Clay Matthews and Ha Ha Clinton-Dix refused to call Anthony Barr’s hit on Aaron Rodgers dirty, but they were surprised when officials didn’t penalize the Vikings linebacker. The NFL still could fine Barr, with fines made public Friday.
“I’ve been hitting quarterbacks for almost a decade now and generally when you see a quarterback get rid of the ball, you’re allowed to give him a shot [but] show that you pulled up on him,” Matthews said, via Rob Demovsky. “But obviously more is going to be made out of it simply because our quarterback broke his collarbone. I’m not going to go as far as to say hits are dirty, because I’m sure plenty of fans from all sorts of teams have said the same thing about me. It’s unfortunate it happened, but [I was] surprised that there wasn’t a flag.”
Barr grabbed Rodgers around the waist and drove him to the ground, with the quarterback landing on his right shoulder. Rodgers broke his clavicle.
Clinton-Dix said Barr should have given Rodgers a “love tap.”
“With that play, I really don’t think it was intentional,” Clinton-Dix said. “I don’t think he meant to do it on purpose, but he definitely knows better than that. Guys like A-Rod, you respect them so much to the point where I wouldn’t dare. If I got a chance to sack A-Rod or knock him out, I’d just go in and make a clean little tackle just to get him on the ground. I wouldn’t dare try to drive him into the ground. That’s understood. You don’t want to hurt a guy like that.”