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Tuesday, October 19, 2010

Heads Will Roll

There's a bunch of hubbub in the NFL this week after some particularly nasty helmet to helmet collisions last Sunday.

Fines have swiftly come down from the league office on players like Pittsburgh linebacker James Harrison, Patriots safety Brandon Meriweather and Atlanta cornerback Dunta Robinson.

More importantly, these fines have come with warnings that any players going for flagrant hits may become targets of another kind: suspensions.

A lot has been said, especially in the most recent years, about the long-term affects of concussions on NFL players. A lot of them, including Zach Thomas, are going to donate their brains to science when they die to try and get a feel on what exactly those long-term affects are.

There are rules in place already in the NFL to regulate DELIBERATE helmet to helmet contact. Now the office wants to legislate the hits even more with the possibility of suspensions?

Football is a brutal sport. No matter how you spin it, players are going to get hurt. You can try all you want to limit the number of times a helmet to helmet hit is going to take place but the fact is that it's still going to happen.

What do you do when a linebacker is going to make a play and the running back lowers his helmet after the defender has already made his move? Suspend the running back?

These are people who have been told since they first picked up the ball that this is a sport for the biggest and baddest, you don't like it, go play golf. In fact, I only started watching golf just this past year thanks to Tiger 'Oh lord, not another one' Woods!

The players are well aware of the risks they take every time they strap on the helmet. They do it for the glory and the thrill of the game, two things that don't come without sacrifice.

Then there's always the reason why they get to do it in the first place. Fans love a big hit. It's the same reason why people are fans of NASCAR and hockey. Those sports would be incredibly lame without the crashes and the fights. Without those aspects, NASCAR would become some form of bumper cars and hockey would be the new Ice Capades.

Football without the hard-hitting will become mundane. It's a sport, meaning, it's a form of entertainment. The main draw for this form of entertainment is the violence and the brutality.

Just wait until ten years from now when Russian roulette becomes a prime-time draw.

That's why UFC is so popular right now. People want to see two apes beat each others heads in. It's big money.

I agree that headhunting with a purpose has no business in the sport. It's cheap and thuggish. But to start telling the players to hold up a bit when you go to tackle somebody? Ridiculous.

If anything, that logic might cause MORE injuries.