ENGLEWOOD, Colo. Texas Rangers Gear . - The NFLs officiating chief has cleared Broncos receiver Wes Welker of any wrongdoing for his hit that knocked Patriots cornerback Aqib Talib out of Sundays AFC Championship. "It was a legal hit," Vice-President of Officiating Dean Blandino said on the NFL Network on Wednesday night. On Monday, New England coach Bill Belichick blasted Welker for the hit, calling it "one of the worst plays" hed seen in nearly four decades of coaching. Without mentioning his former player by name, Belichick said it "was a deliberate play by the receiver to take out Aqib, no attempt to get open." He added, "Ill let the league handle the discipline on that play." There will be no discipline for Welker; Blandino said there was simply no infraction of the rules. Welker, coming from the right, collided with Talib, who was running from the left to stay with his receiver, a split-second before Peyton Mannings pass went off the hands of receiver Demaryius Thomas a few yards away in the first quarter Sunday. No flag was thrown. Talib left the game with a knee injury and didnt return, and Manning threw for 400 yards in Denvers 26-16 win that sent the top-seeded Broncos to the Super Bowl. "The first potential foul would be for offensive pass interference; a receiver cant block downfield before the ball is touched, so the timing is important," Blandino said on his weekly appearance on the NFL Network. He noted that as "contact occurs, the ball is touched almost simultaneously. We dont have a foul for pass interference." "The other thing, is it unnecessary roughness? Under the current rules it isnt," Blandino said. "Its not late; Talib wasnt out of the play." Given that an injury occurred, Blandino said he expects the leagues competition committee to examine the play in the off-season "and determine if there needs to be a change. But under the current rules, this is a legal play." Welker, who had a cool relationship with Belichick before leaving New England as a free agent last off-season, hasnt been available for comment this week as the Broncos wont practice until Thursday. But after the game, Welker said, "it was one of those plays where its kind of a rub play and I was trying to get him to go over the top, and I think he was thinking the same thing and wanted to come underneath and we just kind of collided. ... It wasnt a deal where I was trying to hit him or anything like that." Broncos coach John Fox responded to Belichicks stinging criticism on Monday by saying Welker is a "a great player, high integrity. I can say that we were not doing anything with intent." At 5-foot-9 and 185 pounds, Welker is 4 inches shorter and 20 pounds lighter than Talib. Hes also wearing a special helmet to guard against further head injury after missing the final month of the season with his second concussion. Hes also never been known as a dirty player. Patriots safety Steve Gregory said he didnt think Welker would deliberately try to hurt a player, saying, "I dont think anybody plays that way, especially at this level of football with two great football teams in the Broncos and ourselves." Blandino said he has spoken with Belichick this week about the play "and obviously there is a difference of opinion there and something that well continue to look at during the off-season." ___ AP NFL website: www.pro32.ap.org ___ Follow AP Pro Football Writer Arnie Melendrez Stapleton on Twitter: http://twitter.com/arniestapleton Rangers Jerseys 2019 . Not only that, when Julian de Guzman first stepped on the pitch for Deportivo de la Coruna he became the very first Canadian to play in Spains top tier. Texas Rangers Pro Shop . Venus Williams advanced to the ASB Classic final in Auckland on a walkover when fellow American Jamie Hampton withdrew from their semifinal Friday with a right hip injury. https://www.cheaprangersbaseball.com/ . J.J. Hardy drove in a run for the Orioles, who bounced back from an 8-4 loss in the series opener on Friday. Fresh off the 15-day disabled list, Derrek Lee went 2-for-4 with two runs scored. Jake Arrieta (7-3) gave up three runs on five hits over six innings to pick up the win.Phoenix, AZ (SportsNetwork.com) - It didnt take Nostradamus to predict what was going to happen Friday when Roger Goodell finally met the media for his annual state of the league address two days prior to Super Bowl XLIX. The sharks were swimming, lambasting the commissioner for what can only be described as his dismal job performance over the past year, which now has the league he pilots perpetually stuck in the mud. It doesnt matter what the controversy or scandal is these days, Goodells past ineptitude has robbed him of any credibility, and the default setting for most of the general public is to now assume the NFL is going to get it wrong because the guy at the top has proven to be ineffective time and time again. Goodell admitted that the 2014 season, during which hes endured heavy criticism for his handling of a number of league matters -- most notably the domestic violence case involving former Baltimore Ravens running back Ray Rice -- has been a tough year on me personally. Its been a year of humility and learning, he stated. We obviously as an organization have gone through adversity. We take it seriously, Its an opportunity for us to get better. So weve all done a lot of soul searching, starting with yours truly. That lip service has been heard before and didnt stop the onslaught with one reporter asking point blank if there were any set of circumstances that would lead him to resign. To no surprise the guy who gets the $44 million stipend and still has the backing of the only 32 people who really matter -- the NFL owners -- almost laughed it off. No, I cant (imagine resigning), he said. Does that surprise you? It shouldnt take anyone off guard. Lack of self awareness is a tangible Goodell trait as he is seemingly immune to the fact he has become the story. For instance, on the surface Deflategate is about the New England Patriots but no matter the outcome, the result is going to be questioned because the guy in charge is no longer trustworthy. One reporter asked the commissioner if his close relationship with New England owner Robert Kraft could potentially impact the leagues investigation over the Pats use of improperly deflated ffootballs in the AFC Championship Game. Cheap Rangers Jerseys. I admire, respect and think very highly of him on a personal level. Theres no hiding from that point, said Goodell of Kraft. Since he knows me so well and knows that Im not going to do anything to compromise the integrity of the league, I think he has no doubt that I will do the right thing. Kraft may have no doubt but plenty of others do. Theres an adage that says if you find yourself in a hole, stop digging but neither the NFL nor Goodell has figured that out. A lot of the concerns that we had back in August where we didnt have a policy that addressed a very complex issue (domestic violence), Goodell said. We didnt have answers for that. We didnt fully understand those issues. Now we have experts in the field. Theyre in our office. Theyre helping us understand this. Talk about disingenuous. First off the league certainly had a personal-conduct policy in place to address those kinds of matters and Goodell used his power to punish Rice poorly. Claiming there was no policy for a complex issue is moving the goal posts to hoodwink the low-information crowd. And perhaps more importantly does anyone other than Goodell really need help understanding what Rice did? On its surface, Goodells dodge-and-parry routine is insulting as is his insistence that a new personal-conduct policy unilaterally approved by the owners without collectively bargaining with the players is some kind of panacea. We set out to create a new personal conduct policy, which was unanimously approved by our 32 owners in December, Goodell said. We made enormous progress. The things we didnt know and where we were in August, are not where we are today. Were in a good place in knowing and learning and having a lot more humility. Trust me, humility is the last adjective most would use to describe Goodell. Hubris is a better one as evidenced by this declarative statement: This is my job. Its my responsibility to protect the integrity of the game, Goodell said. By your own standards, youve failed miserably Mr. Commissioner, and thats why Fridays state of the league address was nothing more than a state of denial. ' ' '