On October 15, 2017, one tackle in Minneapolis changed the Green Bay Packers’ season and, a year later, the NFL rulebook. Midway through the first quarter at U.S. Bank Stadium, Vikings linebacker Anthony Barr drove Aaron Rodgers into the turf just as the quarterback released a pass outside the pocket. Rodgers landed on his right shoulder and broke his collarbone. No flag was thrown.
Minnesota won 23-10. Green Bay, 4-1 that morning, finished 7-9 and missed the playoffs for the first time since 2008. And before the 2018 season, the league changed one word in its roughing-the-passer rule so that the same hit would draw a 15-yard penalty.
The hit
Rodgers was on Green Bay’s second possession. He rolled to his right, out of the pocket, and threw for tight end Martellus Bennett on second-and-9 as Barr arrived. Barr wrapped him and came down on top of him; Bennett dropped the pass. Rodgers stayed down, went to the sideline medical tent and was carted to the locker room before the first quarter ended. He was 2 of 4 for 18 yards.
Brett Hundley’s first pass in relief was deflected and intercepted by Xavier Rhodes. Hundley threw his first career touchdown, a 14-yarder to Davante Adams after Clay Matthews returned a Jerick McKinnon fumble 63 yards, but he finished 18 of 33 for 157 yards with three interceptions and four sacks. Case Keenum, starting in place of the injured Sam Bradford, threw for 239 yards, and Harrison Smith had 1½ sacks and a diving interception. Barr later left the game with a concussion.
Rodgers was angry about the hit afterward. Under the rule as it was written in 2017, though, officials had little to work with: he had left the pocket, Barr’s contact came as the ball came out, and the body-weight clause required two things to happen together.
| Detail | Result |
|---|---|
| Final | Vikings 23, Packers 10 (U.S. Bank Stadium) |
| Rodgers before injury | 2 of 4, 18 yards; broken right collarbone, first quarter |
| Hundley in relief | 18 of 33, 157 yards, 1 TD, 3 INT, 4 sacks |
| Records after game | Vikings 4-2, Packers 4-2 |
| Rodgers on IR | October 20, 2017, after surgery the day before |
| Rodgers’ return | December 17 at Carolina: 290 yards, 3 TD, 3 INT in a 31-24 loss |
| Back to IR | December 19, after Green Bay was eliminated |
| Hundley as starter | 3-6 |
| Packers final | 7-9, third in the NFC North; Vikings won the division at 13-3 |
A season without him
Green Bay placed Rodgers on injured reserve on October 20, the day after surgery on the collarbone. It was the second broken collarbone of his career; he had missed seven games with a fracture on the left side in 2013. This one was on his throwing side.
Hundley lost his first three starts, then won three of the next five, including two overtime games. Rodgers was activated on December 16 and played the next day at Carolina, but he was not at full strength. He threw three touchdowns and three interceptions in a 31-24 loss, and when other results that weekend knocked the 7-7 Packers out of contention, the team put him back on injured reserve. Green Bay lost its final two games. The Vikings went 13-3, won the NFC North and reached the NFC Championship Game.
One word in the rulebook: “and” becomes “or”
The roughing-the-passer rule already told defenders not to land on a passer in a defenseless posture. In 2017, the text said a defender must not unnecessarily or violently throw the passer down and land on top of him with all or most of his weight. Both had to happen for a foul.
For 2018, the competition committee changed that “and” to “or.” Landing on the quarterback with all or most of the defender’s body weight became a foul on its own, malicious or not, and defenders were told to roll to the side or brace their fall with their arms instead. Referee Pete Morelli, visiting Vikings camp in August 2018 to brief players on rule changes, said plainly that Barr’s hit on Rodgers would be a foul under the new standard, as long as the quarterback was outside the pocket and had set up to throw rather than running.
Around the league it was quickly called the Aaron Rodgers rule.
The Clay Matthews rule
Enforcement in September 2018 became one of the season’s first big controversies, and much of it centered on Rodgers’ own teammate. Officials threw 15 roughing-the-passer flags in Week 1, five of them for landing on the quarterback with body weight. Matthews was flagged in three straight games. In Week 2 against Minnesota, his hit on Kirk Cousins wiped out a late Jaire Alexander interception that would have sealed a Packers win; the Vikings scored and converted a two-point try with 31 seconds left, and the game ended in a 29-29 tie. Referee Tony Corrente said that flag was for lifting Cousins and driving him to the ground, not the body-weight clause. A week later, on a hit on Washington’s Alex Smith, referee Craig Wrolstad said Matthews had landed with most or all of his body weight.
“I know there’s an emphasis on protecting quarterbacks, but it’s gotten out of control,” Matthews said after the Vikings game. Judy Battista reported that several members of the competition committee were uncomfortable with how the emphasis was playing out. The wording stayed.
Still in the book in 2026
The 2026 Official Playing Rules keep the 2018 language almost word for word. Rule 12, Section 2, Article 11 says a defender tackling a passer in a defenseless posture “must not unnecessarily or violently throw him down or land on top of him with all or most of the defender’s weight,” and must “strive to fall to the side of the passer’s body, or to brace his fall with his arms.” The penalty is still 15 yards and an automatic first down.
The rule also explains why Barr’s hit was a tough call in 2017 and would be a foul today. A passer who leaves the pocket loses the one-step protection and the low-hit protection, but keeps the body-weight protection, the head-and-neck protection and the rest of the special passer protections. For how officials apply each part on the next snap, read the WhyNFL guide: Roughing the passer explained.
Nine years later, the tackle that broke Rodgers’ collarbone is still one of the main reasons pass rushers are taught to roll off the quarterback as they bring him down.
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