League Has to Step in Against Dirty Blocks

Vishante Shiancoe and Tom Nalen, take a bow. You've brought ligament-endangering dirty play to the forefront in the past 24 hours.

On a running play during the first quarter of tonight's Jags-Giants game, Shiancoe -- a New York tight end -- just went low on Jacksonville safety Donovin Darius about 20 yards down the field, cutting the right knee of Darius without even bothering to give a pretense of going high.

Last night, Nalen - the Broncos center - dove at the knees of Chargers defensive lineman Igor Olshansky on a spike play. Rotten move.

It'll be interesting to now see what happens in the wake of these plays of boldfaced filthy play. If you're a defensive player, and you go at a quarterback (many of whom are as big as some of the linebackers coming to get them), and slide from his waist to his knees as he wriggles loose, you get flagged and sometimes fined.

Where's the protection for the relatively faceless defenders? Absent, generally. Well here's a gift-wrapped chance for the league to step forward and show the NFL's defensive players - linemen in particular - that their knees have some value too.