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Roy Williams Will
Play By Rules, Including His Own
By ERIC O’KEEFE
Published: May 27, 2005
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DALLAS, May
26 – Roy Williams was backpedaling as fast as he could. Williams,
an All-Pro safety, was not at the Dallas Cowboys' minicamp. He was not
even dressed for practice. Williams had just arrived at a stylish function
at an upscale Dallas jeweler called Bachendorf's to promote his Roy
Williams Foundation, and he was doing his best to distance himself from
the National Football League's ban on the horse-collar tackle, a decision
that has been christened the Roy Williams rule.
"I play by whatever rules the N.F.L. lays down," Williams
said. "If there's a type of tackle that's legal, I'll use it. If
it's not legal, I won't. It's as simple as that."
The horse-collar tackle is a technique in which a defensive player brings
down a ball carrier by grabbing the back inside of the opposing player's
shoulder pads and yanking him to the ground.
N.F.L. owners voted, 27-5, Tuesday to make the maneuver a 15-yard penalty
when the tackle is made in the open field. In the event of egregious
violations, the league may also impose a fine.
Five franchises - Dallas, Detroit, New England, New Orleans and San
Francisco - dissented, citing the difficulty of having officials make
such a call. Williams said it was only after Tuesday's vote that he
learned it was being called the Roy Williams rule.
In having his name affixed to the decision, Williams joined an elite
group of Dallas Cowboys players whose names are ascribed to an assortment
of N.F.L. rules and regulations.
There is the Emmitt Smith rule, which makes it illegal for players to
take off their helmets while on the field, as Smith was known for doing
to celebrate a touchdown; the Deion Sanders rule, which prevents a team
from circumventing salary caps by combining a high-signing bonus with
a low-base salary; and the Mel Renfro rule, which permits an offensive
player to touch the ball after it has touched a teammate without a defensive
player's touching it in between.
Many team owners became concerned with the horse-collar tackle earlier
this year after it was blamed for causing a higher rate of injury than
more traditional tackles. During the 2004 season, several offensive
players were sidelined after being horse-collared: Titans wide receiver
Tyrone Calico (sprained knees), Ravens running backs Jamal Lewis (sprained
ankle) and Musa Smith (compound fracture of the right tibia), and Eagles
receiver Terrell Owens (fractured right fibula and torn ligaments).
All were brought down by Williams.
But the horse-collar tackle has been used by many N.F.L. players, and
all of them applied it legally. Those four tackles by Williams, though
bruising, comprised a miniscule percentage of his 94 total tackles during
the 2004 season.
Throughout his three-year career with the Cowboys, Williams has tried
to steer clear of the reputation that hard-hitting defensive backs like
Fred Williamson of the Kansas City Chiefs, who was known as the Hammer,
and Jack Tatum of the Oakland Raiders purposely cultivated.
Instead, Williams has developed into one of the league's premier defensive
backs while maintaining a low profile. The eighth overall pick in the
2002 draft, he has been a starter at safety for the Cowboys since his
first day in training camp.
C. Don Bradley, who recruited Williams to play at Oklahoma and now runs
his foundation, said, "As a friend of Roy, someone who's watched
him grow up from a quiet kid to a campus leader at O.U. and a standout
in the N.F.L., I can tell you one thing: this is the last thing Roy
wants to be known for, a rule about an illegal play that's attached
to him."
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