Dante Wesley Hit On Clifton Smith (VIDEO): Panthers DB Suspended For 1 Game For Hit

(AP) CHARLOTTE, N.C. - The NFL has suspended Carolina Panthers defensive back Dante Wesley one game without pay for launching himself into defenseless Tampa Bay punt returner Clifton Smith.

Wesley left his feet and hit Smith in the neck and head with his forearm and shoulder as Smith waited to field a punt Sunday. Smith sustained a concussion and both benches emptied onto the field. Wesley was immediately ejected.

Smith had not signaled for a fair catch and Wesley said he mistimed hitting him.

Wesley is Carolina's gunner on special teams and will sit out next Sunday's game against Buffalo.

WATCH THE HIT

Comments

[cirrus9]

Yes, I do concede to your superior sphincterism.

[obelix1349]

For all those people criticizing how much football players make... why don't you complain about Matt Damon, George Clooney, Reese Witherspoon ect.making 20M+ a movie? Doesn't Bill-O make like 10M a year, I heard Katie Couric makes around that too. How bout Oprah?

Stop the jealousy, its none of your business what these people make, they're not taking taxpayer money!!! I can understand outrage over bailouts turning into bonuses but some comments I saw here are just silly.

NFL football players are the lucky few that get to live out their childhood dream. For every one NFL player there's probably thousands of dashed hopes and dreams.

The reason that they make so much more than teachers, firefighters, police is that no one will pay large sums of money to watch these people work in the way that they shell out for movies, concerts and football games.

I suspect a lot of the people making the anti-football comments just hate sports period...f­ine, go rent Sex and the City and spend your time and attention on that.

(And notice how I'm not trying to impose my view on such movies on anyone. If thats your cup of tea fine. To each his/her own).

[OkieIntellectual]

It seems to me that there are a whole lot of people here who really just do not understand what kind of a game American Football is.

[Zofomofo]

And you are one of them.

There are rules and he broke them. Not only did he break them, he did it egregiously.

What are you trying to defend here?

It is OK to break the rules? He did not break the rules? He didn't break the rules so bad?

He did break the rules badly but it is common?

Come on say something worthwhile.

[Jeffrey Fike]

It was a cheap shot, headhunting at the least. Had There's no reason to hit a guy who hasn't even gotten the ball yet. These guys are professional athletes, who've spent their whole lives playing this game, and more particularly training for plays such as this. Kick returns, punt returns (such as this play) and field goals are about all the special teams guys practice. Even if Smith had caught the ball, it would have still been called interference.
To say this was just a mistake in timing is like saying Three Mile Island was just a little spill. Get real people. Glad to see Wesley's been suspended, maybe he'll clean up his act.

[Granfalloon]

Hmm, and Rush's "crips and bloods" comment was off the mark why?

[AmyRenee]

He didn't go for the head... he hit him across the chest... he didn't lower his helmet... What he did was lower his shoulder (which is how they teach them to hit.. SMH and all these folks that either don't watch or understand football) and hit him hard enought in the CHEST (which is legal) to jar the ball free..

His only crime was hitting him early... and that the hit looked worst in regular speed that it actually was especially once played in slow motion.

[Principaldad]

Wesley did not merely hit Smith across the chest. He hit him in the upper body, making initial contact with the head. He drove his shoulder up though Smith's chin and snapped his head back. Wesley had to launch himself up to do this. In so doing, he gave Smith a concussion causing him to miss the rest of the game.

Even if Smith had just received the ball, it would have still been an iIIegal hit because the new rules state that you cannot hit a defenseless player in such a way that the initial contact is to the head.

If you want to see how to jar a ball free watch a replay of Saturday's OU-Texas game (where the Texas player knocked the ball loose on a punt the RIGHT way). You hit the receiver in the breadbasket where the ball is. The only reason to hit someone as high as Wesley hit Smith is to knock them out..

I know it is fun to claim that football is a game of hard hits, but this was iIIegal all the way around.

[OkieIntellectual]

I love how all these other folks here are jumping on the "it was a cheap shot!" bandwagon, rather than examining the evidence objectively within the context of the rules of the game. Apparently Amy, you and I saw the same thing, and are of a very small group who saw what ACTUALLY happened, rather than getting caught up in the emotional wave that so many others have.

[Principaldad]

The opinion of NFL executive vice president of football operations Ray Anderson in his statement to Wesley:

"The prohibited contact in this case went well beyond simply interfering with the receiver," Anderson wrote in a letter to Wesley. "Instead, by striking your defenseless opponent in the head and neck area, you committed an unnecessary and unnecessarily dangerous act that is specifically prohibited by the rules.

"Your actions are of particular concern in light of the emphasis that our office has placed on developing and enforcing rules designed to protect players from injury, including head and neck injuries. The safety of our players is paramount to all of us in the NFL."

http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/news/story?id=4578211

American Football is not a game of cheap shots. If you want to plow a runner into the ground then go for it. I will cheer for it (or groan if I am a fan of the other team). But, to hit a defenseless player in the head (it was the head) is cowardIy.

[shutupnub]

Good hit. Ra ra, go Panthers.

[luvVB]

The NFL and their HYPOCRISY IS ASTOUNDING.

They regularly feature segments called "JACKED UP" and replay these violent hits over, over and over.

They REFUSE to acknowledge the trauma the players brains take from EVERY SINGLE PLAY.

Sports entrainment like the NFL, NBA, WWE and is simply mindless.
Spending hours watching grown men roll around on the ground is just plain silly.

[AmyRenee]

You lost me at comparing the NBA to the NFL and WWE.... Did you lump the NBA in because they have mostly black players... otherwise i'm confused!?!?!!? help me understand what logic u used to join them into ur rant.

[Principaldad]

Then why are you here? By the same metric, you could call any form of entertainment "siIIy". Some people like to spend hours and hours putting photographs into scrapbooks that they never look at. Others will spend hours watching reels on a slot maching spin while pumping their life savings into the machine.

What do you do for fun? Please share so that everyone can make fun of you too.

[vegemight]

Loser.

[skinsqb17]

If this had been timed a little better it would have been a legal hit unless it was helmet to helmet. The rules need to be changed -since quarterbacks can't be hit anymore put a flag on em. punt and kickoff teams are very dangerous anyway. large, fast people colliding at nearly full speed. I'll give Dante the benefit of doubt, you can't say he tried to injure the man but he's SUPPOSED to hit him legally as hard as he can.

[chavo]

It was clearly a premeditated and intentional hit. He launched himself at the man, in something that he no doubt knew would get him a penalty.

[Boadicea]

This looks to me like the misjudgment of a young player who feels the pressure from all sides to be great. He obviously thought that by the time he hit, his opponent would be in the air receiving the ball.

The punishment fits the crime. They're all nuts to play this game in my view, but football players put themselves into dangerous situations every time they play, and a concussion is not an unusual occurance in the game.

[freaktown]

if you don't want to get hit, you should go play golf.

otherwise stop complaining about getting hit while playing football. last i checked, it was a contact sport and sometimes, you're gonna get the taste knocked out of your mouth.

[vegemight]

That's why there are rules about it, right?

Spoken (written) like a true 5 foot tall man who lives life thru athletes.

[Silas Barnaby]

This looks like the bloods and the crips.

[NETarrant]

Exactly...­Red vs Blue. Looks like a prison yard riot.

[skinsqb17]

and you know how many Bloods or Crips?

[skinsqb17]

do hockey fights look like the sons of confederate veterans against the aryan nation to you?

[vegemight]

Hockey!

The word is funny in and of itself. Hockey.

[vegemight]

It looks like Blackwater and Liz Cheeeeney.

[stanschurman]

That was clearly a cheap shot. The ball wasn't even close to being in the picture when he made that hit. You can argue all you want about football being a rough game (Duh!) or this being uncharacteristic of this guy, but a cheap shot is still a cheap shot. One game without pay...oh, the humanity!