Thursday, October 21, 2010

NFL's new rule

After Week 6's display of hard hits, the NFL has decided to try and be a parent and "protect" its players:


According to NFL executive Ray Anderson:
The NFL will immediately begin suspending players for dangerous and flagrant hits, particularly those involving helmets. "We are trying to get our players to not initiate contact on defenseless players including defenseless receivers to the head or neck area with the forearm the shoulder or the helmet. We're trying to get that out of the game"

Now, I understand the desire to want to prevent "defenseless" players from getting hurt...obviously no one wants to see that (well maybe sometimes...). What the league appears to be doing is flat out ridiculous. They've given the EXTREMELY loose term of "devastating hits" to now attempt to regulate, somehow decided to throw that into the same category of helmet-to-helmet hits and cheap shots, and expect the game to flow the same and everyone to understand and agree with these new rules? For YEARS now, you're taught when you play football that if you get the chance to absolutely destroy someone with a hard, legal hit...you do it 10 times out of 10. Everyone understands the helmet to helmet rule, that's a no-brainer. This new addition to it, however, is absurd. The league is trying to completely change the way the sport is played.

Matt Millen said it best on ESPN (can't believe I'm agreeing with a guy who was the Lions GM for so many awful years):

"We have football decisions being made by non-football people. Some of these guys have never played football in their LIFE."

And here's my next problem. This rule is so broadly defined, it's going to be left up to opinions. When opinions are brought into rules, there are going to be a LOT of inconsistencies and, yes I'm going to say it, bias with the decisions made. In all honesty, take the games on Sunday that prompted this new rule. Three players were fined because of this newly created atrocity: James Harrison, Brandon Meriweather, and Dunta Robinson. Harrison was fined $75K while Meriweather and Robinson were each fined $50K. Look at the clip of Meriweather laying out Todd Heap in what is an absolutely dirty hit:



Never mind the fact that Jerrod Mayo somehow thought that it was a bogus penalty call, cause he's an ass, but CBS even does a very good job of showing the near-miss cheap shot he took at Heap in the end zone. He clearly knows what he's doing. He leaves his feet and leads into Heap with his helmet when he's defenseless. That's a fine BEFORE this stupid rule, and yet somehow he's not receiving the highest fine. Why? Because the NFL loves the Patriots. They've created 2 rules specifically because of Tom Brady, looked over the whole Spygate incident, and somehow try to justify that Harrison's hit was worse. Blatant favoritism. No question about it. If he was getting a fine before this new rule, it should've been intensified after the new rule. Oh but it's ok, he gave a 62 second apology..are you kidding me?! The guy DIDN'T COMMENT on the hit after the game, but as soon as he gets fined he apologizes. BS. His apology could've been 62 minutes long and I still wouldn't buy it. If I'm Ray Lewis, if they run into them in the playoffs, I'm gunning to take someone out. Who knows how long Heap will be out for since he laid on the field motionless for a good 5-10 minutes.

This rule is going to soften football if everyone abides by it (which no one will, as Channing Crowder says here) and the NFL is going to see a drop in popularity if this rule gets out of hand. As an example of how stupid this rule is, see how many suspensions would come out of this highlight reel:



Fare the well, football. You will never be the same again.

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