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Now that the NFL is huge beyond belief. Watching it cow tow to political correctness is painful. Week in and week out we see hits and plays that we all know were good, fair, clean hits. The hit on Ben early in the game was as clean as it gets! The hits by Troy P and the other Steeler safety (I believe mitchell) were clean hits. These guys have to lower a shoulder to hit and knock down the opposing offensive players. It is impossible to hit someone with your shoulder, have a massive helmet on, and not have the helmet make some contact as well given that the head is usually connected to the shoulders. If anyone went back and saw the play where Antonio Brown was knocked from the game it was the same exact play. No penalty? They are expected to hit these offensive players in the hip or mid section or knees (which is also can be career ending and life changing) while world class athletes are a moving target at insane speeds? Plus the offensive players often duck their heads and turtle up before the hit and they often initiate the helmet to helmet contact. It is becoming unwatchable.

They are making it impossible for these guys to play defense. They are making game changing (and possibly season changing) calls all due to political correctness and lawsuits. The sport is a violent sport. The NFL is the largest sports entity on Earth now because they sold that exact form of violence. Does anyone remember the old VHS tapes "NFL Big Hits!" They would show countless hits that now would results in flags, ejections, suspensions, fines, etc. They built the brand on it.

It has nothing to do with political correctness. It's a business decision. Former players are dying due to chronic traumatic encephalopathy. The NFL is getting sued in a number of these cases. As a result, youth participation in football is dropping every year due to head-injury concerns. Long-term, that is a business problem for the NFL. It's always about the money.


This is from the settlement of the former players lawsuits:

Nearly three in 10 former NFL players will develop at least moderate neurocognitive problems and qualify for payments under the proposed $765 million concussion settlement, according to data prepared for ex-players' lawyers and made public Friday.

Their actuary expects 14 percent of all former players to be diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease and another 14 percent to develop moderate dementia over the next 65 years, according to the data. There are more than 19,000 former players still living, meaning nearly 6,000 of them will fall into those two groups. Another 31 will be diagnosed with Lou Gehrig's disease and 24 with Parkinson's disease during their lives, according to the data.

Roger Goodell and the NFL agreed this summer to pay out more than the $675 million for player awards agreed to in the concussion settlement.

The actuary estimated that former players were at twice the risk for Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, Lou Gehrig's disease and dementia as the general population between the ages of 20 to 60. After that, they estimated the ex-players' risk would be closer to normal.

renman wrote:Now that the NFL is huge beyond belief. Watching it cow tow to political correctness is painful. Week in and week out we see hits and plays that we all know were good, fair, clean hits. The hit on Ben early in the game was as clean as it gets! The hits by Troy P and the other Steeler safety (I believe mitchell) were clean hits. These guys have to lower a shoulder to hit and knock down the opposing offensive players. It is impossible to hit someone with your shoulder, have a massive helmet on, and not have the helmet make some contact as well given that the head is usually connected to the shoulders. If anyone went back and saw the play where Antonio Brown was knocked from the game it was the same exact play. No penalty? They are expected to hit these offensive players in the hip or mid section or knees (which is also can be career ending and life changing) while world class athletes are a moving target at insane speeds? Plus the offensive players often duck their heads and turtle up before the hit and they often initiate the helmet to helmet contact. It is becoming unwatchable.

They are making it impossible for these guys to play defense. They are making game changing (and possibly season changing) calls all due to political correctness and lawsuits. The sport is a violent sport. The NFL is the largest sports entity on Earth now because they sold that exact form of violence. Does anyone remember the old VHS tapes "NFL Big Hits!" They would show countless hits that now would results in flags, ejections, suspensions, fines, etc. They built the brand on it.

Couldn't agree more. A hard hit on a QB will just automatically result in a flag now. To hear Phil Simms say that the flag on the sack of Rothelisberger was a " great call" made me gag.

Further, all the talk and media discussion of the governance of the league: suspensions, CBA negotiations, drug testing, refreeing, Roger Goodell, etc. instead of the actual play on the field is beyond irritating. I put all of that on Goodell's shoulders....who you'd think was the President of the U.S. the way he is constantly in the spotlight. Please bring back the corporate lawyer, stay-out-of-the-spotlight, never-heard-from ways of Paul Tagliabue. Just go away Roger, you change-everything, make-as-much $ as-possible, whore everything out, bro-hugging, be everything to everyone egomaniac. Sick of hearing about everything BUT football.

COZ

particra,

I know about the lawsuits and realize the rule changes are an effort to appease the politically correct mob trying to soften the NFL. These new rule changes in no way impact past lawsuits. They are to appease political correctness. Current players know the risks. They should have to sign something that says they wont sue. I guarantee they all will sign and play. The NFL also has to deal with the countless higher profile people who have come out and said "I am not sure I would let my kid play football.." It is to combat the former NFL players who now whine about the very sport that gave them wealth and notoriety. That is what I mean by cow towing to political correctness. Players are taught to tackle with your head up and to wrap your arms around the defender. How can that possibly be done without ones helmet hitting the opposing player? These dramatic and hazy rule changes on what is and is not an appropriate play/tackle/hit in the NFL are the typical example of how this country is super reactionary to things based on how the wind blows the opinions and views of the mob. aside from making it two hand touch, there is no way to stop head injuries. I am for being extra careful with concussions protocols. I am for making efforts to make sure the players do not blatantly spear and dive head first into people. How about work hard to get the drugs out of the sport so these guys are not super human in size and speed? But there is no way to tackle (unless they are going to start going feet first with kicks and trips) without the helmet hitting people. If that is going to get randomly flagged the sport loses integrity.

Listening to former players in the broadcast booth have to bit their tongue and act like these are good calls is laughable. It is almost impossible to play defense in this league now. Former NON PLAYERS of the NFL are dying due to chronic traumatic encephalopathy too. Lots of people have dementia and Alzheimers who never played football. These players act like they had no idea there was inherent danger in football. There was an interesting book written recently about how the corporate suits are trying to ruin and at least re define football as we know it based on countless myths.

I was going to post this in the week 15 observations but remembered I mentioned it earlier in the year. The NFL has to get the competition committee together and address what is and is not a penalty. The games have so much importance now in America. I applaud the NFL for the word they did to get replay into the sport in an effort to get the calls right. But some of what I see from a week to week basis is going to lend itself to events that will tarnish this league.

For instance.

-Roughing the passer. This is becoming painful to watch. It is bad enough that about every rule that has been put in is there to create more offense. There comes a tipping point where scoring pace can hurt your product. When QB's are throwing 4,5, 6 TDs in a game the thrill of seeing a TD pass will start to wane. The essence of football, from a defensive perspective, has always been to get to the opposing teams QB and hit him, rattle him, scare him, give him happy feet, make him feel unstable in the pocket, make him hear the heat coming from behind even if it isn't. The sack by Jason Worilds on Matt Ryan was a perfect example. You can't have more clean play than that. These are game and possibly season changing calls being made. It is just a matter of time before a playoff game or even a superbowl gets decided on a play like this. The NFL has to do something about it. If a pass rushers hand grazes a helmet as he flies by being blocked by the tackle, it doesn't automatically have to be a personal foul just because he is a QB. It is getting ridiculously soft out there.

-Defensive pass interference. It is almost impossible to play defense in the NFL now. It isn't fair to expect a defensive back to chase an olympic level sprinter down the field at full speed, have a QB heave a poorly thrown ball up in the air in their general direction .. have that WR sprinter stop suddenly because the pass is so far off target, have the defensive back who is challenged with covering him bump into him, and have this poorly executed offensive play turn into a game changing 50 yard gain. it is ridiculous. There needs to be an incidental contact options of 5, 10 yards instead of a spot foul on plays like this. The spot foul should be reserved for when a DB truly interferes with a play he is beaten on and is well executed.

Just two examples of plays that can be a huge turn off when watching a game one is deeply invested in. Figuring out ways to limit the ways a fan can be left with a sickening taste in his mouth from an NFL game he/she is invested in should be near top of priority list for the NFL. I said the same thing years ago about the overtime rule. Going into overtime, losing a coin toss, having a team drive 40 years and kick a game winning and ending field goal leaves 50% of the fans watching that game disgusted. The NFL did a good thing with the new overtime rule. There is always room to improve the sport.

particra nailed it. Player health is a big time, long term issue for the NFL and yes, it's all about the money. When in doubt the refs ARE going to throw the flags....

Good points on all sides here. If the NFL would seriously crack down on steroid use so that the players got slower and smaller, that would do a lot to make the game safer.

The game isn't as good as it used to be. And if it wasn't for the fantasy aspect of it, I wouldn't watch a whole lot of it.