Want to make it safe. Make a drastic change to the helmet. The hard shell helmet came on in the 50's YA THINK ITS TIME FOR A CONCEPT CHANGE.
Get a softer Kevlar based material with flak - I don't know exactly I don't have the technology in front of me. But there can be an easy solution. If the helmet is not hard and thus rend it a non weapon. You will have players naturally not leading with their head.
I certainly agree that it is time for a new approach in the way helmets are designed.
Building a safer helmet that can reduce impact forces being generated by today's football players requires some different ideas.
Bert Straus pioneered soft-shell helmet protection that was used in the NFL in the 1990s...and it worked!!!
Bert was onto something that is based on "common sense"...you can only put so much padding "inside a helmet"...so if you want to improve helmet safety, why not add padding to the "outside of a helmet"?
Bert developed the ProCap, a soft outer shell of a half-inch-thick urethane that was used by some players (Mark Kelso,Bills /Steve Wallace,49ers)
Using different materials to absorb a hit to the helmet better than the present 'rock hard' plastic helmets used for the last 50 yrs...it's about time for the NFL to adjust their thinking on helmet safety.
Bert Straus was onto something and it's time for Goodell and the NFL to admit it.
Want to make it safe. Make a drastic change to the helmet. The hard shell helmet came on in the 50's YA THINK ITS TIME FOR A CONCEPT CHANGE.
Get a softer Kevlar based material with flak - I don't know exactly I don't have the technology in front of me. But there can be an easy solution. If the helmet is not hard and thus rend it a non weapon. You will have players naturally not leading with their head.
I certainly agree that it is time for a new approach in the way helmets are designed.
Building a safer helmet that can reduce impact forces being generated by today's football players requires some different ideas.
Bert Straus pioneered soft-shell helmet protection that was used in the NFL in the 1990s...and it worked!!!
Bert was onto something that is based on "common sense"...you can only put so much padding "inside a helmet"...so if you want to improve helmet safety, why not add padding to the "outside of a helmet"?
Bert developed the ProCap, a soft outer shell of a half-inch-thick urethane that was used by some players (Mark Kelso,Bills /Steve Wallace,49ers)
Using different materials to absorb a hit to the helmet better than the present 'rock hard' plastic helmets used for the last 50 yrs...it's about time for the NFL to adjust their thinking on helmet safety.
Bert Straus was onto something and it's time for Goodell and the NFL to admit it.
As I understand it, the hard shell is to help helmets slide off one another, helping reduce neck injuries.
Micah 6:8; He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God.
John 14:19 Jesus said: Because I live, you also will live.
I agree with Mac on the soft helmet technology. Where we disagreed in the past was using rubber padding on the outside of the helmet. He championed that. That would have been a bad idea.
The newest soft shell is still a harder, slick material that will indeed reduce friction as compared to what Willie Lanier wore in maybe the late 60's, early 70's.
I have given Mac some crap on this issue, and in the beginning he was wrong in the means, but I do give him a lot of credit because he has been on this topic for 10-15 years.
I think we are nearing the point where we will see helmet changes.
Hard shells seemed better v old leather helmets, but it simply emboldened players to start getting their heads in to the action.
If everybody had like minds, we would never learn.
I agree with Mac on the soft helmet technology. Where we disagreed in the past was using rubber padding on the outside of the helmet. He championed that. That would have been a bad idea.
The newest soft shell is still a harder, slick material that will indeed reduce friction as compared to what Willie Lanier wore in maybe the late 60's, early 70's.
peen...I never, EVER CHAMPIONED RUBBER as a material to be used on the outside of helmets.(look it up)
I have promoted the ProCap THAT WAS ALLOWED AND USED by the NFL for some 5 or 6 years before the NFL and the NFL never had one injury such as the one NFL doctors said they feared with those players using Bert Straus' ProCap.
I've told the Willie Lanier story many times..after receiving a sever concussion as a rookie, Lanier's KC Chiefs trainer devised a helmet for Lanier that featured a stripe of extra padding, approx 8" wide (front to back).
Lanier wore that helmet for 10 seasons (67-77) and never had another career threatening concussion, playing his way to the Hall of Fame.
Cushioning the blow does little or nothing toward preventing a concussion. It's not the blow to the head that creates concussions. What creates them is the head stopping so abruptly from the blow that the brain continues to move and then hits the inside of the skull causing the injury. All the padding in the world is not enough to stop the brain from moving or hitting the skull on a hard impact.
If there were a way to re-design the helmets to prevent the brain from hitting the inside of the skull it would have happened before now.
I agree with Mac on the soft helmet technology. Where we disagreed in the past was using rubber padding on the outside of the helmet. He championed that. That would have been a bad idea.
The newest soft shell is still a harder, slick material that will indeed reduce friction as compared to what Willie Lanier wore in maybe the late 60's, early 70's.
peen...I never, EVER CHAMPIONED RUBBER as a material to be used on the outside of helmets.(look it up)
I have promoted the ProCap THAT WAS ALLOWED AND USED by the NFL for some 5 or 6 years before the NFL and the NFL never had one injury such as the one NFL doctors said they feared with those players using Bert Straus' ProCap.
I've told the Willie Lanier story many times..after receiving a sever concussion as a rookie, Lanier's KC Chiefs trainer devised a helmet for Lanier that featured a stripe of extra padding, approx 8" wide (front to back).
Lanier wore that helmet for 10 seasons (67-77) and never had another career threatening concussion, playing his way to the Hall of Fame.
I could go on..just correcting the record.
Ok....rubber is more of a generic term...some form of foam padding. Friction was the issue when we first talked about this. It isn't today.
Again, I give you a tip of the cap because you talked about this issue a decade ago.
Now you can say....thanks peen
If everybody had like minds, we would never learn.
I pride myself as being something of a rare breed: I'm a person with a conscience and a sports fan. I don't typically like seeing athletes sustain injuries; where the whole 'troubled conscience' really comes in is when you see a player sustain a head injury, or worse yet, a spinal cord injury. We've learned a lot about head injuries and concussions over the recent years, what with hundreds of former players suing the league over the issue, claiming the NFL didn't do enough to protect players from known risks associated with head injuries and concussions.
All too often now, in football and in other physical sports like hockey, we're hearing about a rapid degradation of the quality of a person's life, often leading to drug and alcohol addiction, erratic behavior, and much more.
Here's where I often think about former Buffalo Bills safety Mark Kelso. Many a night do I lie in my fine bed and think about things, and every so often I think about Kelso and the giant helmet he wore for those early '90s Bills teams. He looked out of proportion and silly with that giant egg on his head. Announcers called him a conehead. In hindsight, he should be called a pioneer.
In a column that ran almost two years ago, ESPN's Gregg Easterbrook wrote about Kelso and former San Francisco tackle Steve Wallace, focusing on their use of an innovative helmet to help them avoid concussions.
Mark Kelso, a safety for the Bills from 1986 to 1993, wore an outer-padded helmet as a starter in four Super Bowls and finished with 30 career NFL interceptions. Many highly drafted, highly paid safeties wish they could say they had a career as good as Kelso did. Steve Wallace, an offensive tackle for the 49ers from 1986 to 1997, wore an outer-padded helmet and made the Pro Bowl. Many highly drafted, highly paid tackles wish they could say they played as well as Wallace did. You can wear an outer-padded helmet and be a very effective football player -- while doing less harm.
Kelso went to outer padding because he'd sustained two severe concussions and been advised to give up football. "The Bills' trainer knew an inventor who had been tinkering with padding," Kelso told me last week. "With padding, I played an additional five seasons, almost 100 more games, and sustained only one concussion, which wasn't a helmet-to-helmet hit -- someone kneed my head. Absolutely the padding made it safer for me and safer for the players I was hitting. You can't use an outer-padded helmet as a weapon. Pound a padded helmet against your own knee; it doesn't hurt. Do that with a standard polycarbonate shell helmet, and you'll howl in pain. If both players were wearing this in a helmet-to-helmet hit, it wouldn't be anywhere near as bad."
This is pretty amazing stuff that becomes only more apt by the day in the wake of near-weekly reminders of this crisis in the news. I have a sneaking suspicion that Kelso's and Wallace's experience with concussions and improved helmets is being studied by both sides of the ongoing litigation.
Obviously, Kelso knew that the concussions could end his career, and he wanted to do something about it. Here we are, 20 years later, without any kind of substantial improvement to the helmet.
But in at least one case, the players are their own worst enemies. The technology exists to place a sensor in the helmet to measure the force of impact of any given hit, and perhaps act accordingly upon that information. Which may lead to precautionary, involuntary benching during a game. The players want none of that.
I don't have the technical expertise to know why the whole league doesn't follow the Kelso-Wallace model, and create a softer external area on the outside of the helmet that can absorb impact. You often hear of players returning from concussions with improved helmets.
Personally, I'm happy Kelso is still with the Bills as John Murphy's radio color man. I think he does a professorial job illuminating defensive schemes. And I love laying in bed at night and dreaming of his ridiculous helmet, and hoping there's a way for football to be played without regularly resulting in potentially catastrophic injury.
Well lets see how this works out at least in Preseason as it will also be the Ref's avenue to work out the new rule also. At least they have replay and I wish they will be able to use it before they start throwing guys out. And to get thrown out I hope they use real time not super slow mo where it takes a lot out of intent.
Hope we get a lot of Helmet on the ball this year!
Defense wins championships. Watson play your butt off! Go Browns! CHRIST HAS RISEN! GM Strong! & Stay safe everyone!
More replays. Slow it down more. Then it is based a ref interpretation. This is tackle football. When you look at tackling today it is already a mess. Now defensive players have to figure out what they can do instead of making a play.
I think they've gone a long way in changing the 'catch rule'. At the same time they've implemented this 'helmet rule' which, I believe, will be more trouble than the past catch rule.
I think they ought to go back to using leather helmets but add some foam padding. The hard plastic shell stops players from thinking about being hurt, so they lead with the helmet, even if unintentional. If they have to worry in the least about their own safety, the helmet first hit will cease to exist.
The Cleveland Browns - WE KNOW QUARTERBACKS ( Look at how many we've had ... )
I don't think any kind of padding will do any good helping to prevent concussions. The problem is not an injury to the skin or to the skull bone. The problem is when the skull stops suddenly and the brain keeps moving until it hits the inside of the skull, that's the brain injury.
No helmet design will do anything to help that. The only way to help is to stop the 'running-the-head-into-a-brick-wall' type of hits, helmet to helmet being the worst.
I don't think any kind of padding will do any good helping to prevent concussions.
In the article above, seems a couple of guys who actually used a product to lower their risk of concussions and to extend their careers by years, might know of a product that "did work" for them.
Quote:
The problem is when the skull stops suddenly and the brain keeps moving until it hits the inside of the skull, that's the brain injury.
It takes an initial blow to the helmet/head to start the brain's movement inside the skull...
...if the initial blow to the head/helmet can be reduced it seems the number of concussions would also be reduced.
Quote:
No helmet design will do anything to help that. The only way to help is to stop the 'running-the-head-into-a-brick-wall' type of hits, helmet to helmet being the worst.
Utilizing "the NFL" as a real world testing ground, first Willie Lanier wore a helmet with extra padding added to the outside of his helmet to help save his career (1969 to 1979) that was threatened to be cut short by a severe concussion in Lanier's rookie season.
In the late 1980s, Bert Straus developed the ProCap, an added layer of padding that was used by players in the NFL with good results, but never adopted by the NFL.
Two separate cases of NFL players using padded added to the outside of helmets that did help to reduce the incidents of concussions by those players who used them...
...yet the NFL ignores those results preferring to make more rules and transferring the responsibility for the enforcement of their new rules onto the NFL's officiating crews..yep, that should solve everything, a band-aide approach for another year.
I can't believe, in a day and age where we can map the human genome and even predict disease and affliction decades in advance, that we can't create a helmet that will reduce or even eliminate concussions. An outer shell that will divert shock and an inner shell that will insulate and absorb shock.
There's a Kent, OH company leading the field in shock absorbing material... elastic properties that act as a viscous liquid under load.
[quote]In the article above, seems a couple of guys who actually used a product to lower their risk of concussions and to extend their careers by years, might know of a product that "did work" for them.
I've read everything you've ever posted on the subject as I followed your lead from way back. But I have a rebuttal.
There have been players who have suffered multiple concussions and kept playing, never to have suffered another concussion throughout their careers. Can I then assume that doing nothing about it works just as well?
Some guys have worn extra padding and had never suffered another concussion, but I'm not sold that the padding was the primary reason for that.
So there are both guys who did nothing and guys who wore extra padding. There are those from each group who have not had another concussion. Because of that I can't give all the credit to the padding. Nor can I see extra padding cushioning the blow to the extent that the brain doesn't move fast enough inside the skull to prevent a concussion when it stops abruptly against the skull.
The NFL is on the hook to do something. Yet no one has developed a helmet capable of correcting the problem. What they are doing in the meantime is adjusting the rules in an attempt to reduce the number of possible concussion causing hits.
Unfortunately, that shock absorbing material can do nothing about the yolk inside the egg. Sure the egg doesn't crack, perhaps even if you toss it against the wall. But the yolk still moves inside the shell until it hits something to stop it.
The yolk has the egg-white as an absorbent material that protects the yolk. Our brain has that also. It's just not enough to take an NFL hit to keep our "yolks" from becoming scrambled.
The problem is like falling off a cliff. It's not the fall that hurts you, it's the sudden stop at the bottom.
If fans stopped cheering Helmet hits and unnecessary hits..
Coaches started stressing the tackling fundamentals, and actually stopped promoting the reckless behavior on the field..
Then many of the problems would go away.
Concussions and injuries are always going to exist, but educating on how we should watch the game would reduce injuries, I believe much more than padding helmets...
Heavy fines to coaching staff, namely some DB coaches would help....
Very good point to make. As our coach, my dad often used the term for concussions and big hits, saying a player "got his jelly shook." Not concussion per se, but also seeing if you could go back in. Not "Play at any cost" guy, but also saw it as something tough to be aware of and overcome if possible. That culture didn't trivialize it, but that toughness metric operated. Culture has changed and is changing for the better IMO.
"Every responsibility implies opportunity, and every opportunity implies responsibility." Otis Allen Glazebrook, 1880
I'm not necessarily in this camp, but what you're saying is a big driver behind the "remove the helmets, give them thin leather helmets back" argument.
The helmets, as they are now, can be used just as much as a weapon as protective equipment. Taking away the helmet de-incentivizes bad tackling in a big way. Not sure if everyone would be ready to handle the learning curve on that one, though.
There is no level of sucking we haven't seen; in fact, I'm pretty sure we hold the patents on a few levels of sucking NOBODY had seen until the past few years.
Very good point to make. As our coach, my dad often used the term for concussions and big hits, saying a player "got his jelly shook." Not concussion per se, but also seeing if you could go back in. Not "Play at any cost" guy, but also saw it as something tough to be aware of and overcome if possible. That culture didn't trivialize it, but that toughness metric operated. Culture has changed and is changing for the better IMO.
Toughness mentality is something I always hated in sports, in the sense it causes more wrong than good.
You shouldn't play hurt, you have to respect your body and respect the other players body. You shouldn't play to hurt others.
Toughness mentality leads to all kind of abuse, rules abuse, substances abuse, you name it.
Be aware of your limits and of your players limits, respect the sport, respect your body and respect the others, in the long run it will pay off much more than all the toughness and tug mentality we see in many coaches.
Playing football is not for everyone...or, playing "tackle football" is not for everyone.
If you are afraid of getting hurt, you should not set foot on a football field. This idea of changing the game to suit those who are worried about getting hurt, I'm against it. Those folks need to find a different game or stay away from involvement in full contact football.
The protective qualities of today's football equipment have not advanced or kept up with the changes in the game. The protective qualities of today's football equipment are not that much different than the protective equipment I used 48 yrs ago.
...something wrong with that fact.
From PeeWee football up, until recently, the equipment standards used by the NFL have been the standard followed for most levels, College, HS, JrHigh, etc.
That is part of the problem and a reason that gains in protective qualities of today's football equipment have not progressed at a faster pace.
As long as "football" at the lower levels continue to follow the safety standards established by the NFL, progress in the area of safety will remain behind the times.
Changing the game is not the answer...upgrading the safety capabilities of today's equipment should be the first priority.
I agree with you that tackle football is not for everyone. Especially not for those who are afraid to get hurt.
I believe though, that the protective equipment, besides the helmet, surely must have gotten better. I'm not close to it at all, but I suspect with the advancements in new materials and modern design that the body armor is, or should be, much better now than before. I don't know, it's just an assumption.
Just improve on it in protecting the head from impacts and to take away the HARD SHELLS to prevent the helmet from being used as a weapon.
If you look at the NFL lets say in Jim Brown's days there is not a lot of Helmet to helmet hitting as most the players did learn the game in leather gear???
I think it was in the days of the Raiders Defensive backfield and the celebrated taking out hits of those days that brought on the current type of game.
And yeah, from pee wees to HS and college that big hit is celebrated way too often compared to the perfect tackle around the waist and arms clasped around the back of the knees!
jmho
Defense wins championships. Watson play your butt off! Go Browns! CHRIST HAS RISEN! GM Strong! & Stay safe everyone!
Just improve on it in protecting the head from impacts and to take away the HARD SHELLS to prevent the helmet from being used as a weapon.
If you look at the NFL lets say in Jim Brown's days there is not a lot of Helmet to helmet hitting as most the players did learn the game in leather gear???
I think it was in the days of the Raiders Defensive backfield and the celebrated taking out hits of those days that brought on the current type of game.
And yeah, from pee wees to HS and college that big hit is celebrated way too often compared to the perfect tackle around the waist and arms clasped around the back of the knees!
jmho
It doesn't help when the sports networks have whole segments, like the "jacked up" segment they used to do, celebrating guys getting pummeled. Even laughing at times at the victim. Guys celebrating after taking a guys head off, and the networks replaying it over and over.
People watching the games, are in a way the same as a person playing a video game. I don't think many, while watching the game, see the players as real people. More like characters in their games. Honestly thinking and really understanding the punishment and pain an actual human being is being inflicted with.
Someone who has never played the game, just doesn't understand the pain that goes with it.
Another subjective rule that will slow down the game and lead to more controversy.
Are you out of your freaking mind? When James Harrison lowered his head and speared Colt McCoy in the face, he should've been ejected. You can really hurt someone with these cheap shots. I love the rule and think it is long overdue. It will have little bearing on delays to the game! It's about time!
Exciting football will be back in Cleveland this fall!
ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. -- Buffalo Bills safety Micah Hyde has a creative solution to curb the number of dangerous hits that receivers take over the middle of the field: Fine the quarterback.
"Those bang-bang plays, it's tough," Hyde said Tuesday. "Start fining the quarterbacks. They're the ones who are throwing the ball right there. It's tough for us [defensive players] to be able to adjust last second to get our head to one side, the other side -- up, down. We're trying to make a play like the receiver is. It's the sport of football."
Hyde's suggestion came as part of a discussion about a change to the NFL rulebook enacted at the league meetings last month in which a player -- on offense or defense -- will be penalized 15 yards and potentially ejected any time he lowers his head to initiate and make contact with his helmet against an opponent.
While Hyde welcomed the potential for the rule to be enforced against offensive players, especially running backs who might use their helmet to initiate contact, he stressed that such contact can be unavoidable as a defensive player in certain situations.
"When a guy catches a ball across the middle and it's bang-bang, and he's just catching the ball and doesn't have his feet down yet, as a defensive player, I'm not going to wait for him to bring the ball in and secure it," he said. "That's not realistic. In my eyes, if I'm able to hit him in his feet all the way up to his shoulders, I'm going to try to. Obviously, the head, the head contact, you can get away from that.
"[But] I actually had an incident in the playoff game [against Jacksonville when] the trainers didn't like how I tackled on a few plays. My response to them was just the running back was running at me, and he's getting as low as he can and lowering his shoulder, lowering his helmet. I have to make a tackle. I'm not going to stand straight up, because he's going to run straight through my chest. It's a violent game, it's a violent sport. They're trying the best they can do to make it as safe as possible, but at the end of the day, those bang-bang plays, they're hard to get out of the sport."
The NFL's previous rule limited penalties to when a runner or tackler initiated contact with the top or crown of his helmet when both players were outside of the tackle box. The new rule is broadened to include any player who "lowers his head to initiate and make contact with his helmet against an opponent," regardless of where it occurs on the field. It also eliminates a requirement from the previous rule for the contact to be "flagrant" for the player to be ejected.
"It just seems that players at every level are getting more comfortable playing with their helmets as a weapon rather than a protective device," NFL competition committee chairman Rich McKay said last month. "Therefore, we need a rule that is broad and puts that in context, and that's what we think this does."
Bills linebacker Lorenzo Alexander, a member of the NFL Players Association executive committee, hopes the league will reconsider its rule at the upcoming May owners meetings.
"Hopefully they go back and realize it's not going to be a functional rule that's going to make sense," he said Tuesday. "It's going to be hard on the refs, because they already have enough rules to call. Now, do they call it every single play, which they can do?
"It's definitely going to be hard [as players], because our heads are at the top of our body. You play with forward lean. Even if I'm coming in with a shoulder, if [the offensive player] drops his head a little bit, it's slight helmet-to-helmet. It can be called every single play. I just don't think it was well-thought-out. The intention of the rule is great, but we have to understand at some point, this is a collision, contact sport. And I think that's some of the allure to it. Everybody is not built to play this game. You can't legislate out every injury. Then we wouldn't be playing football. At that point, it changes to something different. If the fans and the owners are OK with that, then we'll have to live in that new world."
Bills defensive tackle Kyle Williams, who has played in the NFL since 2006, agreed with Alexander's opinion of the rule change.
"I understand the old rule of targeting and launching, but this seems to incorporate all contact, including incidental contact, which I think is a huge problem for players," he told ESPN. "There is a risk that comes with playing the game, generally speaking. You can legislate out the flagrant attempts to use the helmet as a weapon, but the reason we wear helmets is because of incidental contact and just the nature of the game."
I think the point trying to be made is that sometimes the QB leads the WR right into a big defensive hit. How many times have you seen that happen to one of our guys and thought, the QB should have seen that hit coming and not thrown the ball there?
I think the point trying to be made is that sometimes the QB leads the WR right into a big defensive hit. How many times have you seen that happen to one of our guys and thought, the QB should have seen that hit coming and not thrown the ball there?
I understand the point, I just think it's ridiculous. A defensive player is saying that in a split second, he can't maintain enough control to avoid a big hit... So he expects another human 10, 15, 20 yards away to predict that, forecast the future and not throw the pass. We talk about all the info a QB is expected to process in 2-3 seconds, how in the world can we tell them they will be punished if they don't also process that?
I can see it now - DBs jumping up and down pointing back to the huddle and zebras huddling up to decide who's fault it was that someone's head was taken off. Wouldn't this be counter-productive towards getting players to ease up?
Now we are just getting to pre draft silliness running out of news...smh. Maybe they should get fined for handing off the ball if a RB gets injured. Wait, lets just ban football and get this over with and promote only Soccer.
Tired of this Wussification of America, starting with our beloved game of Football. Miss led information, lies and political correct BS. We have been shoved down our throats to change this countries past time to Soccer. Believe it or not Concussions are abound in Soccer but nobody talks about it as they ban Football all around the country.
Did you all know that 17 states have banned pee wee football under the age of 12. What is so ridiculous is that under 12 is probably the ages that accrue the least amount of serious football injuries.
I have several parents asking for my help as the politically correct people are trying to get that law passed in New York...disgusting. This liberal crap is getting out of hand. They pretend they are just nice...but secretly are trying their hand at becoming a dictatorship. Wake up America...sorry, got to take a pill literally...lol
Defense wins championships. Watson play your butt off! Go Browns! CHRIST HAS RISEN! GM Strong! & Stay safe everyone!
I think the point trying to be made is that sometimes the QB leads the WR right into a big defensive hit. How many times have you seen that happen to one of our guys and thought, the QB should have seen that hit coming and not thrown the ball there?
I understand the point, I just think it's ridiculous. A defensive player is saying that in a split second, he can't maintain enough control to avoid a big hit... So he expects another human 10, 15, 20 yards away to predict that, forecast the future and not throw the pass. We talk about all the info a QB is expected to process in 2-3 seconds, how in the world can we tell them they will be punished if they don't also process that?
Have you ever heard the statement, "Hanging the WR out to dry?"
I've heard it and it's true. But when you have a defense staring down your throat somebody is going to take a big hit anyway.
Maybe we should start penalizing QB's for taking hits? I mean if they can't throw the ball when the pressure is coming, maybe we should penalize them when the D plows them down too?
Intoducing for The Cleveland Browns, Quarterback Deshawn "The Predator" Watson. He will also be the one to choose your next head coach.
I think the point trying to be made is that sometimes the QB leads the WR right into a big defensive hit. How many times have you seen that happen to one of our guys and thought, the QB should have seen that hit coming and not thrown the ball there?
I understand the point, I just think it's ridiculous. A defensive player is saying that in a split second, he can't maintain enough control to avoid a big hit... So he expects another human 10, 15, 20 yards away to predict that, forecast the future and not throw the pass. We talk about all the info a QB is expected to process in 2-3 seconds, how in the world can we tell them they will be punished if they don't also process that?
Have you ever heard the statement, "Hanging the WR out to dry?"
LOL. No dude, what is that? Of course, but that's between your QB and your WR. NOT something to be interpreted by the officials by adding yet another layer of b.s... in hopes of reaching some utopia where nobody gets hurt in a violent sport.
And yeah, Pitt beat me to it - most of the time this happens there is a QB under pressure. Then you have a WR joggin back to the huddle saying "don't hang me out to dry bro!"
FATE, I apologize for making a statement that made it seem like I was addressing you as a noob. It was more of an off-hand, smart-ass comment but didn't translate well. My bad.
Something I should have made clear in my first post, I do not agree with punishing the QB for a hard hit. Personally I think the whole idea of this new/potential rule is BS. I was just pointing out, apparently unneeded, that the QB can be responsible for 'hanging the WR out to dry'. But the WR himself can also be the one responsible for hanging himself out to dry by not making the right adjustment in his route.
Either way, no one needs flagged. Flagrant, leading with the helmet, especially to the helmet, yes, cut back on that. The rest of it is just football.
To get so detailed in finding fault in a big hit is the same as slowing the replay down to frame-by-frame looking for the tiniest ball movement to decide a catch. It's an attempt to make player's responsible for something over which they have no control. If we were all threatened punishment for our split-second decisions in life we'd all be in the doghouse all the time.
Now we are just getting to pre draft silliness running out of news...smh. Maybe they should get fined for handing off the ball if a RB gets injured. Wait, lets just ban football and get this over with and promote only Soccer.
Tired of this Wussification of America, starting with our beloved game of Football. Miss led information, lies and political correct BS. We have been shoved down our throats to change this countries past time to Soccer. Believe it or not Concussions are abound in Soccer but nobody talks about it as they ban Football all around the country.
Did you all know that 17 states have banned pee wee football under the age of 12. What is so ridiculous is that under 12 is probably the ages that accrue the least amount of serious football injuries.
I have several parents asking for my help as the politically correct people are trying to get that law passed in New York...disgusting. This liberal crap is getting out of hand. They pretend they are just nice...but secretly are trying their hand at becoming a dictatorship. Wake up America...sorry, got to take a pill literally...lol
Sorry Eo, but honestly I think its one of the most idiotic posts I ever saw, and very hard to understand how a supposed football coach can post such nonsense.
We are talking about people here. Head injuries are a serious problem and the number of people how see their life diminished is staggering.
I don't see how respecting the fundamentals of the game, proper tackling,and taking care of the integrity of the players can be bad for the game.
Unless you think the game of football is some kind of roman game,supposed to be played to the death.
I think the point trying to be made is that sometimes the QB leads the WR right into a big defensive hit. How many times have you seen that happen to one of our guys and thought, the QB should have seen that hit coming and not thrown the ball there?
I understand the point, I just think it's ridiculous. A defensive player is saying that in a split second, he can't maintain enough control to avoid a big hit... So he expects another human 10, 15, 20 yards away to predict that, forecast the future and not throw the pass. We talk about all the info a QB is expected to process in 2-3 seconds, how in the world can we tell them they will be punished if they don't also process that?
I can see it now - DBs jumping up and down pointing back to the huddle and zebras huddling up to decide who's fault it was that someone's head was taken off. Wouldn't this be counter-productive towards getting players to ease up?
Most of the big hit plays can be avoided if the fundamentals of the game are respected. In order to tackle you don't have to hit, quite the contrary
The problem is that people enjoy big hits, they rather see a vale tudo cage combat than a Judo or Jitsu combat
Any sport which its essence is violence and blood should be, in my opinion, forbidden. In the case of football I honestly think this gladiator mentality is actually unnecessary and detrimental to the game.
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