Brandon Meriweather: "I guess I've just got to take guy's knees out"


Last we heard from former Patriot Brandon Meriweather, he was facing a two game suspension from the NFL after racking up two more dangerous hits to the head of opponents. He was also facing criticism from one of those opponents, Brandon Marshall, who wondered whether Meriweather needs to be suspended for his blatant disregard for the safety of his fellow players.

Despite a career filled with dangerous plays, Meriweather got his suspension reduced to one game by appeal last week. He served it by missing Washington's loss to the Broncos Sunday and is already back in action. He's also going to continue to hurt his fellow players. Take his word for it.
“I guess I’ve just got to take people’s knees out,” Meriweather said. “That’s the only way. . . .  I’d hate to end a guy’s career, you know, over a rule.  But I guess it’s better other people than me getting suspended for longer. . . ."

“To be honest, man, you’ve just got to go low now.  You’ve got to end people’s careers, you know?  You’ve got to tear people’s ACLs and mess up people’s knees now.  You can’t hit them high no more.  You’ve just got to go low.”
Meriweather disregards the existence of the torso with his statement. However, in his defense, it is hard to dive headfirst at someone's midsection and expect them to go down. Unless of course, you wrap your arms around the ball carrier's legs to impede his forward progress, the way every football player in the country is taught to growing up.

It certainly is amusing to hear Meriweather, notoriously one of the league's worst open field tacklers, lament the NFL forcing him to change his tackling technique. Against all probability, there seems to be a lot of players that manage to deliver good, crushing blows every week without targeting the head or knees.

Meriweather went on to display his penchant for low blows by taking a shot at Marshall's personal life as well. Via ProFootballTalk:
“Listen, everybody’s got their opinion of things, you know. Everybody’s got their opinion. He feels like, you know, I need to be kicked out of the league.  I feel like, people who beat their girlfriends should be kicked out of the league too. . . ."

“You tell me who you’d rather have: Somebody who plays aggressive on the field, or somebody who beats up their girlfriend. Everybody’s got their opinion.  That’s mine.  He’s got his.”
Meriweather is referring to multiple domestic cases involving Marshall and his wife. Of course, Marshall's undeniably dubious history has no bearing whatsoever on whether Meriweather is a dirty player. Any question over that can be cleared up by watching the tape, which shows Meriweather launch himself at the opponents head game after game.