I simply do not get what Roger Goodell is trying to do with his league that he has right now. In case you missed it, a bunch of defensive backs made awesome hits on players were either catching the ball or about to catch the ball. I heard from ESPN football analysts, 98.5 The Sports Hub, The Sports Guy, and I’ve had all I can stand right now. This game that just about everyone watches on Sunday, that is worth about 250,000 jobs and easily a large portion of this working economy, is about to turn everyone into a sissy mary. Here is why.
The NFL Commissioner instituted a new rule issuing fines and suspensions on players who cause hits on players that might be considered dangerous or intentional to injury. Let me get this straight, the National Football League, which is made for guys that hurt and were bread for making hits that are intentional. But because some scientist opened up the head of a hockey player that died and donated his brain to science, every sports commissioner has now a monkey on his back saying “if you don’t control your concussion problem, then someone else, like the government will take over”. This, to me, is absolute bullshit.
First there was the Peyton Manning rule, saying that players can be given a penalty for illegal contact after the Patriots defense was that good against Peyton Manning and his plethora of receivers. That was okay because now players are only allowed contact up to 5 yards from the line of scrimmage, which is manageable and coachable. Players can adjust to this.
There was then the Tom Brady rule, which is pretty much, for any football fan, a pussy rule. Tom Brady and the Kraft Family was pissed that he missed the 2008 season with a leg injury from game 1 because he was tackled from the defensive end from the knee down. At first, it wasn’t a bad rule. It made sense for players to not go for the quarterbacks legs. But now, every time a quarterback is hit, its almost on cue that they look at the referee and give puppy dog eyes looking for a roughing the passer penalty. Just look at these eyes and try to say No to that! I mean, even I get upset at Tom Brady for flipping out on referees for not throwing flags and giving them 15 yards. You went to Michigan right? Backup? I bet you even were a bit of a tough guy before all that lip gloss went to your god damn head. Act like a football player. Not a ballerina.
Those two previous rules have been landmark rules in the NFL. The Latter has made the quarterback a bit of a flake and put more emphasis on the offensive line more than anything. The other major rules in the NFL have had to do with Challenges, Crossing the Plane of an Endzone, and the Horse Collar rule, which we can all thank Roy Williams (DB) for. Those rules have all made sense and are coachable rules that teams can teach their players to work around. But this new rule, this new rule for football players to pretty much calm down on the hitting is utter nonsense. Just ask any football player, even look at their twitter page and expect them to say “Thanks Commish for looking out for our health, but get back behind the desk and fix the financial situation, leave the hitting to us.”
Everyone from Michael Felger to Tedy Bruschi was in an uproar about all of the hits that just happened to coincide on this previous NFL weekend. I really wanted to punch my radio when Felger was upset about Meriweather doing something like this. James Harrison, who is a former Defensive Player of the Year, was fined $75,000 for delivering a hit on Mohamed Massaquoi, which he went in with his helmet, but he used his forearms to leverage a bigger blow on Massaquoi. Dunta Robinson of the Houston Texans delivered a huge hit to DeSean Jackson for which both players were carted off of the field, Robinson was fined $50,000. Brandon Meriweather delivered a huge hit to Todd Heap, which many think was the worst of the major three hits that were fined and occurred over the weekend, and was also fined $50,000. I do not understand the science behind this kind of regulation. Because with regulation like this, you have to make sure that you are not tainting your product. Remember, there are 10-12 year veterans playing this game who have been used to this kind of hitting for a long time. Just like how fighting is a part of Hockey, hitting hard is a part of football. If you want to get rid of the hard hitting in football, then you have to redesign Pee-Wee camps so that lineman aren’t driving their bodies into metal poles covered in padding. If you want to get rid of hitting in football then you have to get rid of the safety helmets and pads that football players are already wearing. If you want to get rid of hitting in football, then get rid of football all together. It wasn’t too long ago, that a man who was the dirtiest hitting safety in football, a man by the name of Rodney Harrison, was the king of the head first spear into players that either caught the ball or didn’t catch the ball.
Judging by the video, Harrison wouldn’t have made it a day without being fined $100K per game for the hits he made. This new rule changes everything there is to know about the modern game of Football. This rule is uncoachable and it really brings players back to think about how they are going to approach hitting a player. I don’t know how this will fix anything. All this did was give some closure to players who were on the fast track to get concussed anyways. They play football, and they get paid handsomely for doing so. No one expects them to go out and solve math problems afterwards. I know these players are human beings and they have children and families to care about and love and provide for. But every player knows the risks out there. They know the dirty hits and they know the hits that are good clean hits that just look bad. If you want to know about hits that were banned in the NFL, look no further than Deacon Jones and the head slap. It was a hit that the NFL had to ban because it would actually break a guys neck. See for yourself.
This is all I can say about this right now. So for Roger Goodell, the NFLPA, Rodney Harrison, and all the players out there who don’t give a damn about league fines and nasty hits because it makes people buy their jerseys and be a bad ass, saying Good night.
No comments:
Post a Comment