What an atrocious comparison. If a defender catches a forward from behind there's a much slimmer chance he'll ever touch the ball and it is quite clear the defender was pulling the emergency break. In Heinze's case he was coming in from the front, actually 'scratched' the ball (not enough? there's no rule on that) and there's a conflict of conclusions to be drawn: the referee was behind the situation and could conclude Heinze actually touched the ball and the forward was looking to go down OR he could conclude it was a blatant foul and red card the player OR he could conclude foul was minor, the ball was also hit, and hence didn't amount to a red card, or, or, or... Football is a total grey area and anyone who denies it needs to get back in touch with reality.
Apply for a job at FIFA and get to work yourself then