Remember When Football Was a Contact Sport?

[mrandyk]

CHICAGO -- Chicago Bears running back Matt Forte called the NFL's proposed rule change that would penalize ball carriers who lower their heads to deliver a blow "absurb" in a series of messages he posted on his official Twitter account Sunday morning.
The new rule would penalize a runner 15-yards if he initiates contract with the crown of his helmet outside of the tackle box. Incidental contact with the crown of the helmet would not be a penalty.

"The proposed rule change for running backs might be the most absurd suggestion of a rule change I've ever heard of," Forte wrote. "In order to lower ur shoulder u obviously have to lower ur head. It's a way of protecting ur self from a tackler and a way to break tackles."

Forte believes players would be unable to adjust if the new rule is put into place.

"U can't change the instinctive nature of running the football," Forte added.

NFL competition committee chairman Rich McKay cited player safety as the motivation behind the possible rule change during an interview last week with the Associated Press.

"This is pure and simple a player safety rule," McKay said. "The time has come we need to address the situation. You can't duck your head and deliver a forcible blow with your helmet."

http://espn.go.com/c...e-change-absurd

The bitter sadist in me would like to see the NFL adopt this rule so that the league would be even more of a joke, but then the NCAA would probably adopt it too. How much more protection can you give these players without entirely change or removing the integrity of the game? Anyone who puts on the pads knows exactly what they are getting into.

 

[Landlord]

It's still a contact sport.

 

[huskeraddict]

 

[tschu]

Well, it's a good rule

Do you want football to exist in a modified form or do you just want no football at all?

 

[sd'sker]

Remember when Football Was a Contact Sport?

that's when a smoke was a smoke

and groovin was groovin

and dancin was everything

we were young and we were improving

laughin laughin with our friends

holdin hands meant somethin, baby

outside the club, cherry bomb

our hearts were really pumpin

 

[HuskerShark]

Well, it's a good rule

Do you want football to exist in a modified form or do you just want no football at all?

I choose the option you didn't list: I would like football to exist without the ridiculous rules that are being put into play today.

 

[mrandyk]

Well, it's a good rule

Do you want football to exist in a modified form or do you just want no football at all?

Football is going to somehow stop existing without rules that weren't around for the first 100+ years of the sport?

 

[sd'sker]

Well, it's a good rule

Do you want football to exist in a modified form or do you just want no football at all?

Football is going to somehow stop existing without rules that weren't around for the first 100+ years of the sport?

know your history, son.

When A President Threatened to Abolish Football in the United States

 

[tschu]

Well, it's a good rule

Do you want football to exist in a modified form or do you just want no football at all?

Football is going to somehow stop existing without rules that weren't around for the first 100+ years of the sport?

I think you missed my point

It's either change the rules to make the sport more attractive to fans and future players, or football would die due to bad publicity, lack of willing players, and a plethora of lawsuits. And like sd'sker said, football's rules have been changing since the sport was invented.

 

[HuskerShark]

These rule changes in no way make football more attractive to fans.

 

[tschu]

These rule changes in no way make football more attractive to fans.

"fans" might not be the proper word choice, but "general public" and "media" and others who are outraged by concussions, dirty hits, spinal injuries, etc etc.

 

[mrandyk]

Well, it's a good rule

Do you want football to exist in a modified form or do you just want no football at all?

Football is going to somehow stop existing without rules that weren't around for the first 100+ years of the sport?

know your history, son.

When A President Threatened to Abolish Football in the United States

Okay, maybe not the first 100+ years of the sport, but the last 100 years of the sport. Pads, helmets, and rules to distinguish football from a free for all brawl were quite necessary.

I still say that it is wrong for fans to ever be outraged at players being hurt on the field. They know exactly what they are getting into. It's like getting being upset about a boxer getting brain damage or something, they knew damn well someone was going to be giving them a beating. And it's not like the new rules are really going to make the game that much safer. That Rutgers player that got paralyzed a few years ago did so on a perfectly legal hit. Unless you eliminate contact entirely there will always be people getting hurt. It's part of the game.

 

[zoogs]

Pads and helmets are necessary, but developing appropriate responses to new medical knowledge about long-lasting injuries such as brain trauma that results from NFL careers, is not necessary?

No, these players do not know what they are getting into. They have no idea.

There will always be players who get hurt, but the league has a responsibility to reduce that kind of danger at all levels of play. And like President Obama said, it's one thing when it's professional players getting paid to do something. It's another when you're talking about amateur college athletes.

 

[Landlord]

Well, it's a good rule

Do you want football to exist in a modified form or do you just want no football at all?

I choose the option you didn't list: I would like football to exist without the ridiculous rules that are being put into play today.

People are literally dying.

You can use the "they know what they're getting into" drivel all you want; the truth is they don't. Only recently do players have proper and thorough information on the dangers that they didnt' know about before, but even with that information, we as humans tend to make shortsighted decisions. If you're a 22 year old about to get millions, are you focused on the cash or are you focused on the possibility of developing fatal brain damage 20 years down the road?

This is hyperbolic, but the same idea. Imagine your brother is tragically addicted to heroine. Do you let him do what he's going to do, under the justification of "he know's what he's getting into", or do you step in and say, "No. This is not happening."

Lives are more important than entertainment. The general spirit behind American Football is not very many steps away from the spirit of Roman gladiator events. This is seriously troubling.

 

[mrandyk]

Pads and helmets are necessary, but developing appropriate responses to new medical knowledge about long-lasting injuries such as brain trauma that results from NFL careers, is not necessary?

No, these players do not know what they are getting into. They have no idea.

There will always be players who get hurt, but the league has a responsibility to reduce that kind of danger at all levels of play. And like President Obama said, it's one thing when it's professional players getting paid to do something. It's another when you're talking about amateur college athletes.

I'll give you that. Very different case when you are talking about amateurs who aren't covered by gaudy insurance policies and paid millions of dollars. If these new rules must be in place I wish that they would have a different system to enforce the rules. Maybe some kind of warning then ejection system instead of the current 15 yard penalty no matter what. It's just so agitating when the defense comes up with a stop on 3rd down only to have a ref throw his flag because he thinks that two helmets may have grazed each other.