aiming point, he will nevertheless be responsible for what he hits. Initial contact in the neck or head area with a forearm, shoulder or helmet is prohibited."
Many players still find the rules confusing. They find many of the collisions simply unavoidable.
San Francisco linebacker Patrick Willis, who is ranked eighth in tackles and led the league in that category in 2009 and 2007, said hits to the head are not intentional.
"We feel like the game is being taken from us a little bit," said Willis. "But I know I can't think about it a lot. I just think, what can I do to get this guy down?"
Many high-profile players have criticized the crackdown, including Chicago linebacker Brian Urlacher. "What can you do, though? It's a dictatorship," he said last month, referring to Commissioner Roger Goodell.
"Now you literally think about it," said Woodson. "You're going in on the quarterback to make a hit, none of your helmet can even touch his face mask. And everybody - well not everybody, because A-Rod (Aaron Rodgers) can't seem to get that call - but if you touch a guy, it's automatic."
Last month, Packers linebacker Clay Matthews, the NFL sack leader, said he wasn't going to change the way he played.
"You're just trying to get him down," he said. "You've got to think about head across, wrapping up, drive your feet, just get him down. Any tackle in the NFL is a good tackle. I'm going to keep doing things my way.
"Hopefully I don't get fined or make an illegal hit, but I can't stop playing the way I do - just relentless, getting after the ball carrier, trying to get him down.
"I'd go for the de-cleater any day."
That always has been the mentality of an exceptional defensive player.
"Bring him down. By any means necessary," said Packers linebacker Desmond Bishop. "If you've got to hit him low or hit him high or reach out and grab him, scratch him, bite him, whatever. Take him down."
Green Bay's defensive position coaches have addressed the issue, although more from the standpoint of avoiding a penalty, which would hurt the team, said players.
Nothing you can do
During the game, referees also have been warning the players on close calls.
Otherwise, it is up to the player to change. And they're pleading for time to adjust.
"You can't practice it," said Bishop. "It is inches away from being legal and illegal. In about 80% of situations, it can be avoided. The rest is gray area. If he ducks the hit, there's nothing you can do."
If there's nothing you can do, why get fined?
"You shouldn't," Bishop said.
One of the biggest complaints the defensive players have is the issue of how to play within the rules in a sport that is so uneven. There is no other sport in the world that features such a wide range of heights and weights and body types all directly fighting one another.
"I'm 190 pounds, and there's a tight end who is 260 coming up the seam," said Peprah. "That's just physics. You've got to add some type of force. But they don't want you to launch yourself. If you hit him too high, you don't want a helmet to helmet. It's just too much, especially when you grew up playing to hit a certain way. It's hard to deprogram yourself.
"There's a few where the receiver has his back to me and I'd be lying if I say it didn't cross my mind on how to attack that."
Peprah remembers a play in the New York Jets game where he missed the chance of making a highlight-reel hit and forcing the fumble - the very kind of play a guy wants to make to keep his starting job.
Changes approach
"Before all of this happened, I probably would have launched myself with my feet," said Peprah. "But I stayed on my feet and just tried to jar the ball loose. Looking back I thought, 'Why did I do that?' In the back of my mind, I didn't want to get any unnecessary (roughness) calls. And it's getting worse. Even if the hit is legal, I think they're flagging if it just looks violent.
"It makes you second-guess your aggressiveness, and whenever you do that you slow down. You'll end up seeing a lot of guys shying away from the hit and the guy is going to break the tackle and end up running for a touchdown."
In the last 20 years or so, most of the rule changes have been in favor of the offense. That's also an issue for players.
"At least be fair about it," said defensive end Cullen Jenkins. "Cut blocking has been a big issue for defenders around the league. I got my hand broke this year on a cut block. That's pretty much the only thing that we ask to be protected by and we don't get it. There's a new rule every year to protect the offense, but for defense, nobody really cares."
Players also feel it is unfair that their fines go to NFL charities, but they have no say in which ones.
"That's another issue," said Collins. "It's a bunch of guys who really haven't played the game of football making these decisions."
They also wonder how Tennessee cornerback Cortland Finnegan and Houston wide receiver Andre Johnson can get into a brawl as they did last Sunday - with punches being thrown - and get fined only $25,000, a fraction of what some illegal hits have drawn.
"You've been doing something your whole life, you can't just expect it to change overnight," said Bishop.
Maybe the NFL is cracking down because it wants the offensive players to remain on the field. If the NFL is headed for an 18-game schedule, it can't lose its big-name, fantasy league players. That concept has drawn even more criticism.
"The league doesn't care about us anyway," said 13-year veteran Hines Ward, the leading receiver in Steelers history. "They don't care about the safety of the game. If the league was so concerned about the safety, why are you adding two more games on?"