Football is a game of split second reaction. The game is taught and players learn to react to what they see and feel. Sometimes you hit before you think about it. A players size and position against another before contact is sometimes chance. I think it’s rare that players plan to injure another on the field.
The NFL is lauded for the care that has gone into helmet to helmet contact. But the true reason unlike the random position of players colliding on the field is a thought out process of league owners. The result is players having to think about adjusting the way they play and then making there reaction and changing it to what is required by the league.
The league is protecting itself from lawsuits that stem from contact. The head on head is now banned. To further add to the confusion they’ve now legislated against backs using the helmet to batter defenders and the addition of option quarterbacks has added the concern of the option qb being hit when they don’t have the ball but the option has always been defended by hitting the quarterback. The idea is make them pay for running or faking the run by hitting them.
Too much choreographing is going on you might want to consider a director a script and 22 actors on the field and make it like a movie that way no one gets hurt. But even in Hollywood stunts go wrong. Man finds a way to injure themselves.
Football use to be a game of read react. Defense was about locate ball carrier defeat blocks and make the tackle. But business is about money and owners pay the employees and control the product on the field including the way to officiate and play the game
This season I think it’s the most injuries prior to the season I’ve ever heard of. Seems like every team has multiple players injured with all the rules and what not to do and where to hit . They don’t want defenders hitting high so now go low and they don’t want that either soon it will be only waist high contact which will not be good enough and finally they’ll change the rules of offense like Qbs in the tackle box can’t be hit until they cross the line of scrimmage. Giving unfair advantage to offensive players. Soon it will be they issue flags.
It’s all causing me to say farewell to the game I love to watch. The UFC no restrictions except for eye gouging groin shots and the fact that they aren’ttrying to break limbs to end the fight since its a sport. Restrictions galore in the NFL with more to come every year. Now Jim Harbaugh is crying foul prior to the game since his running quarterback is a target of clay Matthews. Matthews saying he’ll play the option like it was meant to be defended. Harbaugh is trying to gain favors from the league and officials if Matthews hits his quarterback and he doesn’t have the ball. But when you run option your quarterback is a decoy and fair game to being hit. You want to use him as a decoy then he should be subjected to contact. Just like receivers who get hit by safeties because quarterbacks throw what I call the hospital ball to the defenseless receiver. If the quarterback didn’t throw the ball the receiver wouldn’t be defenseless.
Becuase of RG III, R Wilson, C KaepernIck and the rest of the option pistol weapons they should be greeted just like any other runners. A strategy versus option has always been read make them pitch and have each option defended. Harbaugh cant cry because he chooses to put his quarterback in a offense that makes kaepernIck a tackling dummy it also makes him a valuable asset to score and the defense should have the right to discourage him from running.
By the way Harbaugh decision to throw the ball in then Super Bowl instead of running the ball might have cost the 49ers the win. But it’s easy to second guess him now.
Another interesting contribution to injuries that should be explored is the surface the players are playing on. head injuries are what the nfl is focused on but the knee injury is all too common. Could the turf have as much to do with this injury along with heads contacting the turf. but the league purely legislated against the easy fix and targeted the players. The turf issue would cost the league way too much to replace and care for natural surfaces.
The league cares about money and holding on to it. So look for a lot more changes to happen and the scripts passed out to the supporting cast of defenders.