Sunday, October 24, 2010

NFL's Ilegal Hits rule

The NFL's newly toughened enforcement of rules against dangerous illegal hits has been greeted less than enthusiastically by the very people the league is attempting to protect: the players.
  Current and former players were critical Wednesday of the league's announcement that it would escalate the penalties for players who deliver illegal blows, including possible suspensions, even for first offenses. The NFL's announcement Monday came a day after an alarming series of hits in Sunday's games left several players with head injuries.
Pittsburgh Steelers linebacker James Harrison, one of three players fined Tuesday by the league for illegal hits Sunday, threatened to retire, and other players said Wednesday they long ago accepted that the sport they play is perilous.
  It's a dangerous game, It really is. I think they all signed up for this game knowing that it's dangerous. . . . Nobody wants to see anybody get hurt. That's not why they play the game. But we also know the physical nature of this sport is that people do get hurt."
Brady said at his weekly news conference that "sometimes I guess guys cross the line" and he accepted that league officials would "enforce the rules however they see fit."
Harrison was less accommodating a day after he was fined $75,000 for a hit Sunday on Cleveland Browns wide receiver Mohamed Massaquoi.
  "There's nothing really else I can do and that's why I'm so frustrated," Harrison said in a Sirius satellite radio interview. "How can I continue to play this game the way that I've been taught to play this game since I was 10 years old? And now you're telling me that everything that they've taught me from that time on, for the last 20-plus years, is not the way you're supposed to play the game any more. If that's the case, I can't play by those rules. You're handicapping me."

4 comments:

  1. It sounds like they are going overboard with this, but they really aren't. Many football players have to see a psychiatrist due to major brain damage from unreported concussions. The goal is to bring the person down, but to injure them for life.

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  2. All pro athletes knew what they signed up for and get paid very well. If I have to adapt to an ever changing work environment then why shouldn't they? If he can afford to retire because of a rule change then his career is pretty awesome, I'm sure anyone would love to trade places with him.

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  3. I would never want my finances so heavily tied into my body when working a professional sport, let alone one with so many hard hits as football. Hopefully they got a degree and can profit from their success after their glory days have passed.

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  4. I believe the new suspensions should only deal with really flagrant hits and nothing else..

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