The NFL Jumps the Shark
Say goodbye to pro football as we knew it. In its continuing assault on what makes the pro game the most watched weekly sporting event in TV history, the NFL powers that be have decreed that hitting an opponent too hard will result in “serious consequences” — presumably, game suspensions and hefty fines.
The league has already taken much of the spontaneity and joy out of the game by banning just about any celebratory action following a touchdown — or even a good play. They have crimped the individuality of such larger than life personalities as Chad Ochocinco by banning his wildly original antics following his scoring a touchdown. Group celebrations were banned following the 1984 season, when the Washington Redskins’ “Fun Bunch” electrified the crowd with their demonstration of unity and joy in the end zone.
Just two Sundays ago, the Dallas Cowboys were assessed a 15-yard penalty (imposed on the ensuing kickoff) for “excessive celebration.” The crime? Offensive tackle Marc Colombo took the ball from tight end Jason Witten who had just scored a touchdown, spiked it, and lost his balance falling to the ground. The refs deemed this a violation of the celebration rule because Colombo left his feet. Dallas kicked off from the 20-yard line and the kick was returned for a touchdown, dealing a huge blow to their comeback hopes.
There are strict rules on what can be displayed on a player’s uniform. There are rules against “taunting” — a particularly maddening rule when one remembers such NFL staples as the “sack dance” and other demonstrative displays that used to rev up the crowd and bring the game alive for home viewers.
In short, any action by any player that demonstrates overt and “excessive” emotion is discouraged. They don’t call it the “No Fun League” for nothing. At times, it seems as if the NFL wants cyborgs for players and soulless machines for teams — a sterilized, homogenized product that offends no one while slowly removing the drama and humanity from the game.
The ostensible reason for these rule changes — that it upsets the other team and could lead to violence outside the confines of the game — is laughable when placed in the context of what the two sides attempt to do to each other for 60 minutes every Sunday. The violence unleashed between the lines during the game is as close to gladiatorial combat that Western civilized nations can come without doling out free bread and unleashing starving lions onto the field. And now, there is even the notion being advanced that two human bodies colliding — the immovable object meeting the irresistible force — can be controlled and managed as if the players were engaged in nothing more strenuous than a game of soccer.
What precipitated this crisis were a series of titanic, head-to-head, pile=driving hits laid on receivers by three different defensive players in four incidents on Sunday. The AP defensive player of the year in 2008, James Harrison of the Pittsburgh Steelers, laid out two different Cleveland Browns receivers, concussing both. Brandon Meriweather of the New England Patriots made himself into a human missile and launched himself illegally at the Baltimore Ravens’ Todd Heap. And the Atlanta Falcons’ Dunta Robinson took himself out of the game along with the Philadelphia Eagles’ DeSean Jackson with a vicious helmet-leading hit that gave both men concussions.
Add to that the unrelated but still frightening incident at the Rutgers-Army game on Saturday. Rutgers junior Eric LeGrande was paralyzed from the neck down as a result of his head making awkward contact with the shoulder of an Army player, and the hypersensitive league leadership simply panicked and decreed that the subjectivity used in judging these hits by the referees would be narrowed precipitously. That isn’t necessarily the intent of the league. After all, they make the point that there will be no changes in the rules. But the message has been sent to the zebras to get tough on these helmet-leading collisions and the refs are, if nothing else, sensitive to the wishes of those who pay their salaries. In a month, the league will have DBs playing on eggshells to avoid penalties and suspensions.
Rick, your style is transparent, and I’m not taking the bait.
You do know the difference between playing and intending to injure. You can probably guess how much the fans enjoy the in-your-face antics of supposed adults. The NFL is about making money. Injured players and boorish behavior don’t attract fans.
You should have canned this one.
I couldn’t agree more with this article. I am fine with penalizing heavily guys that leave their feet, or obviously attempt to injure – but the NFL has lost its balls. Hard hits and celebrations ARE the entertainment, otherwise you may as well play flag if you just want to see successful pass patterns and low key touchdown celebrations. Tackling is about making the ball carrier think about me next time we meet as well as stopping his progress. Just move to two hand touch and save us all the slow torture of watching this sport die.
“Guys who leave their feet”? One hits much harder with both feet on the ground, no?
Simple solution. Remove the helmet. A rugby player learns very quickly to not lead with their head into a tackle. We are to pretty.
I was thinking the same thing. When I played there were lots of bloody noses and cuts but never real concussions. Then again, I wasn’t trying to tackle Adrian Peterson.
I used to agree but now I think differently.
In Oct 2001, 10 years ago, Science Daly published the article, “Concussion In Rugby Appears To Be Hidden Epidemic, Researchers Say”
Money quote: “The study, conducted at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and in Salt Lake City, showed that as many as 25 percent of rugby injuries might involve the brain-banging, life-threatening trauma.”
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2001/10/011011065700.htm
Or any competent ballcarrier, who is going to give you a knee, a shoulder, a forearm, exploding upward into one or more of your soft spots, at top speed and at 240 lbs of solid muscle that can squat well over 600 lbs. Hitting works both ways, Virginia.
Football players were often seriously injured and killed in the early 20th Century when the training methods left much to be desired. Today’s players—especially the rare ones who actually earn a spot of a NFL roster are significantly more dangerous! They often possess lightening speed and are trained to hit their opponents like like the proverbial freight train. Something has got to give.
The line seems clear to me: do not lower your head and use your helmet as a weapon. Otherwise, you are free to hit as hard as you want. Helmets were intended as head protection, not as weapons. A violation is easy to avoid: don’t lower your head when hitting the other player. The rule also seems logical and reasonable: The rule addresses use of the helmet for a purpose it was not intended. The rule also seems easy to enforce because everyone can see whether a player has lowered his head to use his helmet as a weapon. It also seems no different in principle than the rule against grabbing the helmet’s face mask.
That makes sense to me. Thanks!
Spearing is the name of the lowered helmet charge. It was instituted because of Doug Plank, ex Chicago Bear player. The NFL will call this penalty in helmet-to-helmet contact but rarely in helmet to other parts of the body. If the NFL doesn’t seriously clamp down on this, someone will be killed.
Eh, the NFL lost me a long time ago. Between the trend towards wussification and the shabby treatment of us Houston Oilers fans (back when “Bottom Line” Bud Adams did his thing, moving to Tennessee and then obstructing our efforts to gain another team as well as stubbornly refusing to allow us to name the new team the Oilers), I swore to never darken the gates of another NFL game with my presence, no matter where I was. Phooey on them. A pox on all of their houses. I don’t live in Houston any more, but my personal boycott remains. Not One Thin Dime. I’ve got better things to do.
Thanks for clearing that up! We’ve all been terribly concerned for ever so long! Can we send someone over to cuddle you and tuck you in?
I spent ten years with season tickets in Pittsburgh watching the 70s Steelers. Not ONCE did I see Jack Ham tackle someone and then stand over him with arms folded, nodding his head!! I don’t remember Bleier or Harris scoring and then doing ludicrous dances all over the field. They just handed the ball to the ref. Swann used to toss the ball back over his shoulder after a TD pass…Stallworth either just dropped it after crossing the goal line or threw it to the ref. Greene, Greenwood and Holmes never did a 10 minute SACK DANCE. Andy Russell never speared anyone out of bounds. Mike Wagner didn’t head hunt in the secondary. But then, Pittsburgh had a class coach in Noll and a class owner in Art Rooney. They didn’t tolerate clowns or a$$hole$ on the field or off. Oh…and they also WON. A LOT!! Unfortunately, smack-offs have taken over the game–playing and coaching. But then, they have a lot of company in the rest of the population, haven’t they. Look who’s in the White House.
And it was Noll who identified Raider ruffians George Atkinson and Jack Tatum as part of “the criminal element in the NFL.” Atkinson had injured some Steeler, although I don’t believe that Tatum had yet paralyzed Daryl Stingley.
Also, I believe that today’s explanation of the “new” rule includes penalties for forearms and shoulders, as well as helmets, when they are driven into head or neck. Young Buonoconti, for one, certainly regrets tackling with his head.
But the “look whose in the White House” line is an essentially pointless cheap shot.
On the contrary, cheap shots can be good shots. I have enjoyed several of yours here. Besides expensive shots are too…costly.
In the meantime, when WILL the PGA start to allow tee shots into the foursome in front?
Because the Traitor-In-Chief has a monopoly on cheap shots, misdirection plays and personal fouls?
The Pro and College game is becoming unwatchable. The unnecessary roughess calls are out of control.
I saw a penalty for helmet to helmet contact called against a USC player a few weeks ago in which the runner actually lowered his head into the tackle – so any hit above the ankles would be helmet to helmet. Didn’t matter, the refs marched off 15 yards. Look for that nifty call at your next NFL game.
I don’t see what the big deal is. Ice hockey is plenty exciting without blows to the head.
The rule is intended to role back the increasing form of tackling where defenders launch themselves head first into a ball carrier. There are also multiple and growing instances of defenders taking cheap shots with forarms and shoulders at the head of near defenseless offensive players. The league has a huge issue with the mounting evidence of concussion damage – funny you didn’t mention that for some context – and these types of hits contribute to that.
Defensive players need to get back to proper tackling where the object is to get the ball carrier on the ground by leading with the shoulder and wrapping up versus trying to take the offensive player out of the game with a blow up, head first tackle.
Until I see the evidence that the NFL has declined, it might be you that actually has ‘jumped the shark’.
How much football has the author Rick Moran played? If Rick knew the sport, he would not have written this article. Helmet-to-helmet bashing is more avoidable than a number of other apparently unquestioned penalties. The one poster who has it right here concerning helmet-to-helmet contact is “fahagen.”
This is not to say there are not other problems. I agree with Doug’s comment contrasting current NFL behavior with that of the 1970 Steelers — a great team. As a Bengal fan, I was in attendance at the Bengals-Steelers “Snow Bowl” in 1976 in Cincinnati.
Mr. Moran’s tortured logic is screaming for a mercy killing. Either the NFL is, indeed, “bound by conscience and common decency to try and prevent serious injury,” as he says, or it’s not. If it *is* so bound, then more stringent enforcement of so-called “player safety” rules are part-and-parcel of that obligation, the “hard and mean” quality of the game be damned.
I don’t agree that stricter enforcement will somehow spoil or even diminish the character of the game. There’ll be plenty of violence left to go around. But then, I was all for cracking down on excessive celebrating, too, which I regard as totally valueless (even diminshing). So maybe I’m not a true fan.
Good article, but overall, the NFL is right. The showboating, taunting and thuggery is off the charts. Someone needs to be done.
If the NFL was serious in it’s intent to reduce injuries, a more stringent drug testing policy would be adopted. Without HGH and steroids, players would be smaller in size and debilitating injuries would be minimized. Currently, NFL players use steroids in the offseason and then start a regimen of HGH during the season. HGH is only detectable with a blood test – said test not permitted under the current contract.
Rick-
I do not understand the reasoning from the commissioner’s office. If you look at the original statement after Sunday’s games “devastating hits” was also highlighted. WTH? Every Sunday there are “devastating hits” in every game. Where are the baselines for helmet-to-helmet hits and the fines associated for first time, second time offenders?
James Harrison= $75,000 fine on a play where no penalty was called
Dunta Robinson= $50,000 fine on a play where no penalty was called
How does the NFL come up with some of these arbitrary numbers?
In the Steelers-Browns game Sunday, the announcers were talking about suspension after the Massaquoi hit. Where is the rule for that? Seems like Goddell is making up the rules as he goes along.
What a poorly thought out article. Is not the sign of a intelligent society to make things safer? Are our cars safer than the ones from twenty years ago? Our medicines, airplanes and almost everything we use daily is safer. Why is making a great sport safer bad for the sport? If we went back to the old leather helmets it would give some protection but surely would not encourage head to head collisions that are prevalent today. One possible angle is to make any tackle or hit by defense or offense face mask or shoulder only. That would mean that runners could no longer put their heads down and plow ahead and tacklers could no longer put their heads down and blind tackle. Of course there will be unintended hits but these should be a judgement call that is reviewable. As for the thuggery and show off antics who the hell will miss them? Think of any other profession where the pro dances around and acts like a child after he does what he is getting paid for. Go after the f**king hair next!
I seldom agree with Roger Goodell, but he right in this case. Helmet-to-helmet hits don’t have to be part of football. Phil g is right: Defensive players need to learn how to tackle. Right now, I can only name one player who has a reputation for really knowing how to tackle: Antoine Winfield. If James Harrison has to retire because he doesn’t actually know how to play football, that is fine with me.
Fines are OK, but I also think that suspensions are in order. The possibility of losing players to suspension would force the coaches realize that players who can actually tackle are more valuable than players who just dive head-first at an opponent.
There are valid arguments on both sides of this issue. However, I feel that this, like many other overreactions in other areas of our lives, is the result of the “chickification” or feminization of our society. The “elites” want us to raise our boys like little girls, and a normal boy is now a candidate for medication. This is not the way for a society to survive. If there is no obvious intent to injure, there should be no penalty…football is a rough game. To end this rant, I’m really getting tired of seeing NFL players in pink shoes with accessorized uniforms.
Do people really think that dangerous hits and choreographed celebrations are what make the NFL entertaining? Having seen the pall that descends over a game when a player sustains a neck injury, how can you not lean in the direction of supporting an attempt to cut down on injuries? What a bunch of ghouls.
Being unaware of the “don’t leave your feet rule,” I didn’t understand why the player was flagged for leaping over a teammate. But having grown up in the age where players who scored touchdowns acted like they’d been in the endzone before and expected to be there again, I find much of the celebrating to be boring. It’s gotten to the point where defenders who bring a ball carrier down after a nine-yard gain, jump up and down as if they’d done something great. Play the damn game and let the fans do the applauding and celebrating (and taunting if they must.)
There used to be a rule called hurdling, which penalized leaping over a defender by a ball carrier if he left both feet. I suspect this rule bit the dust years ago. The idea of a tackle is to knock down an opposing ball carrier, not send him to the hospital. So then, what’s causing this recent rash of serious injuries?
Simple: Multi-million dollar salaries. When you pay a grown man untold millions to play what is essentially a child’s game, be it football, baseball, hockey, etc, you invite these people to do their utmost to earn that money, safety be damned. If it means sending some other SOB to a wheelchair, then it does, in the opinion of the bazillionaire.
Of course, the steroid use which is obviously rampant in pro sports plays a large part as well. A pus-gutted slob like Babe Ruth would have never made it in pro baseball today; no offense to the Babe, but every photo I’ve ever seen of George Herman Ruth he looks 50-80+ pounds overweight.
Most of those great players we admire today from the past were overweight, out of shape and had crappy personal habits: smoking, drinking to excess, etc. Yet these same men managed to make their sports’ elite. They didn’t use steroids. They didn’t do drugs. They didn’t flip off fans or opponents or shake their butts or grab their crotches etc, etc. They were for the most part, gentlemen in public. Where is the spirit of those players today?
Football is a brutal sport. Players do not intentionaly use their head, they want to make a hard hit. My question is, has the human body mutated so much in the last 25 years that 390 pound lineman are running 4.5 40′s or has and is steroids still a huge part of the game?
Dick Butkus couldn’t play in today’s NFL.
Rick Moran should spell his last name this way: moron.
First off, football is not just the NFL. The NFL represents a miniscule percentage of kids, youth and young adults that play football throughout this country numbering in the tens of thousands. Kids start playing organized football at about the age of seven and most continue through high school and into college. Very few make it into the NFL. Football is one of the greatest team sports ever invented. It is very demanding both mentally and physically. Lessons learned by participating in football include, just to name-a-few, pride, self-confidence, teamwork, hard work, selflessness, sportsmanship, overcoming/adapting and respect. The list goes on and on and these lessons transcend football. My son is seven and he loves playing football. I love watching him play. Football is indeed a rough sport, but none of the parents, or especially the players, wants to see someone get hurt.
When you lead with your head, also called spearing, you greatly increase the chance that you will hurt yourself as well as the players you hit. When I mean hurt, I don’t just mean a bruise or scrape. I mean a broken neck or a severe concussion. Both are devastating catastrophic injuries that are easily avoided by simply leading with your shoulder pads. This is highly stressed in youth football and high school football.
Back to the NFL. Because the NFL is the highest level of football achievement, it is the most televised and most watched. Heck, Super bowl Sunday is practically a national holiday these days. With such a stature, the NFL has a leadership responsibility to set the proper example. Using Rick’s logic we should just give the players swords. We would have a real spectacle then. Playing hard doesn’t mean you have to spear. Players are taught this from day one. Players that spear should be kicked out of the league, not just fined. Playing tough and intentionally trying to hurt someone are two different things.
I never knew the importance of showboating or making a fool out of oneself on the field. Celebrating with teammates is one thing – rubbing the opposition’s nose in a pile of horse dung is something else entirely. I don’t think showboating adds any flavor to the sport, but does say a lot about our narcissistic culture and where it’s heading.
On the issue of head-on soldier collisions, I’ve always thought it was the better part of valor to leave it up to the people on the field to determine if something was intentional or not. The refs have a pretty good eye for this sort of thing and the suits should let them be. Of course, the suits probably stepped in because they don’t want silly pols stepping in on their turf.
Maybe NFL players should just learn how to tackle. The standard of tackling in the NFL is below that of amateur rugby.
I say that deliberate helmet to helmet hits have got to go. There’s too many guys in football who want to be seen as intimidators in the mold of Jack Tatum or Ronnie Lott or Fred Williamson (they didn’t call Fred ‘the hammer’ for nothing). Too many guys want to make a name for themselves with wicked hits that knock the receiver head over heels. Guess what? A textbook tackle- head up, arms wrapped around the ball carrier- has the same effect.
On the other hand, incidental helmet to helmet contact is inherent to the game. 22 highly motivated athletes flying thru 3 dimensional space will collide in an infinite number of ways, and you can’t legislate that out of the game without changing the game itself.
As far as post touchdown celebrations go, the ‘old school’ advice still stands the test of time: when you get to the end zone, act like you’ve been there before, and you expect to come back. Search Youtube for John Riggins’ 4th quarter touchdown in Super Bowl 17: in the endzone, he nonchalantly flips the ball to the official, almost as an afterthought. That’s a professional.
I’m hoping Peyton Hillis of the Cleveland Brown pushes John Riggins out of the record books for one particular single-season stat. Can you guess which one that is?
Doctors have demonstrated a connecting between multiple football like hits and permanent brain damage. Consussions are already a problem. Now we’ve had multiple incidents of helmet to helmet contact leading to paralysis. At the rate things are going, the NFL and the teams won’t be able to secure insurance. Players won’t be able to either. Someone will file a class action suit covering all those minimum wage players, and then the %^*( will really hit the fan. They have to address this, or there will be no NFL, no college games, no high school, and no pee wee. That could be a trillion dollar hit to the industry.
There is one consideration for the NFL. Advertising dollars. Nothing else matters. If they think they will lose money, they will do what they need to stop the loss.
I wonder if the next step will be to penalize running backs who lead with their head. They are showing careless abandon of injury to an opposing player. After all, fair is fair.
I disagree completely with Moran, these rules will improve the game dramatically.
Most DBs try to lay someone out, gambling a big hit will change the game, instead of making a real tackle, stopping forward progress, and stripping the ball.
It’s a 50-50 affair to lay someone out, or miss entirely. When you can wrap a guy up, wait for help, and stop a big play, with a bonus that stripping a ball out with your hands changes the game more than laying a guy out. And is more entertaining to boot.
You’ve got to be kidding about the taunting and acting like hyenas during a celebration surely? The hits and cheap shots we can argue about. But the acting like bangers on the field? WTH?
You actually think a bunch of thugs dancing the Iggy Dance in the end zone is why people shell out $700.00 to take a family vacation in crappy seats and 16″ chairs, $9.00 warm beer, and $50.00 bucks to park the van? If you want the NFL to go the way of the NBA, sure! Great suggestion.
I haven’t read something this farcical about sport since Jerry Jones was asked about why he built Texas Stadium. “It ain’t about the money Jay. It’s for the fans!”
Rick,
Agree with your core point on injuries and indeed many later-life related problems are attributable to early return from the DL.
You’re off base on the celebration/taunting point. Spend a weekend watching international soccer to become nauseated by the showboating, diving and other theatrics that destroy the flow of the game. Sure the Icky Shuffle was amusing the first three or four times, but it gets old quickly.
Think the NFL are right on that one.
H.
My biggest complaint about this whole controversy is we already have rules against helmet-to-helmet contact in the rules as written. Now because some players have decided to push the boundaries of the existing rules, fans are getting their panties in a wad because the NFL might…enforce the rules????? Oh no! What’s next? A sportswriters strike over holding penalties?
As much as I like to see bone-jarring hits in a game, there’s a fine line between a good tackle and a bad excuse for playing dirty. From the footage I’ve seen, the hits mentioned in the piece were well outside of the rules and additional punishment should be meted against the offending players. In light of the current situation in the NFL as it pertains to concussions (which are no fun and can really mess up your life), I’m surprised the NFL isn’t retroactively punishing players for these dirty hits.
One sportswriter (Bob Ryan, I think it was) suggested that the player who breaks the helmet-to-helmet rule should be suspended for as long as the player he hurt is out of action. I’d be hard pressed to come up with a better, more suitable punishment than that.
The next step in the feminization of the sport will be that score will not be kept and every player will be given a game ball so that none will have their self esteem damaged. Once flag football has been reintroduced, extra points will be awarded for the most creative end zone dance.
Without the helmets, they wouldn’t need all the pads. The helmets are the problem. We’re turning big guys into bigger hitting machines, small guided missiles, and wondering why people get hurt?
Back to basics of skill and physicality. Make ‘em play football like most weekend warriors do.
Eh, what do I care? Corporate football stinks and college football is on the verge of following in kind.
One of my earliest and fondest memories of the NFL was Billy “White Shoes” Johnson and his celebration after returning a kick for a touchdown. Of course, it only happened a few times a year and he was one of the few players that did any type of celebration.
So, Rick, you’re a big fan of brain damage, then?
I didn’t know that Don Cherry wrote for PJM.
Oh wait, that’s got to be Cherry posting as “canuck” up there at #33. Never mind.
As an ex-rugby player, I KNOW that helmet-leading tackles are unnecessary and dangerous. I watched the Eagles game on Sunday and was horrified by the blatant intend-to-injure hit on an airborne, fully outstretched receiver. All he had to do was turn his body a little to lead with his shoulder. I think the tackler is getting off easy with a 50k fine. He should be suspended from the game for as long as it takes the receiver to recover. Without pay. And a fine. And wear a tutu in his first 3 games back. That is all.
I watched the hits this last weekend and was disgusted. I’m in total agreement with the NFL for coming down hard on vicious helmet to helmet cheapshots against defenseless receivers. The cheapshot artists should be suspended for at least the amount of time their victim is out. I’m surprised the players of the opposing team don’t retaliate like they do in baseball. I would. As for the “celebrations”, taunting and trashtalk, I’m also in total agreement with NFL. It shows a total lack of class. Only the stupid players do it. All the classy players let their actions speak for them. Classy players like Jerry Rice never did it. He acted like he’d been there [the endzone] before.
I was a DB for 13 years; coached for 7 more.
Two things: 1. Tackling is not brain surgery. You may try to hit the ballcarrier with the front of your shoulder, close to your neck, but you have no control of what he might do as the collision nears. Perhaps he dips down as you come up and you get a head to head. You don’t want that, because you might break your neck. But you do want to hit him just as hard as you possibly can: to force a fumble; to stop his forward progress; to slow him down; to make him quit.2. The ballcarrier is motivated to dominate you, by hitting you harder than you hit him, breaking your tackle, gaining more yards, scoring on you.He is going to give you a shoulder, an elbow, a knee and try to drive each of those into some soft area on your body. His mission is to make a monkey out of you in front of an awful lot of people.
I think the NFL is just trying to give a little more leverage to the offenses, to make the game more attractive to fans. They changed the pass defense rule to the silly one chuck and let ‘em run nonsense for that purpose. They cut the 15 yard penalties to 10 yards. They let offensive blockers use their hands and push and they made QBs close to untouchables.
All of these changes aided the offense and inhibited defenses. Because audiences like to see scoring.
The celebrating garbage is for those fans who really come to see, not the game, but the band, the cheerleaders, celebrities attending, the halftime show, etc. They don’t want the cake; they just want to lick the frosting.
I agree with White Tiger that many changes in the NFL have been to the advantage of the offense. I’ve long been miffed by the amount of protection the quarterback gets, but then again, there have been players whose goal is not to tackle the quarterback, but to hurt him, and hurt him bad. They have ruined it for everyone.
Your argument, Rick, if taken to the logical extreme would be to have no rules. Cross check, meh, man up, Hockey player. Fast ball to the ribs; what’s this nonsense with taking your base? If a basketball player doesn’t break someone’s nose with an elbow once a game, then by god he must be a momma’s boy. How about auto racing? Should we just turn race tracks into demolition derbies to show we haven’t been wussified? Why not just gives defensive backs spiked clubs while you are at it.
Logical fallacy? I don’t think so. As equipment has improved, and sports related television programming more prevalent, the desire to be on the highlight reel trumps the discipline of playing your position. We are not talking about a running back tucking his head and crashing with a defensive player. We are talking about a guy running flat out, and aiming the crown of his helmet right at another man’s chin in the hope of getting his helmet underneath his opponents face mask, with the goal of knocking him unconscious. It’s disgusting. I like to see a good hit, but these are not good hits, these are attempts to disable.
If this wussifies the sport, then I say strip em all down to t-shirts and shorts, and then hold the events on the sandy floors of our modern coliseums. We’ll abide by the Ivan Drago logic. “If he dies, he dies.”
I haven’t played football since I was a little kid and I don’t watch it now but the argument being made here, if people don’t get seriously injured on a regular basis then football is diminished as a spectator sport, is ridiculous.
Try to be a little less bloodthirsty and maybe remember that football is more than being “hard and mean”.
Most NFL players and the fans up in arms for this ‘injustice’ suffer from A D D and indifference to violene in what’s supposed to be a game.
Watch plays by former big hitters. Ronnie Lott, Mike Singletary, Howie Long, Anthony Muñoz, Darrell Green, Mike Haynes etc., – NONE of these Hall of Fame players resorted to the thug-like ‘airborne missile’ tactics of today’s idiots resort to on a regular basis but are rarely caught. And when found, a hand slap-like fine is the result?
Oh my god…you actually praised a Messican!!!
There is nothing wrong with outlawing some methods of halting an opposing player’s forward momentum, or does Mr. Moran object to the moratorium against grabbing and yanking on the face mask. Sure some necks will be snapped but the game’s purity would be intact. If rules are not enforced they don’t exist. The NFL is simply taking the very reasonable step of acting as-if the rules are real.
This is not a dog fight in Michael Vick’s back yard where the shear brutishness and violence are the main attractions. League officials have a duty to protect the health of the players who they are profiting from; otherwise they are no better than pimps.
Jeez, haven’t any of these nimrods ever played the football? Using your helmet for anything other than to protect your head is called spearing. Spearing has always been a penalty in organized football of any kind. The NFL is simply enforcing a rule that is as old as the game.
The author should get acquainted with some of the research about brain damage among players who use/experience those tactics. It’s actually pretty astonishing what the players do to themselves.