Last month, the National Football League introduced a number of rules changes involving illegal hits and their definition. Owners also came close to approving a measure that would fine clubs for "excessive numbers" of illegal hits during the season. (How many would be defined as "excessive" is still under debate by the owners).
The idea has been called the "Pittsburgh Steelers Rule" by the league, due to the amount of fines racked up last year by Steelers linebacker James Harrison. The media jumped on it, pointing their finger at Commissioner Roger Goodell and crying "Wolf! Wolf!"
And it seems I'm the only one who's completely okay with it.
While it is true that the rules changes will make what are already knee-jerk, subjective calls by the referees even harder to determine, the new rules will protect players from less-than-stable personalities like Brandon Meriweather of the New England Patriots.
You remember that, don't you? When Meriweather intentionally went after Baltimore's Todd Heap with a cheap shot to the head? Watch the video on YouTube. It was calculated, it was malicious, it was unavoidable.
His apology three days later showed a man who was in remorse, but not over injuring a fellow human being. Rather, Meriweather looked like a child who got caught doing something he shouldn't have and bashful over his $50,000 punishment. Look up that video on YouTube too and see for yourself.
For every Meriweather who gets caught, there are dozens more players just one night of peer pressure away from doing it. Every hard hit is a badge of honor in this league. It's a notch in the belt. A trophy. A defender hits someone too hard; they pay $25,000 in fines. But then their buddies all over the league are going to take them out, buy them a celebratory bottle of whatever to wash down a dinner from only the nicest restaurant. Then they hit the club, down some cocktails, and before too long, the $25,000 debt has been covered, only exacerbating the problem.
The NFL has said that the rules changes are in place to encourage coaches to teach proper techniques and to correct dangerous play on the field. If it takes a few, less-than-stable millionaire football players emptying out their bank accounts to make a safer game, then so be it.
(By the way, you know that all the money that NFL players have to shell out for fines goes to charity, right?)
I hate to say it, but except for Bill Belichick and a few others, NFL coaches have been sorely lacking in teaching their players the fundamentals. I'm not saying they're actively encouraging their players to inflict harm on opponents and risk their own health and safety. But by not placing an emphasis on proper technique during practice (think tackling sleds and dummies), they're contributing to the problem by having allowed it to progress to where it has.
The NFL has a problem with hard hits and until the league makes a hard hit of their own, no one's going to pay attention.
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