Big Hits and Big Splits

James Harrison hits Mohamed Massaquoi in their game Sunday.

The NFL recently said that it would be doubling down on their efforts to avoid helmet to helmet hits after some of the shots taken and concussions given this past Sunday October 17, 2010. The majority of players interviewed on the subject have said this is a bad rule change. That's where they're wrong. With all the controversy, questions and fears of what this may do to the game, one major issue has been lost. THIS IS NOT A RULE CHANGE! The NFL is simply doubling down on their efforts to limit concussions, which has been a major theme with changes in the NFL lately, and is making the penalty for such hits more severe. If you don't know what change I'm talking about, well, maybe you should pay more attention.

DeSean Jackson is helped off the field in Sundays game.

The NFL handed out $175,000 in fines this week to three different players. The media has said only one of these was "dirty". I'm going to tell you differently. The hit that warranted suspension was the hit by the New England Patriots' Brandon Merriweather on the Baltimore Ravens' Todd Heap. The hit I don't think was a dirty play was the hit by the Atlanta Falcons' Dunta Robinson on the Philadelphia Eagles' DeSean Jackson in their game this past Sunday. The two hits by the the Pittsburgh Steelers' James Harrison on the Cleveland Browns' Josh Cribbs and Mohamed Massaquoi are two individual cases. Here are both hits in this video. The second hit is about as dirty as they come for me. Why? Well, when you watch the video, you can see Massaquoi catch the ball. While he does that, you can see Harrison line up for the hit and break for the receiver. It's what he does when he gets to Massaquoi that makes this such a dirty play. Rather than wrap him up or blow through him and leave him in a heap of pain on the field, Harrison decides to rise as he's hitting on top of flailing his arms. The importance of the arms to me is that he never intended to tackle. He intended to injure. If he wanted to tackle, he would have used his arms and at the very least kept him where he was. Harrison, instead, pushes his arms up after ramming his head into the defenseless Massaquoi.

Meriweather hits Todd Heap in their game Sunday.

Some have suggested ways to change the game to fix the helmet to helmet problem. Some are saying that getting rid of facemasks or helmets altogether are the way to do it. Let me think about that. Um, NO! The helmets are there to protect the players. getting rid of them would cause MORE harm to them. The only way to change the game is to enforce the rules and make the players adjust their style of play.

Is it odd timing for this change? Yes. Is it purely reactionary? Yes. Do I agree with the timing? No, but I do agree with the further enforcement of the rule. Overall, I think this will be a good change for the NFL and all of football from the NFL down to 5 year olds kids playing. It will decrease the number of concussions in the league and overall health of the players later in life after football when the fans no longer care about them and all that's left of their career are memories. It will take time to get used to the new way. I give it about a week or two for these NFL players to adjust. Football has changed so much since the time when they started that to think they can't adjust to this simple change is ridiculous as is thinking that this will change the game as we know it and love it.

Spineless

This blog post isn't going to have statistics or links or anything of that nature. I'm just going to talk about some things I've noticed lately. Call it a rant if you want, but I think some of these things need to be said.

First, it's the issue of people becoming spineless blobs of humanity. Why is it that nobody can say what they mean anymore? I recently had a friend living with me. He apparently had a problem with the rules I had set for him during his time staying with me. However, rather than telling me he had a problem with the way I ran my house, he just hid upstairs and played X-Box all day, every day when he wasn't at work. After a while, he apparently got to the point where he decided it would be best for him to move out. Now, this is the second time I've let this particular friend stay with me. Nothing like this happened the first time. If it had, there wouldn't have been a second time and I can assure you, there will not be a third. On top of his problems with the rules I had set, he had been unemployed for a few months. It wouldn't have been a problem if he had been LOOKING for work so he could pay his mounting rent. But, he played X-Box all day. The day he moved out, he decided it would be best for him to bring all of his issues up with me. I told him what I just told you about his time unemployed. He fired back with a line about my continued unemployment. Now, what I'll tell you about my unemployment is there are many reasons that have added up and led to my long period of unemployment. One of them is a problem with my ankle, another is the economy, the jobs available and my ability to do those jobs with the problems I have with my ankle. (By the way, sorry this paragraph is so long) Others I won't go into. In any case, I told him my point of view and he took a step back and started making other accusations and bringing up other points. In the end he left and has yet to pay what I am owed.

Ok, so why did I tell you that story? Well, if he had a spine and had TOLD me what his problems were before letting them build in his head until his brain popped, there may not have been a problem. There are many many other examples I've seen, but this is the most prevalent for me right now.

Another thing I want to talk about is parenting. I'm not a parent and that may discredit anything I have to say with some of you. But, I've noticed more and more parents are falling into 2 groups when it comes to being in public with their children. Either they're Nazi disciplinarians or have a complete lack of any disciplinary practices. If your child is screaming his or her head off in the middle of whatever public establishment you're in at the time (assuming the child is old enough to know better) it is your job as the parent to discipline them in a way that is appropriate for that behavior. That's just an example. Your job is NOT to ignore the child (in most cases. Sometimes that is the appropriate action) and let them continue to annoy other patrons. Conversely, if your child is simply running around in circles around you in an empty grocery store because they're bored and need some sort of way to get rid of the copious amount of energy children have, what's the problem?

As a parent, it's hard to know when to and when not to do things when it comes to your children. But, always getting on their case or never getting on their case isn't the way to do it.

Ok, rant over.

this may be an odd post, but it's been bumbling around in my head all day and I decided I'd just write it down whether it made sense to people or not.