Did you see this video clip?

On the play where Jordan Mailata looked to have suffered his concussion, Cowboys linebacker Jaylon Smith reared back and went helmet-to-helmet on him:

If there’s any ambiguity there, it’s lost when Smith decides to headbutt Mailata instead of attempting to tackle the guy running right by him for a big gain.

Doug Pederson said this about the play:

“We’ll take a look at it, send it in and see what happens. Jordan is in the (concussion) protocol, so that is all I can comment on that. As far as the hit and all that goes, those are things that happen. You don’t want to see that obviously. Looked like a helmet blow type play. Again, it’s unfortunate that that happened, but he’s in the protocol and we’ll see where he is each day this week.”

That would be flagged under the new rule installed last season.


Why would Smith do this? What provoked it?

He got clobbered on a few occasions by Mailata, like this one: