During the Browns’ preseason win over the Indianapolis Colts, Cleveland safety J.T. Hassell was flagged for a hit on a punt return. The illegal use of the helmet infraction set off quite the firestorm on social media.
Hassell appeared to initiate contact with his shoulder on the hit on Colts punt returner Nyheim Hines. It’s a bang-bang play but the official threw the flag right away. technically he threw his hat, as there was already a foul on Hassell on the play for deliberately running out of bounds on the coverage.
Here’s the hit in question:
Bleacher Report’s Mike Freeman summed up the way most people felt about Hassell’s controversial hit,
The penalty clearly bothered starting safety Damarious Randall. He got profane in his reaction (sorry mom!),
The former NFL officials at Football Zebras saw it a little differently,
The responses to all the above tweets are all over the map.
What do you think — great hit or a penalty?
