A Real Head Case

This the the NFL right? Football, a sport where you are told from the first time you strap on your helmet that it is dangerous and violent. If your dad was like mine you probably heard something to the effect of "If you don't want to get hurt, then don't play." This is because it is bound to happen. It's not for the faint of heart, in fact it's designed to reward the most violent men on the field. But dare I say, since Roger Goodell has taken over, it has become sissy-fied. Jack Lambert was quoted as saying "This game is designed to reward those who hit the hardest, if you can't take it then don't play. Sounds an awful lot like my old man doesn't it. But not anymore Jack. In fact, you get fined for hitting people hard. Three players were fined for hits on "defenseless" receivers this past week and, in my opinion, only one of those hits was actually illegal. Todd Heap of Baltimore was overthrown and took the crown of New England's Brandon Meriweather's helmet right in the chops. That was a missile shot and was completely illegal. But the fines imposed on Dunta Robinson of Atlanta and James Harrison are ridiculous. But I have a different take on why these hits were legit. In the case of Heap, he was in the air going for a ball that was badly overthrown. But on the other two hits, both defenders separated the man from the ball. Last time I checked that's the defender's job. Robinson's hit wasn't even helmet to helmet. Granted, he laid a shoulder hit on Desean Jackson that may have him drinking his dinner through a straw for a couple weeks, but that doesn't make it illegal. Every receiver knows what can happen when they go across the middle and they still do it. You know why? Because this is football, they know what they signed up for. On the James Harrison hit, video shows that the ball hit Massaquoi's hands while he was standing in an upright position. At this point Harrison is only a few feet from the receiver and fully committed to the hit. But Massaquoi then bobbled the ball and bent down to try to gather it. From the time the ball hit the receiver's hands to the time Harrison hit him was less than half a second. So apparently a defender is supposed to be able to adjust his tackle on an upright receiver with the ball in a half second if the receiver decides to bend down. It is impossible to tell a guy to change what he has been taught to do since pee-wee football.

In these three cases only one receiver was actually defenseless, the other two literally had the ball in their hands. Yet the NFL deemed each case to be a hit on a defenseless receiver. No wonder these guys don't understand what they're supposed to do anymore. The rules in sports are supposed to be clear cut, legal or illegal, black or white. But the NFL has by far the most gray area. I am as typical an NFL fan as you are going to find and i know you are pretty much all like me. I watch football to see guys like James Harrison and Ray Lewis blow up dudes. The NFL sells pictures and videos showing the "All Time Biggest Hits" and ESPN used to glorify guys getting "Jacked Up!" In fact, until today, the NFL was selling photos of the very hits that they fined this week. Talk about hypocritical. Like James Harrison said, it's a money issue and they want to make money on the front end and the back end. Of course they probably aren't moving a lot of copies of "All Time Greatest Arm Tackles".