NFL Players : What's happened to game?

[Socnorb11]

Players have gotten significantly bigger, faster and stronger across the board in the last 20-30 years. The collisions are more violent. If guys that played awhile ago are having all kinds of health problems, guys playing today are in trouble. Anything to raise awareness and possibly clean the game up a little bit is a good thing. Even the guy that is making the tackle could easily break their neck. I don't understand how people can be against the league having the ability to suspend a player that goes out of his way to try to intentionally injure another.

I don't think anybody is pro-injury. I just think it's a fine line. Both sides have to be reasonable. Seriously, some of the ticky-tack stuff called on quarterback hits these days is almost laughable.

[cardsfansince82]

Players have gotten significantly bigger, faster and stronger across the board in the last 20-30 years. The collisions are more violent. If guys that played awhile ago are having all kinds of health problems, guys playing today are in trouble. Anything to raise awareness and possibly clean the game up a little bit is a good thing. Even the guy that is making the tackle could easily break their neck. I don't understand how people can be against the league having the ability to suspend a player that goes out of his way to try to intentionally injure another.

I don't think anybody is pro-injury. I just think it's a fine line. Both sides have to be reasonable. Seriously, some of the ticky-tack stuff called on quarterback hits these days is almost laughable.

None of this recent stuff has been about quarterbacks. Quarterbacks will always be protected because they are the league's meal ticket. They are simply trying to protect other players besides QBs when they are defenseless and a defender takes a cheap shot at them. It doesn't happen often and the league probably won't use the power to suspend players very often. I don't think the game is going to change one bit, but on the fairly rare occasion when a player does something particularly egregious they have more than their wallet and 15 yards at stake.

[Socnorb11]

Players have gotten significantly bigger, faster and stronger across the board in the last 20-30 years. The collisions are more violent. If guys that played awhile ago are having all kinds of health problems, guys playing today are in trouble. Anything to raise awareness and possibly clean the game up a little bit is a good thing. Even the guy that is making the tackle could easily break their neck. I don't understand how people can be against the league having the ability to suspend a player that goes out of his way to try to intentionally injure another.

I don't think anybody is pro-injury. I just think it's a fine line. Both sides have to be reasonable. Seriously, some of the ticky-tack stuff called on quarterback hits these days is almost laughable.

None of this recent stuff has been about quarterbacks. Quarterbacks will always be protected because they are the league's meal ticket. They are simply trying to protect other players besides QBs when they are defenseless and a defender takes a cheap shot at them. It doesn't happen often and the league probably won't use the power to suspend players very often. I don't think the game is going to change one bit, but on the fairly rare occasion when a player does something particularly egregious they have more than their wallet and 15 yards at stake.

Yeah, I completely agree that the penalties to this point have been a joke.

Joe Paterno suggested eliminating facemasks. He says that players would be less inclined to lead with their helmet if their face wasn't protected. Any thoughts on that?

[Lesson]

This video was sent to all 32 NFL teams and gave examples of which hits and tackles are "illegal" and "legal":

http://www.nfl.com/videos/nfl-videos/09 ... yer-safety

[Joe Shlabotnik]

Joe Paterno suggested eliminating facemasks. He says that players would be less inclined to lead with their helmet if their face wasn't protected. Any thoughts on that?

Either that or what someone suggested about less pads in general. It would certainly cut down on the violent hits. I'd be for it.

[lukethedrifter]

If this got posted I missed it. And I know Rick Reilly is universally hated.

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/news/story?id=5706465

"A hit like that geeks you up," Harrison said. "It geeks everybody up -- especially when you find out that the guy is not really hurt -- he's just sleeping. He's knocked out, but he's going to be OK."

snip

You know what would geek me up? Harrison out of the game. Because as much as I abhor the way he plays, I don't want the day to come, 10 years from now, when he starts suffering depression and slurred speech and all the other goodies that come with these massive crashes. Because no amount of sleeping is going to make everything OK then.

At some point people will realize it's a joke to claim it's unfair to penalize the big hitters.

[planet planet]

He's only listed as playing 6 seasons. I guess that first one where he got loaned to the Ottawa RoughRiders didn't count.

/before my time

Tom? That's cool; I didn't know that.

[lukethedrifter]

James Harrison is one stubborn dumbass.

[Freed Roger]

Good riddance. Don't let the door hit your girlfriend in the face on the way out.

I laughed.


And decades ago, back when I was playing legion football, form tackling entailed lowering the shoulder to deliver the hit. The objective was to get lower than the opponent. Its pretty hard to Not get your head/helmet involved in this process. Thus-people tackled with the helmet all the time - and the helmet plastic and insignias would be scarred messes.

You would almost have to do a stand straight up bear hug or arm tackle to completely eliminate helmet contact.

The most vicous hits are just well-timed - game before this, Assante Samuel of Philly destroyed NY Giant player on a flare pass and get flagged for helmet to helmet. Violent yes, but not sure about the helmet-to-helmet contact -it seemed incidental to the overall blow.

Its a tough issue to regulate-but they have to try for the obvious reasons. The helmets are too damn good, and the players are roided up like never before. Sometimes I wonder if Kevin Slaten is right, and this is the solution.

[SHOW]

[lukethedrifter]

http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2011 ... ct_mcgrath

Article in this week's New Yorker on the future of football and head injuries.