Micah Parsons criticizes NFL roughing the passer penalties, says job is to 'hit somebody'

With the NFL committing to not changing their controversial roughing the passer penalties, Micah Parsons claimed he wasn’t changing his game. The NFL has drawn the ire of fans and players around the league after a pair of roughing the passer penalties this weekend put the current rules in the spotlight.

Parsons was among many players this weekend who were vocally critical of the penalties being called, and when pressed for clarification the former Penn State star said he wasn’t going to adjust to protect quarterbacks.

Micah Parsons on roughing the passer penalties

“I mean, it’s tough. We kinda got a small margin of how to tackle quarterbacks and it’s a physical game. It’s tough. I understand why, the strides that make a difference and try to keep players safe, but at the end of the day, we’ve got a job to do. I’m just going to keep it like that. We got a job to hit somebody. That’s what I get paid to do. That’s the reason why I’m still here and get my pay stub every Thursday, to hit people. And it’s kind of making it difficult for a lot of players around the league to hit people. We got to find a better way to adjust or they got to find a better way to help us out there,” said Parsons via The Athletic‘s Jon Machota.

“I’m not thinking about it at all [when I’m playing]. If I get a fine, I get a fine. If I don’t, I don’t. I’m playing football to help my team win games and I know to do that we’ve got to sack the quarterback.”

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The Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Tom Brady profited this weekend from the new NFL focus on protecting quarterbacks against the Atlanta Falcons when Brady was wrapped up and brought to the ground on a sack by Grady Jarrett. Jarrett was penalized on the play, prompting immediate outrage across the NFL as players claimed the tackle was as safe as a tackle could be in the NFL. The play was penalized because the officials ruled that Jarrett threw Brady into the ground as he took him down.

Adding to the controversy was a similar call made on Monday Night Football against the Kansas City Chiefs. Defensive tackle Chris Jones brought down Raiders quarterback Derek Carr on a sack-fumble where the ball was in Jones’ hands before either player went to the ground. The officials ruled it was a roughing the passer penalty on the play because Jones landed on top of Carr, “driving” him into the ground.