DeVante Parker suffers head injury on play that inexplicably didn't draw penalty

BOSTON -- The NFL often touts how much it values and protects player safety. The actions on the field occasionally don't align with those words, though.

Sunday in Miami presented one such case, when Dolphins defensive back DeShon Elliott delivered a violent hit to the head of a defenseless DeVante Parker on a pass over the middle in the third quarter.

Parker dropped the pass and remained down on the turf after absorbing the hit.

Despite the fact that Elliott very clearly used his helmet to hit Parker's facemask on the play, no penalty was called on the play.

After receiving attention from the team's training staff, Parker headed to the locker room and was ruled out due to a head injury.

Parker suffered a clear concussion on the field last year on a play when the NFL's concussion spotters failed to recognize his obvious symptoms.

The NFL rulebook states that Parker was a defensive player ("a receiver attempting to catch a pass who has not had time to clearly become a runner") and that the contact was thus illegal -- "forcibly hitting the defenseless player's head or neck area with the helmet, facemask, forearm, or shoulder." The rules state it is illegal contact "regardless of whether the defensive player also uses his arms to tackle the defenseless player by encircling or grasping him."

There was no doubt that this was a textbook case of illegal contact against a defenseless player, but it went as a badly missed play by Land Clark's officiating crew.

The Dolphins went on to win, 31-17.