It has been a gradual process but it is now at its pinnacle: Our sports are growing softer by the minute. We are at the brink of seeing our favorite sports, the games we have grown up with, and obsessed over since we could first pick up a bat or catch a ball in our backyard, change for the worse. Dissipate from a hard-nosed T-bone steak into a vegan salad. Professional sports are teetering between the thin line of prudent safety measures and outlandish compromise to natural forces. The NFL is on the brink of sinking into flag football, baseball babies their pitchers along and cry foul when a key player gets hurt on a bang-bang play and basketball sends every player to the line if they are hand-checked.
The main culprit, the sport that dons most of my, as well as the nation’s spotlight, is Football. I am of course talking about the implementation of rules to “protect” the NFL players in the line of duty. I am not ignorant to the ramifications of playing football and I understand and respect the studies done on blunt force head trauma that is rendering some retired football players incapacitated. Still, there is a line in the sand and the NFL has jumped way too far over it. If and when the NFL does resume, we are not going to be watching the same game that we have become accustomed to. We will be watching a mockery of a sport that has forged its definition through gritty toughness and harsh brutality.
As for the changes, here are some of the key ones: They have changed wedge rules on kickoffs and moved the ball forward so that essentially, any kicker worth a dime of his contract will induce a touchback. This means much fewer kickoff returns. That means that players like Devon Hester and Josh Cribbs are essentially useless.
The NFL has basically put enclosed the quarterbacks in an impenetrable fortress of whistled protection. In the past few seasons, we have seen 15-yard penalties for a defensive player who inadvertently touched the QB’s helmet with his hand, or landed on his leg. Aside from interceptions, the QB sack is the most exhilarating aspect of defense. Players (i.e. Demarcus ware, Clay Matthews) are drafted for the sole purpose of sacking the quarterback. Now what are we going to have them do? Two-hand touch the quarterback… or simply have them give up if they get too close to him?
Finally, they have basically given all receivers a free shelter from hard contact right after the catch. They must be allowed to protect themselves (as if the defenders aren’t at risk when they go for a tackle) before they can be hit hard. A defenders mentality is first and foremost, to stop forward progress and to separate the ball carrier from the ball. If we disallow this, we are essentially playing a HS 7V7 type of game. I am okay with penalizing leading with the head or hitting a player on his dome but why penalize hits with the forearm or shoulder and hits on the shoulder. Last time I checked, my brain wasn’t located in either of those places. Rest assured, there will be a frustrating flurry of flags in this department next season.
I will acquiesce to the fact that many defenders are poor tacklers, and that often times they should concentrate on wrapping and rolling the ball carrier instead of going headfirst for a knockout hit and subsequently missing, but why are we taking the physicality out of the game? It is why football is so immensely popular. We love the big hits. We glorify them. The NFL and ESPN and like mediums glorify them, but hypocritically scold and penalize them. Remember when ESPN had Jacked Up? That was football at its best. Ask anyone who played football in the NFL (not quarterbacks because they are soft) they NFL is taking away the heart of the game.
So what are the defenders supposed to do now? I believe that football will remain popular but there is going to be a severe amount of backlash against these measures that are essentially turning football into a timid sport. Rugby fans around the world are surely scoffing at these rule changes. James Harrison, arguably the best defensive player in the NFL is entitled to that honor because of his backbreaking hits and his absolute ferocity on the field. How can you ask him to tone it down? Football is a game for men and the men controlling the rulebook are clearly not that. It is an unfortunate result in football when a player is injured, but it is an inevitable consequence of playing the game. No one forced these players to play this violent sport….they worked their asses of so that they could have the privileged to play it. They knew what they were signing up for. Football has been a violent sport since its nascent beginnings in the early 1900’s. Players have always suffered severe injuries…It is simply part of the game. It’s why a majority of us don’t play it.
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| Buster Posey Broke his leg at this play at the plate |
On a similar note, I saw as the San Francisco Giants young star catcher, Buster Posey suffered a severe ankle break the other night while he was blocking the plate and was leveled by Marlins CF Scott Cousins. I have sympathy for Giants fans, because no one wants to see anyone get hurt, especially such a bright young star. Still, this type of play is also a part of baseball. It always has been. Posey is not the first person to take a beating during a home plate collision. Now his agent is calling for a rule change to protect catchers from such plays. First off…If this was a no-name catcher, I doubt this would warrant a discussion, but I have a bad feeling that this will get some serious consideration. Baseball is conservative in the way it evolves its rules but this is why it is such a great sport. If it ain’t broken, don’t fix it. Cousins was doing everything that he could legally do to score, and he succeeded. He should be applauded. Baseball players suffer severe injuries much more commonly by simply throwing the ball…maybe they can change that rule to. Have the pitchers softball toss it so as to avoid torn ligaments.
There is one more party to blame for all of this rule changing, game softening nonsense. ESPN. God knows I love ESPN and all the access it gives millions to the sports we love. Still, they put every little play under a microscope, talk it to death, and all of a sudden people want to change rules. Back in the day, there wasn’t as much talk about rule changes because people weren’t having 50 ESPN analysts talking about a play that resulted in injury. There aren’t more people getting injured in professional sports now, we just see it more often because of the access we have to the games. ESPN is great, but it is definitely a culprit in this mess.
In conclusion: Let the kids play.
