Suspensions are only way to lessen vicious hits
- Thread starter savage
- Start date
this is the nfl/roger favoring the offense again...pretty soon its going to be the like CFL and AFL...every game with over/under at 100pts...
as much of a irrational idea it is, rugby doesnt have near the amount of head injuries or injuries at all compared to american football, take the "weapons" out of the hands of the players and they wont be able to use em.....a busted lip was about the worst thing i ever got when playing helmet-less football for years and years....it will change thier mindset not being "protected" by a big bulky piece of hardened plastic/foam
as much of a irrational idea it is, rugby doesnt have near the amount of head injuries or injuries at all compared to american football, take the "weapons" out of the hands of the players and they wont be able to use em.....a busted lip was about the worst thing i ever got when playing helmet-less football for years and years....it will change thier mindset not being "protected" by a big bulky piece of hardened plastic/foam
Yea I was just trying to say that as professionals they should execute proper form and if they are going to be leading with their helmets they should be fined for it. By leading with your helmet to make big hits, not only are the players in danger of injury, but also examples are being set to younger athletes thinking if they are going to make a big hit they needed to execute it the same way.
Hits led with shoulder pads should not be fined.
Hits led with shoulder pads should not be fined.
Good post.
It's funny to me that our views on something like this can be so similar, yet our views on something like politics can be so polarized when in a lot of ways we are discussing the same concept - protecting people from themselves.
Anyways,
If you play football you know what you are getting into.
IMO Even if 1 person died every game, if people still wanted to play under those circumstances, then who are we are anyone else to stop them?
That's when the teammates of the player need to retaliate. If the refs/NFL can't police it then the players should. If my teammate got blasted I'd take the player down that did it or if I was the coach I'd tell a couple of players to lay him out on first opportunity.... Just like the enforcers/goons do it in the NHL.
Curry on illegal hits issue: 'That's just a thin line'
The NFL sent a video to all 32 teams Thursday outlining specifically what kind of hits are illegal in the wake of a handful of crushing blows that resulted in injuries and fines last weekend.
The video includes what the league considers legal hard hits as well and the first blow shown in that portion is the crunching block on Seahawks punter Jon Ryan last week.
You can watch the full video here.
Like all teams, the Seahawks are trying to understand exactly what the NFL is looking for in its increased emphasis on penalizing dangerous hits. In a game based on collisions, it's a difficult tightrope to walk at times.
"That's just a thin line," second-year linebacker Aaron Curry said Thursday. "We saw a video of what is and is not legal, but some of the hits are just routine plays in the NFL and it just depends on whether that guy gets knocked out or hurt or not.
"Some of the stuff, you just don't know what to do or how to respond to some things that go on on the field. I'm a defensive player so I have a biased answer, but it's just a thin line."
Curry said he won't think about the situation once he's on the field other than knowing the main issue is avoiding helmet-to-helmet hits.
"A lot of our concern is if a runner ducks his head to get the extra yard and we hit him in the head and knock him out, where do we go from there?" Curry said. "But no defender is going to think about it on game day."
Defensive end Chris Clemons, a seven-year NFL veteran, said nothing has changed except the increased focus of blows to the head.
"It's always been a rule," he said. "They've always talked about it, but it was just enforced because of the hits that were taken this weekend. They saw some things that can actually get a few guys hurt. So I don't look at it as the NFL is changing."
Like Curry, Clemons said he'll just continue playing his game and worry about the repercussions as they come.
"I'm not one of those guys who really thinks about what the fine is," Clemons said. "At the end of the day, I'm just really trying to help my team win. If there's a fine, there's a fine. It's something I have to learn from.
"I don't go into a game thinking I can't stick my head in there because I don't want to get a fine. If I'm going to help my team, that's my thing. It's not worrying about how much money I'm losing or how much money I'm making because of a hit."
Defensive coordinator Gus Bradley said the team always coaches to tackle correctly for their own players' sake.
"We preach it all the time to our guys about safety,' Bradley said. "We tackle every week and we're talking about it. They trust us. That's our No. 1 objective is the safety of our guys. We just teach them good tackling fundamentals.
"It's unfortunate. I saw some of those hits and, sheesh, I know it's creating quite a discussion. But we just try to teach our base principals and are always talking about safety with our guys."
Quarterback Matt Hasselbeck said the issue is naturally divided somewhat by party lines between the two sides of the ball.
"We talked about it today. We watched the video that the league sent," Hasselbeck said. "There was a lot of comments and observations from the defensive guys and the offensive guys were mostly quiet. That's just how it is.
"It's a tricky thing. From my perspective I'm trying to protect the guys that I'm throwing the ball to. I'm trying to put them in a situation where they're not going to get hit like that."
In the end, players will be left to make split-second decisions on how exactly to hit an opposing player, knowing that play can then be reviewed over and over in an attempt to determine whether it was legal or not.
That's the part defenders like Curry struggle with as they balance the need to play with tremendous emotion and force, yet to be controlled enough to avoid the wrong kind of collisions in a high-speed game.
"The toughest thing is the technology we have," said Curry. "Because if you just play the game and see a hit, it just looks routine. But when you put it in extra slo-motion and can see the sweat coming off and the mouth piece come out and the chin strap fall off and the guy's eyes roll back in his head, it just looks worse than what it really is.
"A lot of hits in the league are violent and devastating. But you can't stop somebody from hitting hard," Curry said. "It's just a thin line of what do you do when the player with the ball or the so-called defenseless player, they decrease the surface area we're allowed to hit (by lowering their head). If all you can see is the face mask and helmet, do you still hit him there or do you give up the big play?
"We won't be giving up any big plays."
http://blog.seattlepi.com/football/archives/225744.asp
The NFL sent a video to all 32 teams Thursday outlining specifically what kind of hits are illegal in the wake of a handful of crushing blows that resulted in injuries and fines last weekend.
The video includes what the league considers legal hard hits as well and the first blow shown in that portion is the crunching block on Seahawks punter Jon Ryan last week.
You can watch the full video here.
Like all teams, the Seahawks are trying to understand exactly what the NFL is looking for in its increased emphasis on penalizing dangerous hits. In a game based on collisions, it's a difficult tightrope to walk at times.
"That's just a thin line," second-year linebacker Aaron Curry said Thursday. "We saw a video of what is and is not legal, but some of the hits are just routine plays in the NFL and it just depends on whether that guy gets knocked out or hurt or not.
"Some of the stuff, you just don't know what to do or how to respond to some things that go on on the field. I'm a defensive player so I have a biased answer, but it's just a thin line."
Curry said he won't think about the situation once he's on the field other than knowing the main issue is avoiding helmet-to-helmet hits.
"A lot of our concern is if a runner ducks his head to get the extra yard and we hit him in the head and knock him out, where do we go from there?" Curry said. "But no defender is going to think about it on game day."
Defensive end Chris Clemons, a seven-year NFL veteran, said nothing has changed except the increased focus of blows to the head.
"It's always been a rule," he said. "They've always talked about it, but it was just enforced because of the hits that were taken this weekend. They saw some things that can actually get a few guys hurt. So I don't look at it as the NFL is changing."
Like Curry, Clemons said he'll just continue playing his game and worry about the repercussions as they come.
"I'm not one of those guys who really thinks about what the fine is," Clemons said. "At the end of the day, I'm just really trying to help my team win. If there's a fine, there's a fine. It's something I have to learn from.
"I don't go into a game thinking I can't stick my head in there because I don't want to get a fine. If I'm going to help my team, that's my thing. It's not worrying about how much money I'm losing or how much money I'm making because of a hit."
Defensive coordinator Gus Bradley said the team always coaches to tackle correctly for their own players' sake.
"We preach it all the time to our guys about safety,' Bradley said. "We tackle every week and we're talking about it. They trust us. That's our No. 1 objective is the safety of our guys. We just teach them good tackling fundamentals.
"It's unfortunate. I saw some of those hits and, sheesh, I know it's creating quite a discussion. But we just try to teach our base principals and are always talking about safety with our guys."
Quarterback Matt Hasselbeck said the issue is naturally divided somewhat by party lines between the two sides of the ball.
"We talked about it today. We watched the video that the league sent," Hasselbeck said. "There was a lot of comments and observations from the defensive guys and the offensive guys were mostly quiet. That's just how it is.
"It's a tricky thing. From my perspective I'm trying to protect the guys that I'm throwing the ball to. I'm trying to put them in a situation where they're not going to get hit like that."
In the end, players will be left to make split-second decisions on how exactly to hit an opposing player, knowing that play can then be reviewed over and over in an attempt to determine whether it was legal or not.
That's the part defenders like Curry struggle with as they balance the need to play with tremendous emotion and force, yet to be controlled enough to avoid the wrong kind of collisions in a high-speed game.
"The toughest thing is the technology we have," said Curry. "Because if you just play the game and see a hit, it just looks routine. But when you put it in extra slo-motion and can see the sweat coming off and the mouth piece come out and the chin strap fall off and the guy's eyes roll back in his head, it just looks worse than what it really is.
"A lot of hits in the league are violent and devastating. But you can't stop somebody from hitting hard," Curry said. "It's just a thin line of what do you do when the player with the ball or the so-called defenseless player, they decrease the surface area we're allowed to hit (by lowering their head). If all you can see is the face mask and helmet, do you still hit him there or do you give up the big play?
"We won't be giving up any big plays."
http://blog.seattlepi.com/football/archives/225744.asp
Here is the video:
http://www.nfl.com/videos/nfl-videos/09000d5d81b80962/Player-safety
I don't think the suspensions will water down the game most of the players are just trying to blow people up. Most of these hits are putting the defender in just as much danger as the person they are hitting. It just seems like they abandon good form for the sake of making a huge hit. I really like to see players put a hard hit one someone using good form (Patrick Willis does it all the time, his tackles are just perfect looking), most of these guys are dipping there head, coming off their feet or going helmet to helmet and eventually they are going to hurt themselves. It is way better to wrapping someone up and driving through them or lead with your shoulder to the chest (it would give you more leverage anyway and you could still light someone up just like the Ray Lewis hit in the video). It seems like I am in the minority here but we don't need to be seeing people die on the field.
And the people that said the NFL is too reactive would you rather them be like the MLB where they take forever to change anything? It will probably take another person getting hit with a splintered bat before they even consider making a change.
http://www.nfl.com/videos/nfl-videos/09000d5d81b80962/Player-safety
I don't think the suspensions will water down the game most of the players are just trying to blow people up. Most of these hits are putting the defender in just as much danger as the person they are hitting. It just seems like they abandon good form for the sake of making a huge hit. I really like to see players put a hard hit one someone using good form (Patrick Willis does it all the time, his tackles are just perfect looking), most of these guys are dipping there head, coming off their feet or going helmet to helmet and eventually they are going to hurt themselves. It is way better to wrapping someone up and driving through them or lead with your shoulder to the chest (it would give you more leverage anyway and you could still light someone up just like the Ray Lewis hit in the video). It seems like I am in the minority here but we don't need to be seeing people die on the field.
And the people that said the NFL is too reactive would you rather them be like the MLB where they take forever to change anything? It will probably take another person getting hit with a splintered bat before they even consider making a change.
