The Washington Commanders headed into this 2023 NFL season with high hopes of finally turning things around for the storied franchise, with the team now able to start fresh with Josh Harris being the team’s new owner.
Fortunately for the Commanders, the team was scheduled to go head-to-head against the lowly Arizona Cardinals to start their season at FedExField, which bodes well for Ron Rivera and company coming out on top.
The Cardinals are widely considered to be one of the worst teams in the league coming into the 2023 campaign, with the team rebuilding and star quarterback Kyler Murray out for the first four games of the season due to injury.
With Arizona’s season basically up in the air in terms of expectations, it can lead to some bad decisions on the field, which is exactly what happened on this play where second-year quarterback Sam Howell got leveled as he was going out of bounds via Dov Kleiman of BroBible.
What a DIRTY hit on #Commanders QB Sam Howell, was it worth an ejection?
Howell had to leave the game and return.pic.twitter.com/oXQhd9Hvjw
— Dov Kleiman (@NFL_DovKleiman) September 10, 2023
With the way the league protects quarterbacks these days, this kind of vicious hit, especially with Howell heading out of bounds, rarely gets seen anymore, and the NFL might make an example of it.
Fortunately for the Commanders, Howell was able to return to the game and threw a touchdown pass to running back Brian Robinson Jr., as Washington currently leads Arizona, 7-6.
However, vicious hits that can result in serious injuries should never tolerated in today’s game, meaning the league should take action, especially considering it’s Week 1 and examples need to be set.
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