C'mon Rog… Stop It Already!

 

 IS THIS THE FUTURE OF THE NFL?

I have just about had it with the NFL league office.  Commissioner Roger Goodell and the rest of the sissies in charge of games safety are taking a sport that is inherently violent by nature and trying to make it safe and sound.  It reminds me of when I was a kid and they decided to make what they called "safe and sane fireworks.  I mean, does anybody really get excited by pinwheels or snakes or even smoke bombs?  If it doesn't go up or blow up, it's just not fun anymore.  If there's no imminent danger that you can blow off a finger or two or go blind from a (mini IED) made from a Whistling Pete, it just isn't fun anymore.

Now, I would be remiss if I didn't say that I'm being slightly sarcastic, but C'mon Man… Tackle football is supposed to be a rough and tough sport.  The late great football legend Vince Lombardi said, "Dancing is a contact sport, football is a collision sport."  Lombardi was right and I think he would vomit in his mouth a little bit if he saw what the league office is trying to do to professional football.  The whole object of tackle football is for the offense to try to get into the end zone, and the defense to do anything to stop them including but not limited to; smashing, bashing, slamming, crashing, grabbing, pulling, tugging and torpedoing the player with the ball in order to stop him and hopefully separating him from the football.  In the days of Lombardi, heck… You could add; scratching, biting, gouging, twisting and ripping whatever you can get your hands on to beat your opponent and separating a player from his head.

Now, one immutable thing goes along with football at the college and professional level and that is that no one ever put a gun next to a players head and forced him to play tackle football (at least not that I know of).  Every one of these men voluntarily put on a football uniform and took the chance that he might be injured in one way or another.  I can't even imagine what players like;  Bronko Nagurski, Ray Nitchke, Jack Lambert or Jack Youngblood would think about the changes that are being made in the NFL to protect the players.  It makes me sick to watch them turn this great sport into powder puff, sissy stuff that is more suited for an afterschool special than Monday night football.

Think about the ridiculous changes that have been made in Pro football.  The horse collar tackle is now illegal.  You can't even tackle a player by the back of his jersey if it's towards his name on the Jersey.  In my opinion, the name on the Jersey is just another instructional to mean "Pull Here".  And don't even get me started on players with long hair that hangs down over there Jersey so far that you can't see the name and barely the number on the back of player jerseys.  I've watched players like Troy Polamalu and Stephen Jackson get tackled by their long braided whatever you call it (dreadlocks, cornrows, extensions) I can't keep track.  Anyway, the defensive player was actually penalized for an illegal tackle because he grabbed the player by the back of his jersey and got a fist full of hair!  I never thought I would see the day when football playing MEN would not only wear earrings, but in both ears and during football games.  It seems that wearing a long mane of hair has become cool, pretty or whatever word they're using now for ridiculous.  I just can't believe what's happening to the game and the men who play the game.  Between the dancing, hair and all the jewelry, it's getting harder to tell the difference between the NFL and the lingerie football league.

Other terrible changes to the game have occurred because of player safety; they have all but eliminated the kickoff from Pro football.  In order to promote a safer game, the kickoff at the beginning of the game, the second half and after each score has been moved from the 30 yard line to the 35 yard line.  After moving the kickoff yard line to the 35, the number of touchbacks league-wide skyrocketed from 416 in 2010 to 1,120 in 2011.They have taken one of the most exciting plays in football almost completely out of the game.  The kickoff used to be one of the biggest momentum changing plays, but now it's almost as exciting as the PAT in the first quarter.

Some of the very significant changes to the game involved the quarterback.  They have all but put a pink skirt on NFL quarterbacks.  The NFL referees are now using the judgment of a kindergarten playground monitor every time a quarterback gets bumped or pushed in a hostile manner.  Quarterbacks can now run with the football and going to a hook slide to avoid being hit by an oncoming defender in the officials are expecting the defensive players to practically stop in midair to avoid hitting a quarterback as he begins his hook slide whenever he decides he's about to get smashed into smithereens and if touched, there is generally a 15 yard personal file for unnecessary roughness levied against the defender.  The words "unnecessary roughness" almost seems like an oxymoron in a game that was designed to be rough, and rough as possible, not just necessary.  Just this week Seattle Seahawks free safety, Earl Thomas, jumped in the air to knock down a pass from Ryan Tannehill of the Miami Dolphins.  As Thomas was coming down from his leap, he collided into Tannehill with his side, collided with Tannehill's shoulder pads and the side of his helmet.  Thomas leapt in the air to block the pass, not to tackle Tannehill, but still because he made contact with a quarterbacks upper body, he was penalized for unnecessary roughness and negating an interception in the end zone that could have changed the outcome of the game for Seattle.  The point?  They're just protecting the quarterback too much and giving the offense under unfair advantage and making it nearly impossible to play aggressive defense without the rest of playing "too hard".  Too hard?  I didn't think there was even such a thing as playing too hard.  I can completely understand that a player shouldn't spear and shouldn't try to hurt another player by helmet to helmet collisions, but they have allowed this safety subject to degrade the competitive nature of tackle football and it is ruining the sport in my opinion.

I keep wondering if NFL football is heading toward two hand touch or flag football in the future.  Concussions have become center stage in discussions about the violence in football, yet players seem to get faster, stronger, bigger and much more powerful from year-to-year.  The simple calculations of physics prove that with these statistics becoming more extreme, there will be more injuries, and many of those will be concussions.  The brain is a soft tissue organ that is floating in fluid and protected only by a skull made of bone.  Every time momentum travels in one direction and then stops or changes direction suddenly, bruising of the brain tissue is not only likely, it's a guaranteed.  I just don't believe there is a way to keep tackle football and make it safe.  The NFL has been promoting a campaign that they're trying to create a safer sport, but I think it's nothing more than a public relations move to protect the league from the 2000+ lawsuits filed by former NFL players who have suffered concussions during their careers and claim that the league office downplayed the dangers of concussions and not regulating the players activity after concussions have been sustained.  Being a former player myself, I can almost guarantee you that of those 2000+ players who have filed lawsuits, that over 90 percent of them would have begged and pleaded with their coaches to return to the field after being concussed are likely concussed.  Just recently, the sensational quarterback Robert Griffin III sustained a concussion and used every adjective possible to explain his confusion, lack of memory, loss of balance and lack of clarity except for using the word Concussion.  He wanted to play the next week and tried to use every bit of justification to claim that he was hit hard, but not concussed.  Griffin played the following week.  I contend that each of the players that are now suing the NFL, would have done exactly what Griffin did earlier in the season to get back on the field even though it was obvious that his brain was concussed after taking a very hard hit to the head on a running play where he approached the sidelines and was hit high in a helmet to helmet collision.  America is an extremely litigious country and NFL players, despite the large salaries that they are getting while playing, I'm not above suing a wealthy organization and deflecting blame in order to get a big payday.

All of the jokes and sarcastic comments that I have made in this post are only that it is ridiculous to suggest that it's possible to make tackle football safe.  The players are becoming supreme athletes, perfectly designed for speed and size.  I'm not a mathematician, not even close, but I know that there is a formula in physics that includes [mass times velocity and collision] and the outcome is rarely a peaceful one.  Former head coach John Gruden was asked about the game and the safety that the league is focusing on.  He was asked his opinion on the changes to the game and whether or not it was appropriate to require football players to focus on that attempt to make the game safer.  He said, "Football is a violent sport and it's not for everyone".  I agree with that statement. Each player is taking a risk that a violent sport like football could cause a serious injury, perhaps even life-threatening.  It's a voluntary activity and each player but chooses to play is accepting the risk while also being offered an awful lot of money to take that risk.  It's a free decision that must be weighed carefully and then a decision must be made and you must live with that decision. As a quadriplegic, ventilator dependent myself, I regret that I broke my neck playing baseball, but I don't regret playing sports… I just regret playing it recklessly and sacrificing my body for something that wasn't all that important.  If I played again, I would play much safer, but there are certain sports that can never be made safe unless you completely revolutionized the game and I believe the NFL is doing just that.  If they continue to change in the NFL rulebook the way that they are, the game will be unrecognizable to me and to a lot of people that watch it for the very reasons that they're trying to change the game.  It's a hard hitting, rough and tough game of gladiator type athletes attempting to win a game largely predicated on attrition and will.  If the game changing enough, I think the fans will begin to fade away, but that will remain to be seen.

"NFL football, tackle football… It's not for everyone… Each athlete must make a decision and injuries will always be part of the risk." -Brad Hobbs