Arizona Cardinals coach Bruce Arianscalled the chop block that knocked Calais Campbell out of Sunday's 41-20 loss to the Denver Broncos "the dirtiest play (he's) seen in 37 years" of coaching.
"I talked to him after the game," Fox said in reference to Arians. "I've been in coaching 35 (years), not quite 37, but it's not the dirtiest play I've seen this year, let alone 35 years."
Arians said Sunday that Broncos tight end Julius Thomas and left tackle Ryan Clady executed a "premeditated high-low" hit on Campbell, one of Arizona's best defenders. Campbell has a sprained MCL and will miss one to three weeks. Thomas was penalized on the play, which wiped out a 77-yard Demaryius Thomas touchdown reception.
"Absolutely no intention to hurt anyone ... Me and Clady aren't kind of guys to take someone out. Was unfortunate," Julius Thomassaid.
NFL spokesman Michael Signora said Monday the penalty was correctly called as chop block.
"It's not necessarily whether it was the right or wrong technique," Fox said. "Cut blocking is allowed in the National Football League and utilized by everybody in the league but you cannot have the tackle engage (the defender) and cut block at the same time -- it's called a chop block. But that in no way was intentional. (It's) never been coached by me or anybody on my staff or any player we have on our football team in four years.
"I believe that's probably our first chop block call in our tenure here over four years. It was a look that we had not seen much of; we weren't targeting anybody in particular. Calais was lined up at end and he spends most of his time inside. It was a three-man rush and we didn't communicate as well as we'd like. I never like to see any player injured, including an opponent's player. It cost us a 77-yard touchdown, so we're not coaching that."
Arians was still hot about the play one day later. Arians said Monday there's no way he can be convinced that the block on Campbell wasn't premeditated, according to Kent Somers of The Arizona Republic. Arians believes the offending player should be suspended for as long as an opponent is out injured.
That will never happen, but we understand the coach's frustration.
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