Danny Amendola obliterated a Chiefs gunner who wasn’t expecting it and the penalty was only 2 yards

On a Chiefs punt towards the end zone, cornerback Jamell Fleming prepared to down the ball near the end zone. Danny Amendola made sure that didn’t happen with a huge hit:

It took me a few viewings to register what happened here, since this play rarely happens in football. Amendola is the punt returner, and Fleming is on the kicking team. If their roles were reversed, this would be a penalty for kick catch interference, since members of the kicking team have to give the return man an opportunity to catch the ball.

But Amendola is actually the return man. He’s allowed to be blocking here. The hit is shoulder to chest, which fits the rulebook definition of “clean.” Amendola was allowed to hit this player, and he made a hit he was allowed to make.

But there’s no way Fleming was expecting to get blown up. Gunners on the punt team are worried about tackling the return man; they don’t really worry about getting tackled by the return man. And once the returner passes on returning the ball, the gunner isn’t even worried about making a tackle. His eyes are following the ball, tracking it so he can pin it near the end zone. Fleming’s body isn’t preparing for a hit at all, and Amendola decided to blow him up. If not illegal, this was dirty, at the very least.

Hitting a player who “should not have reasonably anticipated such contact by an opponent” is considered unnecessary roughness. That seems to fit the description of what happened. The referees called this hit unnecessary roughness, and I’d guess that wording is why.

But since Amendola was on the four-yard line when this happened, the penalty for the unnecessary roughness foul was only half the distance to the goal, which was two yards. The Pats drove 98 yards for a touchdown, so that didn’t matter a bit.

This is very New England Patriots. Amendola got to obliterate an opponent and maybe save his team bad field position, and there isn’t quite any rule against it. When the refs did throw a flag, the maximum penalty was basically negligible. I wouldn’t be surprised if Amendola knew ahead of time that if he took out a gunner within the 5-yard line, it would have virtually no negative repercussions for his team on the field.

Here’s what Amendola said after the game, via NESN.com:

“I’ll appeal if I’m getting fined, but I thought it was a clean hit.”

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“We’re coached to do that. It’s a big play if I block that guy and the ball bounces in the end zone. We get the ball on the 20-yard line, so it’s a big play in the game, big play for field position.”