NFL’s Hypocritical Oath: No More Hits to the Head

Thursday, October 21, 2010

Scott Cordischi, GoLocalProv Sports Editor

The NFL is caught between a rock and a hard place. This country’s most popular professional sports league has a problem.

This is a league and a sport that was built on physical, hard-hitting play. Bone-crunching hits bring thousands of fans to their feet in stadiums throughout the league. It’s a violent sport played by big, strong athletes with a gladiator mentality. It’s football, and it’s not for the faint of heart.

Now it seems as if the league is shying away from this type of play or, at the very least, the perception of it.

Within the past 5-10 years, much light has been shed on the topic of concussions and not only their unsettling short term effects, but the even more dangerous and life-altering long term ones.

Locally, players like former Patriots linebacker Ted Johnson have shared their story of how difficult it is to function on a daily basis after football because of the after effects of too many blows to the head. There are days when Johnson cannot leave the darkness of his bedroom because of the pain. It is something that will likely be with him for the rest of his life.

Former Brown University standout Sean Morey has also been a voice for NFL players who may have to deal with the long term effects from concussions. Morey has appeared in front of congress to discuss the matter and has already said that he will donate his brain to science upon death so that it may help the medical profession to better understand the impact of concussions on the human body and possibly how they can be avoided.

Concussions are certainly no laughing matter and the NFL is right to take the issue seriously. But at what cost?

This week the league announced stiff fines on New England’s Brandon Meriweather, Pittsburgh’s James Harrison and Atlanta’s Dunta Robinson for what they deemed to be illegal and violent hits. Ironically, none of the three players were penalized on the field for those hits. The league also warned that future helmet-to-helmet hits or violent hits to the head will be grounds for suspension.

On the surface, the league appears to be doing the right thing. But the message seems to be a bit hypocritical.

This is, after all, a league that markets itself with the aforementioned bone-crunching hits. Just watch ESPN’s introduction to Monday Night Football. It features two helmets colliding and exploding which is the very thing the NFL claims it is now trying to prevent.

One of the more popular segments on ESPN a few years ago was entitled, “jacked up!” It featured the most violent NFL hits of the week with all of the studio hosts shouting, “he got jacked up!,” in unison.

So what is the NFL to do? For years the league’s competition committee has tweaked the ruled to favor the offense promoting higher scoring games. What’s next? Play the sport with 11 players on offense and 0 players on defense?

Needless to say, many of the league’s defensive players feel like they are being unfairly targeted with the league’s announcement that it will be watching all questionable hits closely.

This isn’t patty cake. It’s football. Helmet-to-helmet hits are virtually unavoidable. In extreme cases where there appears to be intent to injure, punishment should be handed down. Otherwise, we need to accept the sport for what it is - a fast, physical, sometimes violent display of athleticism.