Bills defensive tackle Kyle Williams expected to get a fine for a hit on Patriots quarterback Tom Brady in Sunday’s game.
That doesn’t mean he was happy to find the letter informing him of the fine in his locker on Wednesday. Williams drew a flag for roughing Brady when he hit the New England quarterback on the back of the calf on a completion to Wes Welker in the third quarter of the game. The catch and the penalty helped put the Patriots in position to tie the game on 21 en route to a 52-28 victory.
Williams said he didn’t dive at Brady’s legs or lead with his helmet on the play and said he could understand the fine if he did either of those things. But he’s not sure what he’s supposed to do differently even if he knew that what he did was going to be penalized.
A"t the same time, I asked the official during the game, ‘What do you want me to do?’ He didn’t say anything. Of course, I wasn’t exactly calm when I asked him,” Williams said, via Mark Gaughan of the Buffalo News. “But I’m trying to figure out: You get blocked down, you’re going down. The guy’s still got the ball. I didn’t dive into the side of the leg. I didn’t spear him in the side of the leg. I hit him with my forearm in his calf and he went down.”
Brady is one of the reasons why there’s a rule against defenders diving into the legs of quarterbacks. The new rule came into effect in 2009, the year after safety Bernard Pollard, then with the Chiefs, ended Brady’s season with a shot to the knee in the first game of the season.
