Bills' Hyde proposes QBs be fined for helmet-to-helmet hits

Buffalo Bills safety Micah Hyde is making himself an enemy of quarterbacks everywhere.

Hyde, who earned Pro Bowl and second-team All-Pro honors after recording 82 tackles and five interceptions during his first season with the Bills, provided an unusual player safety recommendation Tuesday, proposing that quarterbacks be fined when receivers are targeted on helmet-to-helmet hits.

"Those bang-bang plays, it's tough," Hyde told ESPN's Mike Rodak. "Start fining the quarterbacks. They're the ones who are throwing the ball right there. It's tough for us to be able to adjust last second to get our head to one side, the other side - up, down. We're trying to make a play like the receiver is. It's the sport of football."

The NFL recently implemented a rule in which players are penalized 15 yards and potentially thrown out for lowering their heads to initiate contact.

Hyde doesn't seem to approve of the rule, providing a more detailed account of how he approaches a ball-carrier as a safety.

"When a guy catches a ball across the middle and it's bang-bang, and he's just catching the ball and doesn't have his feet down yet, as a defensive player, I'm not going to wait for him to bring the ball in and secure it," Hyde said. "That's not realistic. In my eyes, if I'm able to hit him in his feet all the way up to his shoulders, I'm going to try to. Obviously, the head, the head contact, you can get away from that.

"(But) I actually had an incident in the playoff game (against Jacksonville when) the trainers didn't like how I tackled on a few plays. My response to them was just the running back was running at me, and he's getting as low as he can and lowering his shoulder, lowering his helmet. I have to make a tackle. I'm not going to stand straight up, because he's going to run straight through my chest. It's a violent game, it's a violent sport. They're trying the best they can do to make it as safe as possible, but at the end of the day, those bang-bang plays, they're hard to get out of the sport."