Bigger, Faster, Stronger......

[Non-RedNeck Westsider]

This is the first draft of an article I'm writing and I'm looking for some feedback.  Thanks.

Bigger, Faster, Stronger….

“Helmet to helmet contact”, “Defenseless receiver”, “Devastating hits”;  these are some of the phrases that you can’t avoid when watching ESPN or listening to sports radio, but is there really a way to limit hearing these phrases in the future?  

The NFL seems to think so.  The NFL plans on limiting the damage done on the football field with large fines, suspensions or a combination of the two.  The NFL believes that the sport, which has been glorified because of its ‘devastating’ collisions and ‘bone-crunching’ hits, can still provide maximum entertainment value while limiting the entertaining action that fans pay to see on the field.   The NFL, I’m afraid, needs to take a step back and look in the mirror.

It seems they are taking a knee-jerk reaction to a weekend that saw several players helped off of the field.  The players (at least most of) are only doing what they’ve been taught to do since they put on their first pair of shoulder pads in Tiny-Mites:  Knock the other guy down hard!  After 20 years of ‘Knocking the other guy down hard’ these players are being told to, “Knock the guy down, but do it in a restrained fashion.”  That’s like telling boxers, “It’s OK to hit him, just don’t try to knock him out.”

If anyone should have to shoulder the blame on this game becoming more violent, then I lay the blame squarely on the shoulders of the NFL’s Competition Committee.  It has been their rule changes that has turned football from a game that resembled rugby (another sport that has hard hits, but with no pads) to something that more resembles basketball-on-grass.  So instead of having a 350 pound lineman driving a 240 pound running-back into the ground after a 4-5 yard run, we now have a 250 pound safety sprinting across the field to separate a 180 pound receiver from the ball.  

They have spread the game up so much, instead of a demolition derby, we now have a high-speed game of chicken!  And the NFL expects the players to play chicken with a sense of caution.  I call BS.  You can’t have it both ways.

If you want to keep the sport that we love from becoming National Flag Football League, the NFFL per Brian Urlacher, then the changes need to be made that bring the teams closer together and not let them operate in so much space.

Bring back the Bump-and-Run coverage.  This type of defense keeps the corners tighter on the receivers and would eliminate some of the hits safeties deliver by keeping the coverage tighter without fear of pass interference.  You might give up some points at the end of the game, but the matchups would be more fun to watch on a play-by-play basis.

Mandate the size of the shoulder pads and helmets.  The shoulder pads have gotten smaller and the helmets have gotten larger.  Even on perfect, form tackles, the guys heads are banging together just due to the sheer size of their helmets.  I understand that they speed guys can go faster with less on, but by doing so, they are limiting the main piece of protection that football players were issued since they were 7 years old.  Let them hide behind their shoulder pads instead of behind their helmets.

Make the players tackle ‘to the ground.’  Do you remember seeing the old clips of the NFL, the one’s when the guys were knocked down, but then they would get back up and continue running.  That was because a defender had to make a ‘tackle.’  Wrap up and take the guy to the ground.  In today’s NFL, if you touch another guy and his knee skips on the ground â€" he’s down.  What’s the easiest way to knock him down?  Throw yourself at the ball-carrier like a missile.  If the NFL were to bring back actual tackling, then defenders would have to use more form and rely less on sheer impact.

There are several other options and avenues that the NFL could take.  Will they?  Probably not.  It’s hard to admit you made a mistake and allowed that mistake for so long.  So they will be forced to fine and suspend and punish players until we end up paying $65 dollars a ticket to watch flag football with QBs wearing red jerseys during the game.  I guess it’s time to learn the difference between a chip-kick and a grubber, because if I’m paying, I want to see men play like men.

[Non-RedNeck Westsider]

^bump

[Jason]

Hell, I say just take all the equipment away and let them go at like it Rugby players.  Without the pads, stupid decisions actually hurt and they quickly shy away from "missiling" at their opponent.

Do Rugby League guys suffer more injuries than NFL players?